Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

I was talking with a friend about the large numbers of conservative firebrands who write wild and crazy things, largely in the service of whatever the GOP happens to be promoting or whatever their version of doctrinaire conservatism holds true, who have PhDs from the world’s most pretigious university. Off the top our heads, we thought of four clarion examples.

William Kristol – the hackiest of the hacks, a man who had no previous journalistic experience but was Dan Qualye’s chief of staff and Irving Kristol’s son, who went to found a magazine, pontificate on TV weekly, and fineagle himself an oft-correct New York Times column. Phd, Government, 1979.

Jerome Corsi – Racist, homophobic and all together virulent assaulter of Democratic politicians, especially presdiential candidates. Author of  The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command. Also a leading promoter of the North American Union Conspiracy Theory. PhD, Political Science, 1979

Alan Keyes – Perennial presidential and senatorial candidate, former Reagan State Department official and all-around crank. PhD Government, 1979.

Stanley Kurtz – Probably the most intellectually honest and interesting of the bunch, Kurtz mostly writes long, erudite-ish articles for conservative publications about issues relating to social science and the “culture wars.” One of his main interests is trying to prove that adoption of gay marriage in Holland undermined the institution of marriage there. He also writes rather extreme articles on Pakistan, like this one on the Pakistani elections last February, where he described the results as “voting no on the war on terror.” He’s also a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Hudson Institute. PhD Social Anthropology.

Anyone else to add?