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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (36544)	8/8/2002 4:07:27 PM
From: tekboy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

good question. one answer is that the guy might actually be very sharp. At least one person I know was at that meeting and was quite impressed with him, said he was more a wide-ranging European intellectual type than a conventional wonk. Still, the odd resume is disturbing. a second answer might be that some of the die-hard ideologues are less concerned about "conventional" qualifications than more mainstream types are. Just today, for example, I was chatting with a guy I know who's a mid-level functionary in the administration. we were gossiping about who was doing what where, and I was astonished to learn that some folks I have very little respect for are holding down some pretty important staff jobs for some pretty important people. Now a guy like Perle doesn't give the slightest shit about what someone like me respects or doesn't; he has supreme confidence in his own judgment, which is what gives him the ability to buck professional consensus. That can be liberating, allowing him to break through the stultifying bureaucratic fog with a penetrating insight, but it can also mean that he can hang out with folks who might more fittingly be drooling in a padded room somewhere. tb@there'safinelinebetweencleverandstupid.com