Thursday, January 03, 2008

Government in exile

Tough to parody news about the near-term activities of forcibly retired Australian PM John Howard --

American Enterprise Institute president Christopher DeMuth announced today that former Australian prime minister John Winston Howard is the recipient of AEI's Irving Kristol Award for 2008. The annual award, selected by the Institute's Council of Academic Advisers, is given to individuals who have made exceptional intellectual or practical contributions to improved government policy, social welfare, or political understanding. Mr. Howard will receive the award and deliver the Irving Kristol Lecture at the Institute's annual dinner on March 5, 2008, at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

While it will be tough for Howard to top Bernard Lewis' acceptance speech from last year, it's a reasonable bet that some genre of AEI fellowship (such as that held by forcibly retired World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz) will follow.

One question: are these guys being held in reserve to return to power in their previous jobs or as boards of directors for some future AEI project in the Middle East?

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