Author Archives: atticus

What real post-partisanship would look like

Quin Hillyer proposes that, in the spirit of bipartisanship, Barack Obama renominate Peter Keisler, the former acting Attorney General, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Keisler was an outstanding nominee, praised by the likes of Ted Kennedy and the editorial boards of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Moreover, as Hillyer, points out, “when the Inspector General issued a report blasting »

How bad is the Amnesty International Report?

In his Boston Herald column, Jules Crittenden takes a look at the recent Amnesty International Report on Hezbollah’s conduct in the war: “Hezbollah war crimes: Amnesty International cries Uncle.” Jules is pleasantly surprised, but this paragraph leaves us in some suspense regarding AI’s pending report on Israel’s conduct: AI did not address the issue of an estimated 1,000 Lebanese civilians killed when Israel attacked Hezbollah fighting and command positions that »

Scandalous if true

Elements of the JAG Corps — career government military lawyers — exert, in my view, an undue amount of influence on how this country will fight the war on terrorism. And not for the good. Along with their former JAG colleague and current mouthpiece in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, they have spearheaded the movement to provide gold-plated process to terrorists who are hell-bent on killing as many Americans and other »

Who is Keith Ellison? (4)

In her Star Tribune column tomorrow, Katherine Kersten takes a look at the DFL-endorsed candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s Fifth District: “Let’s not forget Ellison’s support of Nation of Islam.” She writes: State Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis is the DFL-endorsed candidate for the Fifth District congressional seat. In this DFL bastion, that means that — barring a primary loss — Ellison will succeed Martin Sabo when Congress reconvenes next »

FDR’s domestic surveillance

In Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage, Joseph Persico writes that “[f]ew leaders have been better suited by nature and temperament for the anomalies of secret warfare than FDR.” He quotes Roosevelt: “You know that I am a juggler, and I never let my right hand know what my left hand does.” As Persico demonstrates (pages 34-36), President Roosevelt’s enthusiasm for intelligence extended to prewar domestic wiretapping »

A cultured Democrat

Rep. Alan Mollohan, the top Democrat on the House ethics committee, is off the panel in light of reports that he steered millions of dollars to nonprofit groups in his district — with much of the money going to organizations run by people who contribute to his campaigns — and indications that his own net worth sky-rocketed in the process. This development, of course, is a potential set-back for Nancy »

Good news from Germany

Jim Geraghty has some very good news about the new German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Unlike her predecessor, the cyncial America-basher Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel is generally supportive of U.S. policies. Moreover, she is an independent voice for firmness in world affairs. She took a lead role in calling for the release of Abdul Rahman, the Afghan convert to Christianity who faced the death penalty. And she has denounced Iranian President Mahmoud »

“The Biggest Thing Happening In the World”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an excellent profile of federal prosecutor Cliff Wardlaw, who spent 11 months in Iraq, helping to establish that country’s judiciary after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He hasn’t put the experience behind him: He trained judges, checked courthouse security, examined prison conditions and worked to steer the Iraqi judiciary to an independent body, one separate from the country’s political leadership. Since his return, his life »

Froomkin takes the bait

Dan Froomkin at Washington Post.com praises Jennifer Loven for writing “a whole story on Saturday about Bush’s extensive and generally unchallenged use of straw-man arguments.” Froomkin calls this a “bold departure for the AP.” Loven’s piece is, of course, the one John demolished yesterday. As John demonstrated, the story is bold (though not really a departure) only in its illogic and lack of factual support. Froomkin’s logic is just as »

More sloganeering from the Washington Post

The combined Democrat/MSM war on information has been characterized by cheap sloganeering. The Washington Post has been perhaps the worst offender, calling Dick Cheney the Vice President of torture, for example. Indeed, the Post has attempted to preempt debate and avoid real analysis through its loose use of the word torture. It hopes to invoke images of U.S. intelligence workers dismembering suspects and administering electric shock treatment, when in fact »

“Underreported” is an Understatement

The Washington Times is beginning a series of editorials on “underreported good news from Iraq.” This is, of course, something the right-leaning half of the blogosphere has been up to for some time. Today’s editorial focuses on education and Iraq’s economy: Primary-school enrollment has jumped 20 percent over the Saddam years, according to the Brookings Institution’s Iraq Index. In a country where 22 percent of adults never attended school, according »

Before there was Judge Bork

there was Judge Haynsworth. Horace Cooper recalls the pre-Bork borking of this judge. In 1969, the charming predecessors of today’s Senate Dems (including the father of Evan Bayh) tried to paint Haynsworth as a racist, despite the lack of any good evidence. Then, they hammered him over a bogus conflict of interest. It worked. The Senate voted him down 55-45. About a decade later, I argued a few civil rights »

Dan Froomkin’s deeply misleading “briefing”

The Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin serves up a deeply misleading column about the president’s attempt to defend himself from baseless and vicious attacks by the likes of, well, Froomkin. The liberal MSM knew that Bush wouldn’t take indefinitely the pounding it has been dishing out. So, when Bush finally responded the Post had its main talking point prepared — Bush is engaging in a political campaign. This allegation, in fact, »