"The Conintern...Republican thought police"

http://www.slate.com/id/2280/

great article, almost ten years old, but still utterly relevant

''Essential to the self-image of conservatives is the notion that they are enemies of an established orthodoxy, insurgents against the dogmatic political correctness that predominates on the left. Some recent gleanings, however, suggest that the opposite is true. The party where humorless thought police work to enforce a rigid ideological discipline isn't made up of Democrats. It comprises Republicans.

A vision of the Conintern, circa 1997, emerges from two recent magazine pieces, both by young conservative journalists. The first is a profile of Grover Norquist Jr., a lobbyist and adviser to Newt Gingrich, by Tucker Carlson. It appeared in the New Republic after the Weekly Standard, where Carlson is a staff writer, turned the idea down. The article portrays Norquist as a buffoonish commissar who has misplaced his principles to the extent of accepting money to lobby on behalf of the Marxist government of the Seychelles. In passing, Carlson describes Norquist's weekly Wednesday morning meetings, where conservative-movement activists, political strategists, congressional staffers, and conservative journalists who are deemed loyal, from places like the National Review and the Washington Times, gather to hash out what can only be called the party line.


The second article, which appears in the current issue of Esquire, is by David Brock, author of The Real Anita Hill and The Seduction of Hillary Rodham. Accompanied by a kinky photograph of the author, tied to a stake with his chest bared, it describes how Brock became persona non grata on the right by writing too sympathetically about Hillary Rodham Clinton. Brock, strangely enough, acquiesces in the popular misconception that his book was sympathetic to the first lady. In fact, Brock's book was quite vicious about her, attacking her in a McCarthyite vein and casting her as a Commie symp rather than a sleaze.

But as a glimpse into the world of conservative journalism, Brock's article is revealing. Brock portrays a political subculture in which loyalty to the cause means everything, truth very little. He recalls being told by one well-known conservative to leave town when he made trouble for the anti-Clinton cause by inconveniently pointing out that Gary Aldrich's book, Unlimited Access, was a crock. Before long, Brock was being disinvited to conservative conferences and parties and denounced by his old allies as a turncoat.''

favorite being how Laura Ingraham briefly strayed from the fold, only to get her religion, apparently for good and all time

They have many "hidden" Issues.