He was a liberal "mugged by reality," his turn to the right joined by countless others, including such future GOP Cabinet officials as Jeane Kirkpatrick and William Bennett and another neoconservative founder, Norman Podhoretz. "The influence of Irving Kristol's ideas has been one of the most important factors in reshaping the American climate of opinion over the past 40 years" Podhoretz said. He was a flagship in the network of think tanks, media outlets and corporations that helped make conservatism a reigning ideology for at least two decades, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that Hillary Rodham Clinton would claim was out to get her husband. Full Article at The Clarion-Ledger