Roundup: Media's Take

George Beres: An Easter Service at a Fundamentalist Church

[After a career as publicist for college athletics (Northwestern and Oregon), the writer became manager of the Speakers Bureau at the University of Oregon. He now is an investigative journalist, with sons as TV newsmen in Madison, Wis., and Nashville.] Revelations. I know that as a chapter in the Christian bible. Revelation. That's what I had when in early April I for the first time attended an Easter service in a fundamentalist Christian church in Eugene. The Easter morni

Adam Cohen: Bush v. Congress ... The Looming Battle Over Executive Privilege

In the summer of 1974, Richard Nixon bet his presidency on the doctrine of executive privilege, and lost. Nixon’s lawyer, James St. Clair, argued to the Supreme Court that he did not have to give a special prosecutor the Watergate tape recordings of Nixon talking with various advisers. But in the oral argument, the justices were skeptical. Lewis Powell, the courtly Virginian, asked: “Mr. St. Clair, what public interest is there in preserving secrecy with respect to a criminal conspiracy?”

Joseph Epstein: The Chicago Tribune under Jewish ownership?

[Mr. Epstein is the author, most recently, of "Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide" (HarperCollins, 2006).] "World's Greatest Newspaper," the Chicago Tribune used to bill itself with P.T. Barnumesque modesty. World's Greatest it never was, but, viewed from my neighborhood in Chicago, it always seemed the world's least Jewish newspaper. Which makes the fact that the paper is now owned by Sam Zell, son of immigrant Jewish parents from Poland, the first of the

David McNeill and C.M. Mason: On Japan’s Death Penalty

[David McNeill writes regularly for the Chronicle of Higher Education, the London Independent and other publications. He is a Tokyo-based coordinator of Japan Focus.C. M. Mason is a freelance writer based in Tokyo.] Japan’s death penalty is cruel, secretive and out of step with much of the developed world say its opponents. As a record 97 men and 5 women await the hangman’s noose, one man alive and free who knows its true horrors speaks. After breakfast on Christmas Day

Norman Solomon: While McCain Walks in McNamara’s Footsteps

[Norman Solomon’s book “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” is out in paperback. For information, go to: www.normansolomon.com] The media spectacle that John McCain made of himself in Baghdad on April 1 was yet another reprise of a ghastly ritual. Senator McCain expressed “very cautious optimism” and told reporters that the latest version of the U.S. war effort in Iraq is “making progress.” Three years ago, in early April 2004, when an insu

Jonathan Rauch: The way to end culture wars is to slug them out state by state

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is a thoughtful politician, for a politician. So it was not surprising to find him recently debating one of the country’s core conundrums. It was a little surprising, though, to find him debating himself. Romney believes abortion is wrong, but he thinks the decision on whether to allow it should be left to the states. In February, National Journal asked him if he favored a constitutional

Sidney Blumenthal: The discovery of a previously unknown treasure chest of e-mails buried by the Bush administration may prove to be as informative as Nixon's secret White House tapes

The rise and fall of the Bush presidency has had four phases: the befuddled period of steady political decline during the president's first nine months; the high tide of hubris from Sept. 11, 2001, through the 2004 election; the self-destructive overreaching to consolidate a one-party state from 2005 to 2006, culminating in the repudiation of the Republican Congress; and, now, the terminal stage, the great unraveling, as the Democratic Congress works to uncover the abuses of the previous six yea

Milton Viorst: Richard Nixon's Mideast blunder

[MILTON VIORST has covered the Middle East for 40 years. His most recent book is "Storm from the East: The Struggle between the Arab World and the Christian West."] IN HER ACCLAIMED new book, "Nixon and Mao," Margaret MacMillan reminds readers, quite accurately, that Richard Nixon's bold act of diplomacy in promoting the American opening to China in 1972 made the world a safer, more stable place. But, at the same time, readers reflect on Nixon's missed opportunit

George F. Will: Politics After the Reversal

... No one should be allowed to vote until he or she has driven across the country. Why? Because voters should understand the nature of regional differences. Why the regions matter is the subject of a new book, "Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics," by Earl Black and Merle Black, political scientists at Rice and Emory universities, respectively. The story of American politics in the 20th century was the Great Reversal, with Democrats becoming

David McNeill: Japan Rearms

[David McNeill writes regularly for the Chronicle of Higher Education, the London Independent and other publications. He is a coordinator of Japan Focus. This is an extended version of an article that was carried in the Irish Times on Feb. 25, 2007.] ... The specter of a remilitarized, aggressive Japanese nationalism is something of a journalistic cliché and is rejected by some who call it a much needed readjustment to the new security ‘realities’ of Asia. Some describe it is merely

David Brooks: For 2008, An American Themistocles

Leonidas led the Spartans at Thermopylae, and as anybody who’s seen “300” can tell you, he had all the qualities of a perfect movie hero. He was brave, straightforward and self-sacrificing. But it’s worth pointing out that Leonidas didn’t win the Persian Wars. Themistocles did, and Themistocles had an altogether different set of qualities. He was not straightforward; in fact, he could be deceptive and manipulative. He was not self-sacrificing; there was an air of corruption and fier

Robert Kuttner: Impeach Gonzales

[Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a fellow at Demos. His column appears regularly in the Globe. ] THE HOUSE of Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales, the nation's highest legal officer, has been point man for serial assaults against the rule of law, most recently in the crude attempt to politicize criminal prosecutions. Obstruction of a prosecution is a felony, even when committed by the

Astra Taylor: The '60s Are Gone, But One of Its Most Controversial Organizations Is Back

Since its fiery demise in 1969, there have been various attempts to revive Students for a Democratic Society. All such efforts failed ... until recently. In April of 1965 a young man named Paul Potter took the stage at the first march on Washington against the war in Vietnam."What kind of system is it that justifies the U.S. or any other country seizing the destinies of the Vietnamese people and using them callously for its own purpose?" he asked the crowd, before enjoining

Paul Armentano: It's Been an 'All Out War' on Pot Smokers for 35 Years

[Paul Armentano is the senior policy analyst for NORML and the NORML Foundation in Washington, D.C.] Thirty-five years ago this month, a congressionally mandated commission on U.S. drug policy did something extraordinary: They told the truth about marijuana. On March 22, 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana (sic) and Drug Abuse -- chaired by former Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond P. Shafer -- recommended Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of pot w

Zahid Hussain: Musharraf's failures (interview)

Zahid Hussain is the Pakistan correspondent for the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. He is also the political correspondent for the Karachi-based monthly Newsline. According to Ahmed Rashid, one of the foremost experts on Afghanistan and author of several books on the region, Zahid Hussain's new book, Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam "is the first serious exposure of the rise and continuation of Islamic extremism in Pakistan. Zahid Hus

Douglas Kmiec: An Historical Perspective on the Controversy over U.S. Attorney Firings

Recently, there has been much talk of a"scandal" in the Department of Justice - based on claims that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales improperly allowed politics to govern the removal of a number of U.S. Attorneys. The facts still remain to be ascertained, by Congressional inquiry. Hopefully, the facts will show that the law was administered without partisanship or favoritism. As Congress inquires into this matter, it must be careful not to subvert the intended constitutional structu

Alex de Waal: The Wars of Sudan

[Alex de Waal is a program director of the Social Science Research Council and a director of Justice Africa in London. Since completing a PhD on Darfur in 1988 he has worked on famine, human rights and conflict in the Horn of Africa. He is co-author, with Julie Flint, of Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (Zed).] When history repeats itself for a third time, it is beyond tragedy. Since its independence fifty-one years ago, Sudan has suffered two civil wars between North and South, each

Paul Krugman: Don’t Cry for Reagan

As the Bush administration sinks deeper into its multiple quagmires, the personality cult the G.O.P. once built around President Bush has given way to nostalgia for the good old days. The current cover of Time magazine shows a weeping Ronald Reagan, and declares that Republicans “need to reclaim the Reagan legacy.” But Republicans shouldn’t cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There’s no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have be

Howard Fineman: A generation ago, Vietnam blew up politics as we knew it. Why isn’t that happening now?

As we approach the fourth anniversary of "Shock and Awe," I keep waiting for the war in Iraq to blow up politics as we know it, the way the war in Vietnam did a generation ago. That hasn’t happened—at least not yet—and it's important to understand why. The main reason: Democrats haven’t fashioned a compelling (even to themselves) alternative to George W. Bush’s world view. Unless they do, they could lose in 2008. Often in politics, what candidates DON’T say is more import

Charles E. Anderson: Is the Vietnam Wall Memorial Being Politicized?

[Charles E. Anderson served in Iraq with the Marine Corps' Second Tank Battalion during the invasion of Iraq. During his nine-year career, he served in infantry, armor, and medical units. He lives in Hampton, Virginia, where he is a World Studies student at Thomas Nelson Community College. He can be contacted through his website at http://www.charleseanderson.com.] ... I was saddened to learn recently that for the first time since the be