Add Scowcroft to the mix

More evidence that, to adapt Buckley's famous remark, we'd be better off guided by the first 100 names in the Boston phone book than by esteemed foreign policy specialists: Brent Scowcroft has been going around saying that the Iraqi elections will cause a civil war.

But David Frum reports that, as a result of Scowcroft's statements during the campaign, Scowcroft, if not "Scowcroftism," has been dropped by the Bush team. He even mentions a strange rumor that Scowcroft had agreed to co-chair Kerry's transition team.

The Scowcroft realists seem to prefer stability to such an extreme that Saddam is better than the mess of creating democratic institutions in a free Iraq. Look, I'm just one of the first 100 names in somebody's phone book, but that's just wrong.