My Life Among the Neo-Cons

By Mark Schmitt | bio

It's rare that I can beat my friend and office-neighbor Steve Clemons at his own game, and so to divert the wrath of his commentors, I too will “come out”: not only do I know people at the American Enterprise Institute, but I worked there myself. In fact, I worked for Norman Ornstein, whose New Republic diary about being falsely held responsible for the AEI neoconservatives prompted Steve’s post. In my first job in Washington, I was his research assistant in 1988-89.

Tempting as it is to play the conversion card, I was no kind of conservative, then or now (although I move a bit to the left with each passing year, as I think anyone with either a heart or a brain should do.) But I totally enjoyed working at AEI, at that time, and I've never had a moment's regret about that year and a half.