Scott McConnell

Tucker Carlson and the revenge of the neocons

When Tucker Carlson appeared at the Heritage Foundation’s fiftieth anniversary celebration as a keynote speaker this past Friday, he was in an expansive mood. He reminisced about starting to work at the think-tank’s old publication Policy Review in August 1991, the month that the Soviet Union collapsed. He offered that it had not occurred to him that America would end up succumbing to the very totalitarianism that existed in the USSR, but then proudly noted that there wasn’t any special courage in his own willingness to challenge it. “I’m paid to do that,” he said. “I can have any opinion I want.” Oops. Carlson’s sudden ouster at Fox, complete with reports that the network has compiled a secret dossier filled with dirt on him, suggests a rather different verdict.

Tucker Carlson