How embarrassing

It was bad enough that the neo-Nazis started in the Pacific Northwest but now I find out from Kevin at Preemptive Karma that the neo-cons did too. According to the Seattle Times the father of the neo-cons is none other than Washington State's Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, aka the Senator from Boeing. In the article Scoop Jackson's protégés shaping Bush's foreign policy (registration required) they tell us many of the movers and shakers involved in the Bush administration got their start with Jackson.

The list of former Jackson staff members reads like a who's who of foreign-policy experts.

• Richard Perle is an adviser to the Defense Department and considered a major influence on Bush administration foreign policy.

• Doug Feith is undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon.

• Elliott Abrams, special assistant to the president focusing on Middle East affairs, worked as special counsel to Jackson.

Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and one of Bush's Iraq policy experts, never served directly under Jackson. But they had a long relationship that began when Wolfowitz, then a 29-year-old graduate student, helped Jackson prepare charts when the senator wanted to persuade fellow lawmakers to fund an antiballistic-missile program in 1969.

And here I thought they all got their start in Israel. Now I'm really depressed.