Readers may recall that in a recent HOTLINE we gave a pen-lashing to Vice President JD Vance for his harsh criticism of conservative icons Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher.

Then last week we expressed grave concern that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed former Biden super-regulator Lina Khan to head his NYC Economic Development Corporation.

One of our astute HOTLINE readers tracked down this article in 2024 from The Hill wherein then-Senator JD Vance sang Lina’s praises.

Here is the lede of the article with quotes from Vance:

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) singled out Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan as one of the sole Biden administration members “doing a pretty good job,” citing her work on antitrust enforcement, especially as it relates to tech giants.  

“A lot of my Republican colleagues look at Lina Khan … and they say, ‘well Lina Khan is sort of engaged in some sort of fundamental evil thing. And I guess I look at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job,” Vance said…

Vance acknowledged that supporting Khan’s aggressive antitrust enforcement, especially against tech firms, sets him apart from “most of” his Republican colleagues.

Let’s be clear: Lina Khan is the Darth Vader of free market economics.

JD’s inability to tell the good guys from the bad guys is making us very nervous.  The apparent frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination is both anti-Milton Friedman and pro-Lina Khan!

Yikes.

Someone needs to go back and read Free to Choose.