Richard Perle and Friends 

Richard Perle and Friends

Didn't Perle's mother tell him not to associate with morally dubious characters? Or possibly the other kids' mothers should have warned them about him?

Most recently: Conrad Black: the only living interesting Canadian. (Perhaps one of two interesting Canadians of all time--the other being Trudeau; one might make a case for Mackenzie King). Apparently a pathological crook, with Perle competing with him to see who could grab the most loot before the cops showed up and the poor stockholders were left holding--shall we say the sack, to honour the U.S. setting of these events?

For some time now, and still ongoing: Doug Feith, who may have a rather unique foreign policy approach that is intended (whether it succeeds or not is, of course, a question) both to help Israel and make him rich.

And shining above them all: Ahmed Chalabi, who will (Perle tells us) emerge as one of the world's great statesmen--a true lover of his country, who would make any sacrifice (well, some sacrifice--let's be reasonable) to bring democracy to his tear-drenched homeland--if only he and his nephew could shake off those pesky fraud and murder charges.

Josh Marshall on all of these episodes; Daniel Gross in Slate, on the Hollinger/Conrad Black piece, with some of Black's hilarious commentary on how Perle is a bit too low and cunning for his (Black's!) likiing.

Somewhere I've read that George Will and another luminary were willing to work for Hollinger for mere thousands; Perle was prudent enough to take millions.