Mystery of the neocon coup

Reported from the University of California-Berkeley, where Seymour Hersh spoke this week:

"While Hersh blamed the White House and the Pentagon for the Iraq quagmire and America's besmirched world image, he was stymied by how it all happened. "How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?" he asked. "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?"

(The Bushites passionately hate Hersh, especially after he broke the Abu Ghraib torture story. Neocon Richard Perle has said Hersh is the closest thing this country has to a terrorist.)