John Podhoretz

John Podhoretz (born April 18 1961) is an American commentator for a variety of media sources, the author of several books on politics, and a former presidential speechwriter.

Life and career

Podhoretz is the son of neoconservative journalists Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter; he is his mother's youngest child of four, and his father's youngest child of two. He grew up on the Upper West Side in New York City. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1982. In 1986, he became a five-time champion on the game show "Jeopardy!".

Podhoretz served as speechwriter to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan as well as former President George H.W. Bush. He also served in the capacity of special assistant to White House Drug Czar William Bennett. He was co-founder as well of the White House Writers Group, a corporate speechwriting and public-relations firm in Washington, D.C. [cite web|url=http://www.greatertalent.com/speakers/speakers.php?speakerid=432|title=John Podhoretz|publisher=Greater Talent Network|accessdate=2007-04-08]

Podhoretz was a consultant for the popular television series "The West Wing", including the controversial episode "Gaza" in season five, first broadcast May 12, url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1885020/|title=John Podhoretz|publisher=IMDb.com|accessdate=2007-04-08] on, D.C. [cite web|url=http://www.greatertalent.com/speakers/speakers.php?speakerid=432|title=John Podhoretz|publisher=Greater Talent Network|accessdate=2007-04-08]

Podhoretz has contributed to a number of conservative publications, including "National Review" and the "Weekly Standard", where he is a movie critic and was the magazine's deputy editor. He was also a consulting editor at ReganBooks, a former imprint of HarperCollins. Podhoretz has a regular column at the "New York Post". He has also appeared on television as a political commentator, on Fox News, CNN's "Reliable Sources", and "The McLaughlin Group" (in the chair usually occupied by conservative Tony Blankley), among other places. He has also worked at "Time", the "Washington Times", "Insight on the News", and "U.S. News & World Report". Podhoretz was a contributor to The Corner, a group blog run by "National Review".

On January 1, 2009, John Podhoretz will become editor of "Commentary", succeeding Neal Kozodoy. Podhoretz joined the "Commentary" staff in November, 2007 in an interim role as editorial director. [cite web|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm?id=10956|title=An Announcement|author=Neal Kozodoy and Michael W. Schwartz|publisher="Commentary"|accessdate=2007-10-16] He is currently contributing extensively to "Commentary's" blog "Contentions" on political issues. [cite web|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/category/contentions/?author_name=jpodhoretz|title=Contentions: John Podhoretz's posts|publisher="Commentary"|accessdate=2007-11-14] He also writes for the magazine's blog "The Horizon" on the arts. [cite web|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/category/the-horizon/?author_name=jpodhoretz|title=The Horizon: John Podhoretz's posts|publisher="Commentary"|accessdate=2007-11-15]

Political commentary

George W. Bush

Podhoretz has been a steadfast supporter of U.S. president George W. Bush, and his 2004 book "Bush Country" called Bush "the first great leader of the 21st century". When some conservatives denounced Bush's immigration plan, Podhoretz wrote that Bush's "efforts on behalf of conservative causes — from faith-based policies to stem-cell research to a strict-constructionist judiciary to entitlement reform and massive tax cuts — have all fallen down the memory hole". [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGJkMWM2MmExZDZkYTI2MmFmNTZiODQ3MjNjNmQwYzA=|title=The Inability to Stomach Disagreement|publisher=National Review Online|author=John Podhoretz|date=2006-05-16|accessdate=2006-09-03]

Israel

Podhoretz is emphatic in his defense of Israel in its conflicts with its Arab neighbors. When pundit Pat Buchanan called Israel's actions in the recent Israel-Lebanon hostilities "un-Christian", Podhoretz wrote: "You want to know what anti-Semitism is? When Pat Buchanan calls Israel's military action 'un-Christian', that's anti-Semitism." [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjU4OTZkMDUzYWJjNGYwNmVmYTFkNDlmYmY1NjY5ZGE=|title=You Want to Know What Anti-Semitism Is?|date=2006-07-21|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2006-09-03] However, Podhoretz was critical of the tactics used by Israel's leadership in the recent Lebanon conflict, and argued that the Ehud Olmert government should have been more forceful in its efforts to weaken Hezbollah as a political and military force.

Iraq War

Podhoretz has supported the Iraq War from its inception until the present. In his book, "Bush Country", he wrote, "The natural terrorist hunger to acquire WMDs, and Saddam Hussein's desire to humiliate the United States, combined to make Iraq a new kind of threat to America and the world." In a July 25, 2006 column for the "New York Post" that discussed the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Podhoretz wrote: "What if the tactical mistake we made in Iraq was that we didn't kill enough Sunnis in the early going to intimidate them and make them so afraid of us they would go along with anything? Wasn't the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35 the reason there was an insurgency and the basic cause of the sectarian violence now?" [cite web|url=http://pqarchiver.nypost.com/nypost/access/1083003321.html?dids=1083003321:1083003321&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+25%2C+2006&author=John+Podhoretz&pub=New+York+Post&edition=&startpage=029&desc=TOO+NICE+TO+WIN%3F+ISRAEL%27S+DILEMMA|title=Too Nice to Win? Israel's Dilemma|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=New York Post|date=2006-07-25|accessdate=2007-04-07] In a December 2006 column, he wrote, "The most common cliché about the war in Iraq is now this: We didn't have a plan, and now everything is in chaos... This is entirely wrong. We "did" have a plan - the problem is that the plan didn't work... We thought a political process inside Iraq would make a military push toward victory against a tripartite foe - Saddamist remnants, foreign terrorists and anti-American Shiites - unnecessary... The only plan that will work is a plan to face the tripartite enemy - the Saddamists, the foreign terrorists and the Shiite sectarians - and bring them to heel. Kill as many bad guys as we can, with as many troops as we can muster." [cite web|url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/12052006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_truth_on_iraq_opedcolumnists_john_podhoretz.htm?page=0|title=The Truth on Iraq: Political Answers Won't Work|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=New York Post|date=2006-12-05|accessdate=2007-12-20]

Immigration

In disagreement with several writers at "National Review", Podhoretz has favored a more open immigration policy for the United States. He wrote: "I said merely what I feel deeply — which is that, as a Jew, I have great difficulty supporting a blanket policy of immigration restriction because of what happened to the Jewish people after 1924 and the unwillingness of the United States to take Jews in." [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTM0MjBhMmJjODZiNjIzMDJlZWY5ZWNjYzczM2Q3OWU=|title=Having Been Booed Recently...|date=2006-02-06|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2006-09-03] Podhoretz has been generally supportive of President Bush's proposals for a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants in the U.S.

In November 2007 comments on "Commentary's" blog "Contentions", Podhoretz attacked his former colleague at "National Review Online", Mark Krikorian, for what Podhoretz called a "vision of a walled-off America primarily under threat from border-crossing immigrants." Podhoretz attempted to connect Krikorian's stance on immigration to an isolationist foreign policy. [cite web|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/1368|title=The Anti-Immigration-Isolationism Connection|author=John Podhoretz|date=2007-11-21|publisher=Commentary|accessdate=2007-11-25] In response, Krikorian called Podhoretz a "pedantic bore" who had no "actual arguments" against Krikorian's position on immigration. [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGUwNjJiNzRmYjcxNzc2MGY3NTk2MDQzZjBmNGU3NDM=|title=Pedantic Bores for $500, Alex|author=Mark Krikorian|date=2007-11-23|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2007-11-25]

Jill Carroll situation

On March 30, 2006, Podhoretz was criticized by various bloggers [cite web|url=http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/30/podhoretz-attacks-carroll/|title=John Podhoretz Attacks Jill Carroll|publisher=Think Progress|date=2006-03-30|accessdate=2006-09-03] [cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2006/03/jill_carroll.html|title=Jill Carroll|author=Andrew Sullivan|date=2006-03-30|publisher=The Daily Dish
accessdate=2007-03-24] for posting the following comment on National Review Online approximately three hours after hostage Jill Carroll's release from her captors: "It's wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn't beaten or killed -- while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is -- I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days." [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2I3Y2U4OGIxOTg3ODliNWU3MzQ1MTQ1YzM4YzUzYmE=|title=Jill Carroll|date=2006-03-30|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2006-09-03]

Within days of Carroll's release, a video of Carroll slamming the "occupation" of Iraq and praising the insurgents as "good people fighting an honorable fight" appeared on an Islamist website. However, Carroll subsequently released a statement through the "Christian Science Monitor's" website stating that she participated in the video only because she feared for her life and because her captors said they would let her go if she participated to their satisfaction. Carroll called her captors "criminals, at best" and said she remained "deeply angry" with them. [cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/01/carroll.video/index.html|title=Carroll takes shot at her kidnappers|publisher=CNN.com|date=2006-04-01|author=Octavia Nasr and Susan Garraty|accessdate=2006-09-03]

On April 1, 2006, Podhoretz wrote the following on "National Review Online": "For writing these predictive words, which were entirely accurate, I've been pilloried all over the blogosphere. Weird, especially in light of Jill Carroll's statement today, which was an effort to address and quiet precisely the kind of talk I predicted would take place." [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTI1MWY3ZGMzZmJlZDhjYmM5ZDJjNjRlOTM0ZjNkY2Y=|title=Jill Carroll, Continued|author=John Podhoretz|date=2007-04-01|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2006-09-03]

Conflicts with John Derbyshire

In response to assertions by "National Review" writer John Derbyshire that the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre should have been more forceful in defending themselves, Podhoretz wrote: "The notion that a human being or group of human beings holding no weapon whatever should somehow 'fight back' against someone calmly executing other people right in front of their eyes is ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason. 'Why didn't anyone rush the guy?' Derb asks. Gee, I don't know. Because he was executing people? Because if you rush a guy with a gun, he shoots you in the head the way he executed the teachers in each classroom?" [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDZkN2NiNjFhNTM4ZGVjMjQyMTE0NjUwOTg1MjU0Yjg=|title=In a Classroom WIth a Gunman|author=John Podhoretz|date=2007-04-19|accessdate=2007-04-21|publisher=National Review Online] Podhoretz went on to ridicule Derbyshire's claim that he was touching a "third rail" by raising a subject nobody else wanted to discuss.

Podhoretz has frequently clashed with Derbyshire on immigration policy and other issues.

Other commentary

Podhoretz often writes about popular culture, and was called the "resident pop culture expert" at "National Review Online" by Jonah Goldberg. [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzhhNWVkOWMzNTliODQ1M2E2MDUxY2Q0OTkwNjdiYWE=|title="Resident Pop Culture Expert"|author=Jonah Goldberg|date=2006-09-04|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2007-03-01] He has cautioned not "to judge pop culture by its politics." [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTZiY2FmODEwMzFkMzZiZmRkZGMyYTMyNjFmOTA2ZjA=|title=It Stunk, But It Was Right-Wing|date=2006-10-10|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2007-03-01]

Personal life and family

Podhoretz's first marriage, in 1997, ended in divorce after less than three months. He is now married to Ayala Cohen, a co-producer for "Saturday Night Live", and they have two daughters. [cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/426/000048282/|title=John Podhoretz|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=2007-04-08 This site is hostile to Podhoretz but appears to have correct facts on his biography.] [cite web|url=http://www.markankcorn.com/?p=114|title=Welcome, Shiri Podhoretz|date=2006-10-23|publisher=Rabbi Mark Ankcorn|author=Mark Ankcorn|accessdate=2006-04-08] Podhoretz is related by marriage to Elliott Abrams. [cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41843-2003May26?language=printer|title=Back in Political Forefront|author=Michael Dobbs|date=2003-05-27|publisher="The Washington Post"|accessdate=2007-10-20]

Miscellaneous

*Podhoretz knew Gwyneth Paltrow when she was a child: "I babysat for her once in 1978 and she was very sweet," he wrote. [cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjBkMmU1NjhlMTRjMjJjNTRjN2JlNmEwOTY5MDAwZGQ=|title=Gwyneth Paltrow Is Proud to Be An American|date=2006-12-04|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2006-12-06]
*On The Corner blog, Podhoretz frequently posted under the name "JPod."
*According to commentator Andrew Sullivan, when Podhoretz worked at "The Washington Times", he was nicknamed "J. P. Normanson", a reference to his father Norman. [cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2006/01/jpod_immortaliz.html|title=JPod Immortalized|date=2006-01-23|author=Andrew Sullivan|publisher=The Daily Dish|accessdate=2007-03-24]
*In response to now-deleted comments in his Wikipedia article that he is a homosexual, Podhoretz joked: "For the record, I am not an admitted homosexual, nor am I a homosexual, though I do know the lyrics to every show tune ever written, which might perhaps account for the confusion."cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzczMWFmY2Q2OTU2Yzk4MmRlOTliMTA2MTU0Y2U0NjU=|title=From My Wikipedia Bio Last Month|date=2005-06-15|author=John Podhoretz|publisher=National Review Online|accessdate=2006-09-03] Podhoretz again commented humorously on the subject in a "Weekly Standard" column: "Despite what you may once have read in my Wikipedia entry (since edited, though not by me), I am not gay. However, according to an astonishingly dreadful new comedy called "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry", I simply must be--because I like show tunes and know how to tap-dance a little." [cite web|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/897unxry.asp|title=Queens of Comedy |date=2007-08-01|publisher=The Weekly Standard|author=John Podhoretz|accessdate=2007-08-01] Podhoretz also made more serious critical remarks about Wikipedia's reliability and authority: "As for endorsing the 'anti-gay policies of social conservatives,' what I oppose, purely and simply, is affirmative action for homosexuals. But this is what you get for arguing with Wikipedia."
*Political pundit and prolific writer on racial issues, Steve Sailer, quoted Hanna Rosin's remark that the term "podenfreude" described the sensation of reading bad writing for comic value. In response, Podhoretz e-mailed Sailer: "Please keep attacking me. It's how I know I'm not a bigoted, racist scum...If you think I lack them [wit, eloquence, etc.] , I imagine you think I have too much melanin in my skin." Sailer riposted: "Amazing as it may seem, the rumors that Mr. Podhoretz maintains a staff of Nobel Laureates and Oscar-winning screenwriters to craft his devastating comebacks for him are not true. The reality is that, somehow, "he makes them up himself!" [cite web|url=http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/07/please-keep-attacking-me.html|title="Please keep attacking me"|author=Steve Sailer|date=2005-07-13|publisher=iSteve.com|accessdate=2006-09-11]
*Referred to by Taki as Five Pizzas in reference to his rotund frame.

Notes

Books

* (1993) "Hell Of A Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies 1989-1993", Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-79648-8
* (2004) "Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane", St. Martin's Griffin, ISBN 0-312-32473-1 (released with a different subtitle on paperback)
* (2007) "Can She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless...", Crown Forum, ISBN 0-307-33730-8

External links

* [http://corner.nationalreview.com/ The Corner] at "National Review Online"
* [http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/1968/ "Oedipus and Podhoretz"] , an article from "New York" by Hanna Rosin