The Ricochet Podcast - CPAC #4: Weekly Standard Online Editor Daniel Halper

Episode Date: February 27, 2015

Live from CPAC, Jay Nordlinger chats with Weekly Standard online editor Daniel Halper. Source

Jay Nordlinger at CPAC for National Review and Ricochet with the famous Daniel Halper, one of the brightest and best journalists on the conservative side in America with the Weekly Standard, the constantly drudge-linked Daniel Halper. Nice to talk to you. Jay, likewise. You're obviously too kind and too generous, but it's the nature. Are you a veteran CPACer? I come for the last couple of years about one day in the CPAC conference.

It's good to see old friends and make some new ones. As far as the news gathering goes, you're interested in the speeches. You're better off watching them at home, to be honest. It's not a very good spot from the back of the room where the press is shoved. Rightfully so, but it's not a very good spot. And, you know, frankly, there just isn't that much news. There's a lot of prepared remarks. I think this year's a little bit different because the speakers are actually asked questions by sometimes interesting people. And so that's an added bonus, but I'm here sometimes. Do you regard yourself as an opinion journalist?

I certainly have a point of view, but I don't really write op-eds in the way of old times. And I kind of think that's less and less. I think a lot of young conservative writers, of which I guess I'm one, they really like Charles Crowder. They really like Bill Kristol or Rich Lowry or a number of other writers who are excellent writers and insightful. And they sort of think as 21-year-old college juniors that they can pull off the same sort of feat and speak with as much authority and solve Middle East peace in a single column. And I just don't really see that. I mean, I know I tell all our interns, nobody, I try to say it nicer,

but I say nobody really cares about your opinion. Try to do a little reporting. Try to, you know, try to get some credentials and learn something. And I try to abide by that advice myself, for the most part. I imagine you have a big Rolodex on the Republican side, or the contemporary equivalent of a Rolodex. Do you find that Democrats will talk to you as well? Well, it's interesting.

For my book, I was able to get a fair amount of Democrats. That book being Clinton Inc.? Clinton Inc., and a fair amount. But obviously some people are hesitant, and rightfully so, I suppose. I think Democratic offices on the Hill, for instance, I think they understand basically that three-quarters or much more than, you know,

nine-tenths of the press is sort of in their pocket, so why should they deal with conservative press? Because there's no need, because they can get their message out with basically every other reporter, either left of center explicitly or left of center by nature. Any mainstream outlet, I think they prefer to conservatives, and they're able to really avoid conservatives. In a way, I think conservatives aren't able to do it with liberal press, and you see a lot of profiles in places like the New Republic

of Republican senators who have clearly given access, not a lot because the New Republic isn't as adventurous, but certainly some liberal publications explicitly, and certainly like the New York Times, for instance, where they let liberal reporters in because, you know, that's who our reporter is. Daniel, you're a Hillary-ologist, so to speak. Is she corrupt? Is she venal in addition to left-wing?

You know, there's graft and there's honest graft. And I think she's more of the honest graft type, right? She's not, they seem to understand the laws. God knows they helped implement or write or sign plenty of them, but they also know their way around them and they sort of, maybe they're not breaking the law in various elements, but they understand what is enforceable. For instance, this foundation news and them taking foreign donations, it wasn't a law that they signed with President Obama precluding them from accepting foreign gifts. It was a gentleman's agreement on paper, though, a mutual agreement between Clinton and camp and Obama camp about what Bill Clinton's activities

could be while Hillary was Secretary of State, and clearly they skirted that. I didn't call it corruption. Well, is the Clinton Foundation basically a do-gooding organization, or is it more like a racket? Can it be both? I mean, why? Yeah, I guess. I think they understand. Maybe not. Is Bill Clinton's purpose, is one of his main motivations to make money? Because it must be terribly rich at this point.

Yes. Well, every cause sort of turns into a racket, right? Didn't somebody once say that? I think the Clinton cause is no different. Bill Clinton, they love money. I mean, these are the people who wrote off on their taxes. They wrote off on their taxes, used dirty underwear. And that's not an exaggeration. I mean, that is the truth.

And these are people who really love money and they're now able to earn it at much higher rates than ever before. And there's something in them that doesn't allow them to say that enough is enough. We've got enough and now let's do our politics. Maybe the foundation does some good work. Nobody's really been able to prove that, that they've done good work. They've certainly associated themselves with good work. I think of them as kind of a junior league Davos. Yeah, I mean, it's complicated because that's more the Clinton Global Initiative

where they bring people together. The foundation is supposed to do more work. They're not really that separate, and I think legally these days they're less separate than before. I hadn't thought of that. So they have certain programs, but they also spend a lot of money promoting Bill Clinton himself. They've given millions of dollars to legacy projects on Bill Clinton to the University of Virginia, a center called the Miller Center, where they've received grants, as well as the National Archives and things like that. I don't know. Should that be tax deductible? Charity? I'm not so sure.

Is it your guess that Hillary will be the Democratic nominee? Yes. At this point, you asked me nine months ago, I would have thought an ambitious Democrat could have seriously challenged her. But I don't think any ambitious Democrat exists anymore. I mean, where are they? Right. This is Jerry Brown or Martin O'Malley or Elizabeth Warren or Martin O'Malley will sort of do a half. Who's that Virginian who was secretary of the Navy? Jim Webb, former Weekly Standard contributor, Jimim webb talented guy extremely talented we only get the best not especially conventional yeah right um they could be okay but at this point they're not doing the things necessary to mount a strong attack on her and so i thought she was vulnerable i still think she could have been under the under these

circumstances but they've done a very good job of paying lip service to Elizabeth Warren wing and to sort of quieting down their top critics, which I think has helped them tremendously. Any guess as to who the nominee will be on the Republican side? Gosh, I mean, it really is wide open, which is great, I think. Vigorous debate, I think, will be very helpful. I mean, I think in a way you can sort of see strengths in a lot of these contenders. I mean, from Ted Cruz to even Chris Christie to Scott Walker to Jeb Bush in his own way

and to all these people you can see strengths, but you can also see weaknesses. And how they, I mean, the campaign matters and how they're able to project an intriguing, optimistic vision for America, I think will matter tremendously. And, you know, same with Hillary, by the way. I mean, how she can see the strengths, you can see the weaknesses, and how she's able to capitalize on that, I think will matter. I mean, campaigns do matter. So, again, I'm Jay Nordlinger, and I'm talking with Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard. What are some of the issues you most care about?

That's a good question. I do like the politics. I mean, that's kind of what I follow. I do like sort of the day-to-day he said, she said, and some of the horse race stuff. But ultimately, I think, you know, I think these policies do matter. And I think the people who are in charge, I mean, a foreign policy matters. People's lives depend on it. And same with issues from education to health care.

I mean, it does affect people in a real way that, as political writers, we're often removed from. But it's important to recognize. I don't know. I mean, it's very broad in a way. I'm a generalist, I suppose. Yeah, me too. Because I edit't know. I mean, it's very broad in a way. I'm a generalist, I suppose. Yeah, me too. Because I edit our websites. One week I'm more interested in something else,

but I think it's also important to just... How did you get to be right of center, a nice, cool kid like you? What are you doing with us freaks and weirdos around the right? How did you get to be this way? Well, I wasn't always this way. Me neither.

In high school, I went to a very bad high school and it's basically i mean mad how like like 50 graduation rate 60 on the free or reduced lunch plan and i was liberal then and also were all my friends i grew up in a college town uh it's a poor ath Georgia, poor college town. And I just saw these programs that weren't helping the people that they said that they were helping. And it's not. You saw it with your own eyes. Yeah.

I mean, it's not. Look, I think certain social welfare programs, there wouldn't be much of an argument if they weren't. If their success rate were 100%, I think even the most cold-hearted conservative might be able to be convinced by certain social welfare programs. What convinced me is that they weren't working and that you can give all the free lunch you want in my high school, but it didn't actually elevate people out of poverty and there was this sort of cultural rut that people were stuck in and that they weren't ever able to really escape from. And so that, I think, led me to conservatism. Another aspect is my mother grew up in communist Prague. And, you know, she says

that they used to wish that the American tanks rolled in and liberated them. And I think that has helped shape my foreign policy views and that America is a force for good in the world and that we can actually do very good things. Not with 100 percent accuracy, but certainly more so than, say, the Russians. Daniel, how did she get out of Prague, out of Czechoslovakia? Well, her mother's sister was in Canada, and so they just got a visa. Her mother and her younger sister got a visa, and they just flew over. It was in the 70s, early 70s. After 68, then, after the crash. Yeah, after.

And, of course, they wouldn't give visas to the whole family because they knew they wouldn't come back. So they gave visas to half the family. So they were able to fly over. My mother, with her father, they sort of bribed their way through the Romanian border. They went to Rome, and they basically sat there and waited nine months for asylum, which they were granted in Canada. I take it you have no illusions about communism. No, I don't. And weirdly, you know, I sort of, you know, there was a flap a couple, I guess a year or two ago about Rubio sort of not knowing much about his parents leaving.

And people couldn't believe, how come you don't know the exact years and things like that? I can relate. Your parents don't. My mother doesn't talk about it. Of course not. I mean, you still have to pull it out of her. Of course not, yeah. And she doesn't, I mean, it's, like, we didn't learn any Czech. I know, I've been to Prague once when I was very young, right after communism was over.

And that's about it. You're a true blue American kid. Yeah. By the way, can you have a Southern accent when you want to? You sound so un-Georgian. Well, part of it is my mother. Part of it, my father grew up around uh dc in the maryland suburbs gotcha and since it was a college town actually a lot of the people were transplants

so i i wasn't i'm and not really a southerner since i don't have heritage and family lineage so i i don't think a lot of southerners would consider me a southerner and it's just the way i talk i mean i don't know how else to explain it. Final question. Do you have kind of a wish list for interviewees, one or two people you wish you could interview anywhere in the world in whatever walk of life? This may be one of those, give me,

Bill Buckley used to call these, say that this kind of question is like Peking duck requires 24 hours notice. Yeah. But I've given you no notice. Well, it's kind of hard because as a political reporter, you do become somewhat disillusioned. And you understand that interviews rarely yield the results you hope that they'll yield. That politicians tend to be somewhat smart, smarter than you think, at least understand their business of politics,

and they're able to sort of sidestep questions. So I don't think it would be a politician per se. But off the top of my head, I just – let's talk in 24 hours. Okay, gotcha. I know what you mean. I always thought there was a very bad rep, but Eisenhower is often quoted, you know, what has Vice President Nixon done? Give me a week and I'll come up with a list. What he meant was don't put me on the spot, but it would seem to be very insulting to Nixon at the time.

Yeah. So, on that flat note, let's go out on not a flat note, let's go on a better note. Do you go to bed gloomy and get up gloomy, or are you hopeful? It's a mixture. I mean, there are days, there are times when everything just looks like it's going to hell. Part of it is our president, our foreign policy, our domestic policy. It looks like conservatives are losing on every front some days, and they are sometimes. You know, ultimately, I think you've got to hope for the best, otherwise you wouldn't be doing this.

If you didn't think that things could somewhat change, even if it would take certain things that may not ever happen, you know, certainly I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't somewhat optimistic. So there's a jolt of sun from Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard. It's always a pleasure to see you and talk to you. It really is. I look forward to the next time. Thanks, Jay. I appreciate it.

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