One of my favorite magazines is National Journal, which features writers like Stuart

Taylor and Jon Rauch. Agree or disagree with them, they’re smart. The current

issue has a column by Clive Crook, who asserts that Tony Blair is, to borrow Joe

Klein’s phrase, a “helium-filled dilettante.” Crook argues that Blair is a pragmatist,

interested chiefly in obtaining and maintaining power: “Ideological pragmatism in

the service of political ambition has been the abiding theme of his career.” In

Crook’s telling of the tale, Blair stands by us not because he believes we were

right–indeed, Crook says, Blair’s pre-PM days would indicate he believes we are

wrong–but because British politicians must “pick fights over big questions and

win.”

Thus, “the appearance of deeply held convictions and a seeming willingness to

make sacrifices in pursuit of them are both helpful. Actually having deeply held

convictions and a willingness to make sacrifices in pursuit of them” are not. His

ideology is “bold and new and uncompromising, but with no actual content.” This

is the essence of the Third Way.

Crook concludes by contending that the Third Way obscures necessary debates

and, moreover, keeps former leftists from having to “admit that nearly everything

they used to say was wrong.”

Ouch.