May 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Benghazi hearing before the House Oversight Committee had been previewed over the weekend in stories featuring some of the highlights of the witnesses’ testimony to staff behind closed doors. In the event the testimony of the witnesses was if anything more dramatic than we might have anticipated. The bombshells were flying Fast & Furious. Three New York Times reporters have a good story summarizing the testimony. John Podhoretz renders
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May 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The bombshells were flying Fast & Furious, you might say, at the House Oversight Committee hearing on Benghazi today. The former deputy chief of mission in Libya told the committee: “The YouTube video was a non-event in Libya.” We commenced this series in response to Obama administration spokesman Susan Rice’s round of Sunday post-attack gabfest appearances asserting: ”What happened this week…in Benghazi was a result, a direct result of a
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May 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings is the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee before which the Benghazi hearing was held today. He did his best to carry water for the White House and the former Secretary of State. Rep. Cummings earns his own entry in this series, as both a fool and a knave, for his advice to the Benghazi witnesses, before the families of the loved ones murdered in
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May 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
As the massacre of our fellow Americans in Benghazi returns to the news in a big way today, with the hearing scheduled in the House, it is well to remember the promotion of the Muhammad video by President Obama and Secretary Clinton in this context. It shows the politicization of the massacre by the Obama administration from the first moment on. The Obama administration’s attribution of responsibility for the massacre
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May 7, 2013 — Scott Johnson
When a left-wing academic wins the recognition of the American Political Science Association, it is at best an event full of sound and fury signifying nothing but the left-wing tilt of academia and the left’s domination of the institutions conferring honors and renown. When a conservative of some stripe achieves such recognition, it suggests (to me) that his or her undeniable excellence has overcome the resistance of the judges. Such
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May 7, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison is the first Muslim elected to Congress and one of its leftwardmost members. I wrote a backgrounder on him for the Weekly Standard just before he was elected to Congress and posted “Keith Ellison for dummies” on Power Line as a companion to the Weekly Standard article. Ellison is a key to understanding the Age of Obama, a thesis I explored in “From Keith
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May 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Founders warned against the tyranny of the majority. They knew that unconstrained majorities were the bane of liberty. Up through their time, history had shown all known democracies to be “incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.” They formulated the Constitution to protect the rights of citizens against the tyranny of the majority. Publius put it this way in Federalist 10: The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced
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May 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Marc Thiessen recently recalled that after he was defeated for reelection in 1989, New York Mayor Ed Koch was asked if he would ever run for office again. “No,” Koch replied. “The people have spoken…and they must be punished.” In the 2012 elections, Minnesotans elected Democratic majorities in the state House and state Senate to go along with the Democratic governor (Mark Dayton) they (we) elected in 2010. It’s the
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May 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Obama administration has politicized the Benghazi catastrophe from day 1, protecting Obama from exposure of his nonfeasance, creating an alternative universe in which the attack on the consulate grew out of a “spontaneous” protest, and kicking the whole thing past the election. On Friday Steve Hayes kicked off the latest round of exposures with his excellent Weekly Standard article “The Benghazi talking points.” Now come Bob Schieffer and Rep.
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May 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Mickey Kaus comments on the statement we received on Friday from Senator Rubio’s office (posted here) in defense of the Gang of Eight immigration bill: Rubio: Illegals will pay fines or be deported! Ambassador of Amnesty Marco Rubio argues on Powerline–or rather, “Marco Rubio” argues, since the words are attributed only to his “office”**–that critics overstate the number of new immigrants who would be added by his legalization bill: There
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May 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
On Friday morning President Obama spoke to an audience of young Mexicans at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The White House has posted the text of the speech here. Obama is full of praise for Mexico. He “celebrates Mexico’s ancient civilizations and their achievements in arts and architecture, medicine and mathematics.” He praises Mexico’s modern art. He appreciates Mexico’s blend of cultures and traditions. At greater length
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May 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Visiting the site of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale to watch Professor Donald Kagan’s farewell lecture, I found the video below of George Will’s lecture to the group this past January. The lecture provides a short course in the Constitution and the revolt of the Progressives against it, from Wilson to TR and FDR, to LBJ and to Obama. It is learned and vivid, with some pungent
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May 4, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Last month Time’s Joe Klein decried the Obama administration’s “incompetence” implementing Obamacare. This week Klein expressed relief in an “Exclusive” report. In his “Exclusive” Klein praised the administration for streamlining the complex 21-page online Obamacare application to a mere three pages. Klein called it “a spiffy, new three-page application for individuals (find it here)” (footnote omitted). He added: “There will be a seven-page application for families (11 including the appendix),
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May 4, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Yale Sterling Professor Donald Kagan retires from the faculty at the end of this academic year. The author of a classic four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War and other formidable works of learning, he is an old-fashioned scholar and teacher. To say he has had a long and distinguished career at Yale understates matters considerably. On April 25 he gave his farewell lecture to a packed audience assembled by the
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May 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
National Review helped launch Marco Rubio to prominence in his seemingly quixotic quest for the GOP Senatorial nomination against Charlie Crist and National Review has now declared the Gang of Eight immigration bill of which Rubio is a chief sponsor to be Rubio’s Folly (cover below). NR senior editor Jay Nordlinger appeared on Morning Joe briefly this morning to explain why, and Jay’s critique of the bill on the show
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May 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama is at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, where he spoke today to Future Democrats of America (i.e., young Mexicans) about American immigration reform, among other pressing subjects such as gun control. Speaking to the FDA, Obama didn’t directly address Operation Fast & Furious, but he did explain the rationale behind his refusal to enforce current immigration law (though he didn’t put it quite that way).
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May 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Weekly Standard has posted an advance online copy of Steve Hayes’s “The Benghazi talking points” from the new issue, and Bill Kristol has sent out an email alerting us to the article. Steve reports: Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what
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