Monthly Archives: April 2012

An Archival Footnote on Charles Colson

Featured image One of my favorite entries in the Reagan diaries is his description of Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker as a “no-good, pompous fat head.”  Truer words have seldom been put on paper. While cleaning out an old file today I stumbled across a transcript of a TV debate between William F. Buckley and Lowell Weicker from December 1973 (I said it was an old file) on the subject of the Watergate »

Have Our News Organizations Gone Crazy?

Featured image I wrote here about MSNBC’s campaign to tie the Koch brothers to George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin. That effort was, it is fair to say, insane, but it apparently inspired one or more liberals to take MSNBC’s theories a step farther. Someone wrote–I think it was on Facebook–that Koch Industries had paid for Zimmerman’s legal defense and/or put up his bail money. Other liberals happily repeated the claim, to »

Happy Earth Day, 2012!

Featured image Happy Earth Day, Power Line readers.  I know it’s hard, but try to contain your ecstatic frenzy as you go about your day.  What?—You mean you aren’t assiduously checking off all the boxes on your “50 Ways to Save the Planet” list today? It’s been my theme here that the entire green crusade has lost its mojo and is unlikely to get it back (which is not to say that »

Flip-Flopping on Romney

Featured image A number of analysts and commentators have noted that since Romney sewed up the GOP nomination recently, the Obama machine has changed tactics.  Where they once attacked him as a flip-flopper–one of the most potent ways to undermine any candidacy–and as a quasi-liberal for his support of the Massachusetts version of Obamacare, they now attack him as a right-winger and agent of the 1 percent.  Michael Tomasky explains what’s behind »

Jay Nordlinger recommends

Featured image As we hosted Jay Nordlinger over the past few days, our conversation naturally turned to books. First and foremost we discussed his own new book, Peace, They Say, a history of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is, to borrow John’s comment in a nearby post, much like Jay’s writing for National Review — smart, balanced, funny, fair. To those adjectives I would add thoughtful and deep. It is a current »

Good News and Bad News for Sen. Hatch

Featured image Orrin Hatch will have to run in a primary in order to secure the Republican nomination for the Utah Senate seat he has held for nearly 36 years. That’s because Hatch fell slightly short of garnering 60 percent of the vote at the state Republican convention. In the first round, Hatch won 57 percent of the vote. In the second round, a run-off against his top competitor Dan Liljenquist, Hatch »

Charles Colson, RIP

Featured image I wrote about Charles Colson earlier this month in “Colson’s Christian turn.” I regret to report that Colson died today at the age of 80. I can’t find an obituary worth linking to at this point. Enmeshed in the Watergate prosecutions, Colson pleaded guilty to a questionable crime in order to move on with his new life after his turn to Christianity. As a Christian, he became an incredibly inspirational »

The French Presidential Candidates In Their Own Slogans

Featured image The first round of voting in the French presidential election takes place tomorrow (Sunday). There are ten candidates. Tomorrow’s voting will narrow the field to two. Here are the candidates, their party, and their campaign slogan (badly translated by me): Nicolas Sarkozy – Union for a Popular Movement – “Strong France” Francois Hollande – Socialist Party – “The Change Is Now” Marine Le Pen – National Front Party – “Yes, »

Peace, They Say: Bush congratulates Carter

Featured image We’ve had the great good fortune of hosting National Review’s Jay Nodlinger in our home over the past two nights. He came to town to talk about his new book, Peace, They Say, a history of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a brilliant, thought-provoking, enraging, inspirational, fascinating, moving book. Jay’s presentation on the book at the Center of the American Experiment lunch yesterday was a great hit. This morning »

Who’s Funnier, Republicans Or Democrats?

Featured image No one in America has more experience at making fun of Democrats and Republicans, so Jay Leno’s views on the parties’ senses of humor are of interest: Jay Leno, who celebrates his 20th anniversary as host of “The Tonight Show” this year, said on the political-humor spectrum, Republicans “laugh at themselves more” than their opponents across the aisle. “Democrats and Republicans are interesting because Republicans really laugh at themselves more. »

A Practical Science Project?

Featured image Over at the New York Review of Books, physicist Steven Weinberg laments the decline in government funding for “big science,” especially noting that the proposed James Webb telescope, a replacement for the aging Hubble telescope, is withering for lack of funding from Congress.  Well, here’s an idea to get those “anti-science” Republicans to cough up the dough: combine the two telescopes into one!  Call it the “Webb Hubble telescope,” after »

The State of the Race — What Might Change?

Featured image My view of the presidential race has been consistent during the past 15 months. Throughout that period, it has seemed to me that President Obama’s re-election chances, assuming the Republicans nominate Mitt Romney, are between 45 and 55 percent. And so it seems now. But more useful than odds-making is an analysis of what might cause the race, wherever it stands now, to change, and which candidate the change would »

Local Fighter Just Misses on Showtime

Featured image Caleb Truax, a middleweight, is Minnesota’s top professional boxer. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he was undefeated until last night. My son Eric got to know Truax when they were training in the same gym, and they have remained friends. So we were excited when Caleb signed to fight Jermain Taylor in a ten-round, main-event Friday night bout on Showtime. Taylor, the former undisputed middleweight champion of the »

The gathering storm, cont’d

Featured image Thursday was Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. At the Yad Vashem ceremony marking the occasion on Wednesday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave another of his Churchillian speeches on Iran’s nuclear program. His office has posted the text of the speech here. Netanyahu concluded: I will continue to speak the truth to the world, but first and foremost I must speak it to my own people. I know that my »

Anti-Semitism and Media Double Standards

Featured image The Left and the media (but I repeat . . .  oh why bother) are making a fuss about an ambush put on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by Mike Allen of Politico about purported anti-Semitism in the House Republican caucus, shown in the video below.  It turns out that Cantor contributed $25,000 to a primary challenger against an incumbent House Republican who had commented that Cantor couldn’t be “saved” »

One happy Deacon

I can’t express how happy I am to be back at Power Line.  I’m grateful to John, Scott, and Joe Malchow for their friendship and moral support during the past 15 months, and for holding a place at the blog for me. I also thank Steve Hayward for filling the gap I left, and then some.  It’s quite an honor to be replaced by someone of Steve’s stature, learning, and ability.  I’m »

Return of the Deacon

Featured image I am delighted to announce that Paul Mirengoff is returning to Power Line. For those who may have begun reading our site only recently, Paul was one of the founders of Power Line, joining the site in the summer of 2002. Like Scott and me, Paul is a Dartmouth alum; one of my college roommates, in fact. Around a year ago, Paul took a leave of absence to focus exclusively »