Monthly Archives: September 2002

Charles Krauthammer’s take on one

Charles Krauthammer’s take on one of the two recent despicable speeches by contemptible men (Al Gore’s, not Tom Daschle’s) in today’s Washington Post is a demolition job. I love this paragraph toward the end: “The New York Times reports that Gore wrote the speech ‘after consulting a fairly far-flung group of advisers that included Rob Reiner.’ Current U.S. foreign policy is the combined product of Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Dick »

Deacon, your post is admirably

Deacon, your post is admirably dispassionate, but I must say the Democrats’ conduct is sickening. Can anyone imagine a world in which a liberal’s working to advance the cause of liberalism would disqualify him from becoming a judge? I can’t. »

The Senate Democrats may have

The Senate Democrats may have found the ammunition (or, more accurately, the fig leaf) with which to shoot down Miguel Estrada’s nomination to the federal judiciary. As noted in previous blogs, the Dems are trying to prove that Estrada is a “conservative ideologue.” At today’s hearing, they relied on allegations that Estrada blocked liberals who wanted to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Kennedy from being considered. Federal judges take on »

Today the 3rd Circuit Court

Today the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a sentencing memo describing illegal contributions from David Chang to Robert Torricelli, as well as describing Chang’s cooperation with the police prior to his sentencing, must be released to the public immediately. This is very bad news for Torricelli, who tried to keep the Chang memo secret until after the election. Recent polls have shown Forrester with a substantial lead; this »

There are certain weird aspects

There are certain weird aspects to the Iraq situation. For some weeks, the Administration has been announcing its plans to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Various details of strategy and tactics, including movements of troops and other military assets, are in the news nearly every day. Iraqi officials, meanwhile, give interviews to the Washington Post in which they detail their defensive strategy. They will not defend the desert, as in »

The jury is still out

The jury is still out on Tom Daschle’s performance in the Senate yesterday. Hugh Hewitt considers it a “Muskie moment” that will seriously damage Daschle’s career. I don’t know; the newspaper headlines I’ve seen have been along the lines of “Daschle Rips Bush,” not “Bizarre Near-Breakdown in Senate.” Why did he do it? The ostensible point of the speech was to complain about something that Bush never said; in fact, »

Here’s another fine column by

Here’s another fine column by Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post. The subject is the “Third Way” (the reformed Left), and three of its leading figures, Al Gore, Tony Blair, and Gerhard Schroeder. Among other insights, Stephens provides a plausible explanation as to why, of the three, only Blair has taken a consistent and coherent position on Iraq. For those who don’t make it to the end of the column, »

Yesterday, I posted a piece

Yesterday, I posted a piece by Byron York about the looming confirmation struggle over Miguel Estrada. According to that article, virtually the sole source of the charge that Estrada is too much of a conservative ideologue to be a federal judge is Paul Bender, Estrada’s former supervisor at the Justice Department’s Office of the Solicitor General (who, by the way, always gave Estrada high marks in written performance evaluations). In »

According to Stanley Kurtz in

According to Stanley Kurtz in National Review Online, Kenneth Pollack, a member of Clinton’s National Security Council and its chief expert on Iraq, is taking the position that Saddam Hussein must be deposed by an invasion. In his book The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq, Pollock grudgingly concludes that the post-Gulf War policy of containing Saddam has irretrievably broken down, according to Kurtz. Pollock’s case for invasion apparently »

Here is something I don’t

Here is something I don’t understand. Articles like this one in the Washington Times say the Republicans have a huge advantage in cash on hand, and apparently are in a position to out-spend the Democrats by a two to one margin on Senate races. Yet in the races I observe, the Democrats seem to be spending more. I haven’t seen any hard numbers, but the Norm Coleman camp says Paul »

In August Minneapolis had its

In August Minneapolis had its first race riot in ten years. A Minneapolis police officer and several white reporters were assaulted while Minneapolis officers executed a search warrant at a notorious north Minneapolis crack house. The Minneapolis mayor, chief of police, and city council have reacted with a display of spinelessness that we thought must be most encouraging to the thugs and gangbangers who have made Minneapolis their home. I »

This news item in the

This news item in the Washington Times reports that Joseph Lieberman, John Edwards, and the desperate Bob Torricelli have disagreed with Al Gore’s remarks about President Bush’s policy on Iraq. Tom Daschle, on the other hand, has echoed them. The Times story also points to additional conflicting statements by Gore about Iraq (see the post from the Weekly Standard below). According to the Times, in a February 2002 speech before »

More on “Barbershop:” Frontpagemag has

More on “Barbershop:” Frontpagemag has a thoughtful column by Toronto attorney Marni Soupcoff on Jesse Jackson’s complaint. You may recall that Jesse Jackson’s current demand is that the politically incorrect, utterly hilarious monologues of Eddie the Barber be deleted from the film. We have scrupulously sought to maintain the Power Line as a family publication. We ask your forebearance to violate this policy by quoting Ms. Soupcoff’s conclusion that says »

The Weekly Standard has collected

The Weekly Standard has collected some of Al Gore’s “conflicting statements” about Iraq over the years. I know that Rocket Man and Trunk don’t deal in rumors, and I have tried to honor that policy. But here I cannot resist mentioning the persistent Washington rumor that, in 1991 when Al Gore was trying to decide how to vote on the Gulf War resolution, Gore conditioned his agreement to vote for »

During the past few weeks,

During the past few weeks, we have covered the confirmation battle over MIchael McConnell, President Bush’s distinguished nominee to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The next confirmation struggle will be over the excellent hispanic lawyer, Miguel Estrada, who has been nominated to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Byron York presents a useful if somewhat depressing analysis of the Estrada situation. However, the title of York’s article — »

More on “Barbershop:” Rod Dreher

More on “Barbershop:” Rod Dreher of National Review Online addresses Jesse Jackson’s complaint. »

I recently wrote about a

I recently wrote about a movie I enjoyed seeing with my kids, the hit movie “Barbershop.” There are several good things about the movie, but the best is the character who steals the movie–the ancient barber Eddy. Eddy is a Falstaffian comic character who is a paragon of political incorrectness. Jesse Jackson, who is himself one of the butts of Eddy’s humor, is now demanding that producers of the movie »