John Podhoretz, New York Post columnist and Weekly Standard co-founder, was named editor of Commentary last week, but he won’t take over the neoconservative journal until January 2009. At the same time, the Bush administration, with its widely unpopular neocon-dominated foreign policy, will also come to an end. He’s not troubled by the timing. “Commentary has been around through eleven presidents, and God willing, it will be around through many more,” he says. “Should 2008 result in the election and installation of a Democratic president and Democratic Congress, obviously there are pleasures to be had in being a critic and not being a defender.” Besides, “it remains to be seen how much the policies of the Bush administration are going to be rejected,” he says. “Far from Bush’s policies being repudiated in a Clinton presidency, they might in fact be continued with a different paint job.” As with Bushes 41 and 43, there’s Republican lineage here: Podhoretz’s dad, Norman, edited the mag from 1960 to 1995. But he says nepotism wasn’t involved. “My father first found out about this last week, two hours after the job was formally offered to me by the board after months of negotiations.”
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