Monthly Archives: October 2005

October 18, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Negative capability, take 3

My friend Michael Paulsen is one of the most prominent of the younger generation of constitutional law scholars. He is McKnight Presidential Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota Law School. Before he started teaching he also worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush (41) administration. John Yoo is of course the former Bush (43) administration deputy assistant attorney general in »
October 17, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Up against the wall

Over the weekend OpinionJournal ran the testimonial to Harold Pinter’s dramatic work by Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout: “Another left turn in Stockholm.” Teachout may be the best practical critic at large in the country today, and his views merit serious consideration. Today the Journal ran the perfect counterpont to Teachout’s column, a brilliant takedown of Pinter by Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens’s column is available to subscribers only (subscribe »
October 17, 2005 — John Hinderaker

DeLay Moves to Dismiss Second Indictment

Earlier today, Tom DeLay’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, moved for dismissal of the second indictment which was procured by prosecutor Ronnie Earle. Here is DeGuerin’s letter to Earle that accompanied the motion: Here is the motion DeGuerin made to quash the first count of the indictment; there is a similar motion relating to the second count, as well as a motion for a speedy trial: The judge who will hear DeLay’s »
October 17, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Unsolicited Advice for Harriet Miers

Paul’s post below started me thinking about Miers’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and how she should respond to the inevitable questions about whether assurances have been given to conservative constituencies on her view of Roe v. Wade. It occurs to me that there may be a simple approach by which both Miers and President Bush can be extricated from the present difficulty. Suppose Miers testifies to the following: »
October 17, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

The wheels are turning

Much will be made of the revelation in John Fund’s column that, during a conference call on October 3, two Texas judges told leading social conservatives that Harriet Miers would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. The alleged assurances may well be a political bombshell, but I don’t see any impropriety in them. The judges may have been speculating or they may have been basing their “assurance” on what they »
October 17, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Negative capability, take 2

The conference call recounted in John Fund’s Wall Street Journal column on Harriet Miers is itself bound to become a factor in the confirmation process; the column is therefore must-reading: “Judgment call.” »
October 17, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The letter, take 2

Eli Lake has an interesting article in today’s New York Sun on the possible inauthenticity of the Zawahiri letter that John commented on last week: “Doubts are mounting on Al Qaeda letter aired by Negroponte.” On the one hand: “This does not read like an Islamist text,” a terrorism analyst at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute, Chris Brown, said in an interview yesterday. “It only uses the word ‘infidel’ twice and »
October 17, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The empire strikes back

The Lone Pine Revolution at Dartmouth College appears to be reaching its Battle of Saratoga stage. Following in the footsteps of petition trustees T.J. Rodgers, Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki, a petition slate is running for the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth College Association of Alumni. Headed by Dean Spatz ’66, this group vows to end the cozy relationships between the College’s usual alumni reps and the administration. The slate »
October 16, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The joy of sax

Peter Guralnick may be the best writer ever to devote himself to American popular music. He has a gift for writing profiles and narrative as well as unfailing good taste in music. In his two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, he joined a scholar’s mania for detail and accuracy to a fan’s passion. The result is definitive. But Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom »
October 16, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Sunni Split

In order for the new Iraqi constitution to be defeated, it was necessary for two-thirds or more of the voters in three or more of the country’s eighteen provinces to vote against it. Since there are four provinces where Sunnis are in the majority, it was not inconceivable that that could happen. It has been widely stated, as in this USA Today article, that Iraq’s Sunnis tried hard to stop »
October 16, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Look back in anger

The New York Times catches up with the Judith Miller story in a long, triple bylined article by Don Van Natta, Adam Liptak and Clifford Levy: “The Miller case: A notebook, a cause, a jail cell and a deal.” Aside from the article’s passive-aggressive approach to Miller herself, I found the article hard to decipher. Former federal prosecutor (and friend of Patrick Fitzgerald) Andrew McCarthy (here) and Tom Maguire (here) »
October 16, 2005 — John Hinderaker

What do Voldemort and the Islamists Have in Common?

Check out Mark Steyn’s latest, on ” the enemy whose name it’s best never to utter.” »
October 16, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Democrats Told to Reach Out

If all you did was read newspaper headlines, you’d think the Democrats would be in clover. Day after day, Republicans seem to be taking a beating on all fronts. And yet, for some reason, it’s the Republicans, not the Democrats, who keep winning elections. Donald Lambro of the Washington Times discusses a new report by two long-time Democratic political strategists, William Galston and Elaine C. Kamarck, which warns the Democrats »
October 15, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Well, That’s A Relief

We knew the New York Times was pretty far left, but we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw this correction: Because of an editing error, the introduction to an interview last Sunday with Marc Levin, director of the documentary “Protocols of Zion,” misstated a word in describing the century-old anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” from which the title was taken. It should have said »
October 15, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Judy Miller Speaks

In today’s New York Times, reporter Judith Miller offers a lengthy and seemingly comprehensive summary of her testimony before Patrick Fitzgerald’s grand jury. Miller’s account is interesting, but it falls short of explaining what all the fuss was about. In general, Miller’s story seems to exonerate “Scooter” Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, with whom Miller had a series of conversations about Joe Wilson. In the course of those conversations, »
October 15, 2005 — John Hinderaker

The Latest From Iraq

Overall turnout is estimated to be more than 60%, higher in some key Sunni areas. Which has raised some concern about how all those Sunnis voted: Sunni Arabs voted in surprisingly high numbers on Iraq’s new constitution Saturday, many of them hoping to defeat it in an intense competition with Shiites and Kurds over the shape of the nation’s young democracy after decades of dictatorship. With little violence, turnout was »
October 15, 2005 — John Hinderaker

They’re Voting In Iraq

So far, things seem to be going well, with very little violence reported. I haven’t seen any estimates of turnout yet. Iraq the Model reports: Probably the worst thing today is the intense heat which was a little over 100f but that didn’t stop the crowds from walking in the sun to the voting stations, I personally had to walk nearly 4 miles in total but it’s definitely worth the »