Counterculture Made Kristol an Ex-Liberal

5-month investigation ultimately cleared neo-con giant

(NEWSER) - During the late 1980s, the father of neoconservatism—who is also the father of Fox News commentator and Weekly Standard boss Bill Kristol—was investigated by the FBI over possible contact with a suspected Soviet agent, Gawker finds in a study of FBI documents. The much-redacted documents suggest contact information for Irving Kristol, a vehement opponent of communism, appeared in the suspected Soviet agent’s notebook. More»

The president showed respect for a war he opposed

(NEWSER) - Even the staunchest Iraq war supporters had to be happy with the speech Barack Obama delivered last night to mark the end of combat operations, writes William Kristol of the Weekly Standard . “President Obama opposed the war in Iraq. He still thinks it was a mistake,” he reasons. It’s unrealistic “to expect the president to give the speech John McCain would have given.” More»

Time for America to start flexing its muscles instead of making deals

(NEWSER) - Neoconservatives are making a comeback and it's about time, writes Bret Stephens. They're back "because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, and Vladimir Putin never went away," Stephens writes in the Wall Street Journal, and because the world wants America to use its strength to stop Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs in light of the failure of President Obama's "shambles" of a foreign policy. More»

(NEWSER) - Bill Kristol remembers his late father as a man of a "deep modesty" who "loved intellectual pursuits but always shunned intellectual pretension." Irving Kristol, who died earlier this month at age 89, is generally regarded as the architect of neoconservatism, but the honors he accrued never gave him an inflated sense of "self-importance," his son writes in the Weekly Standard. "I've had such a goddam lucky life," he said a few years back before lung surgery. More»

A former liberal, he sparked ideas behind the Reagan Revolution

(NEWSER) - Irving Kristol, the "godfather" of neoconservatism and a key intellectual force behind the Reagan Revolution, died today from lung cancer in Arlington, Va., the Washington Post reports. He was 89. Once a New York liberal, Kristol grew disaffected with liberalism in the 1940s and founded conservative magazines like Encounter and the Public Interest, which had small circulations but influenced powerful audiences. More»