Roundup: Media's Take

Jan 29, 2004

Conservative Historians (and Others) Are Being Prevented from Speaking on College Campuses

Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Calt Harris, writing in frontpagemag.com (Jan. 28, 2004): The university exists for the free exchange of ideas, right? Then why is it that representatives of one half the argument – the conservative half – need bodyguards and metal detectors when they speak on North American campuses, and their leftist counterparts almost never do? Consider three suggestive paral

Jan 28, 2004

Is Iraq a Fourth Generation War?

William S. Lind, Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism, writing on the website of the Free Congress Foundation (Dec. 2003):Will Saddam's capture mark a turning point in the war in Iraq? Don't count on it. Few resistance fighters have been fighting for Saddam personally. Saddam's capture may lead to a fractioning of the Baath Party, which would move us further toward a Fou

Jan 24, 2004

Grading Bush's Speech

Peter Robinson, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Bush and special assistant and speechwriter to President Reagan. He is the author of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan, 2003). In the WSJ (Jan. 22, 2004): The White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, reported on Tuesday that by the time the president left to deliver his State

Jan 23, 2004

Is There a New Variation of Anti-Semitism?

Brian Klug, writing in theNation (Jan. 15, 2004):In 1879 the German journalist Wilhelm Marr, a former socialist and anarchist, founded an organization that was novel in two ways. It was the first political party based on a platform of hostility to Jews. And it introduced the world to a new word: "anti-Semite." Marr was an atheist, and the Antisemiten-Liga (

Jan 23, 2004

On the 31st Anniversary of Roe v Wade

Joanne Mariner, writing in findlaw.com (Jan. 21, 2004):Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court opinion whose thirty-first anniversary falls on January 22, was not yet a decade old when I became pregnant. I was seventeen, living on my own, and the pregnancy was unwanted....Even though, as the Supreme Court said in 1992, "an entire generation has come of age free to assume Ro

Jan 23, 2004

Don't Judge Bush So Fast Just Because of What You Read in Secretary O'Neill's Book

Robert Samuelson, writing in the Washington Post (Jan. 20, 2004): In 1962 Emmet John Hughes published a memoir of the Eisenhower presidency called "The Ordeal of Power." Hughes, a prominent journalist who had served Eisenhower as a speechwriter, admired the president as a person and for his role as the commanding general in Europe during World War II. Still, the portrait of Eisenhower was unflattering because it depicted a leader ill-suited for the White

Jan 23, 2004

We Made Mistakes in Germany and Japan, too

Steven Weisman, writing in the NYT (Jan. 18, 2004):The American occupation in Iraq has been one of relentless trial and error.... Yet all these examples may not be so different from what has happened throughout American history, especially as administrations have sought to wage war or confront grave crises."It's nice to think that when there is a challenge, the United States goes in with a well-formulated plan and sticks to it,&qu

Jan 23, 2004

Iowa Caucuses: Why We Never Know How Many Votes Candidates Received

William Saletan and Matt Schiller, writing in Slate (Jan. 16, 2004):More than 100,000 Democrats will go to precinct caucuses to select a nominee for president. Which candidate will get the most votes that night? If the race remains close, you'll never know.... Every viable group gets at least one delegate. The bigger your group, the more delegates you can earn. But there are two catches. First, t

Jan 23, 2004

Tell-All Books--A Short History

Johanna Neuman, staff writer, in the LAT (Jan. 16, 2004):The nation's capital was in a tizzy. The memoirs of the former administration official were flying off the shelves. The White House charged betrayal. The pundits were running out of synonyms for "juicy." Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, you might think. Try again. The year was 1988 and the public figure was Donald T. Regan, who had been fired as White House chief

Jan 23, 2004

John Kerry's Story Told by Douglas Brinkley

Bob Minzesheimer, writing in USA Today (Jan. 15, 2004): If the Democratic presidential race were judged by literary standards, John Kerry would not be lagging in the polls. The Massachusetts senator is treated heroically in historian Douglas Brinkley's book, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (William Morrow, $ 25.95). Of the new books by or about the candidates, it's the most dramatic and revealing.Not a typical campaign

Jan 23, 2004

MLK's Civil Liberties Struggle Relevant Today

Mark Engler, commentator for Foreign Policy in Focus, in Newsday (Jan. 14, 2004): Given his current status as a national icon, it is easy to forget that the government once tracked Martin Luther King Jr. like a criminal. In light of the present administration's war on terror, it's important to remember that everyone's constitutional rights must be safeguarded from the abuse of power. In the 1960s, the FBI set wiretaps in the civil rights leader's home, his

Jan 23, 2004

Kiss-and-Tell Books Are an Old Washington Tradition

Linda Feldmann, staff writer, in the Christian Science Monitor (Jan. 14, 2004): It is a Washington ritual as tried and true as the filibuster and the leaked memo: a highly placed official, current or former, tells all in a book-length indictment of administration policy and operations. The latest has just hit the bookstores, a kiss-and-tell volume called "The Price of Loyalty," by reporter Ron Suskind, featuring the incendiary obser

Jan 23, 2004

India and Pakistan Make-Up: Is It for Real, this Time?

Shashi Tharoor, author of Nehru: The Invention of India, writing in the LAT about the recent warming of relations between India and Pakistan (Jan. 14, 2004): In reality, history has not always been as grim as the pessimists believe. Muslims and Hindus (as well as followers of other creeds) have shared the same civilizational space on the subcontinent for more than

Jan 23, 2004

MLK: If He Were Alive, He'd Be Highly Controversial

Clarence Page, writing in the Chicago Tribune (Jan. 14, 2004): As Americans prepare once again to take a day off to honor the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., I wonder whether America would be as eager to honor him if he were still around. I'm not alone in my wondering. "Somebody wrote a poem, which said now that he is safely dead, let us pra

Jan 23, 2004

Criticizing the Military Is Now Taboo

Diane H. Mazu, a professor of law at the University of Florida, writing in timesunion.com (Jan. 11, 2004): It lost the ability to have a meaningful discussion about anything that involves the military. The Pentagon recently began a significant call-up for the next major rotation of troops in Iraq, but it has no realistic plan for covering military and domestic security commitments wi

Jan 23, 2004

Presidents Have Had Trouble Implementing Grand Designs for Outer Space

William J. Broad, writing in the NYT about President Bush's space initiative (Jan. 14, 2004): The troubles with grand White House plans [for outer space] began in January 1972 when President Richard M. Nixon proposed that the nation embark on a new kind of spaceship, reusable and known as the shuttle."It will take the astronomical costs out of astronautics," he said, promising that t

Jan 23, 2004

Jews in the Diaspora Have No Obligation to Follow the Sharon Government's Line

Arthur Hertzberg, writing in Haaretz.com (Jan. 7, 2004): The root of the Jewish claim under international law to the right to establish a national presence in the land of their ancestors lies in the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. The British government addressed this document to a leading figure in the Diaspora, Lord Rothschild of England, rather than to the chief Jewish negotiator and then de facto lead

Jan 23, 2004

Should Dean Open His Records as Governor? He Would Have to If He Had Been Governor of Florida

Steve Bousquet, writing in the St. Petersburg Times (Jan. 12, 2004): Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is keeping many items locked away, but Florida leaders must face greater scrutiny. As Howard Dean emerges as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president, his record as governor of Vermont is attracting plenty of attention from his opponents. But a sizable chunk of that record is under lock and key in a warehouse nea

Jan 23, 2004

Update on the Iraq Museum

Editorial in the WSJ (Jan. 10, 2004): Remember the second Mongol invasion? The comparison to the 1258 sack of Baghdad by Genghis Khan's grandson was one of the more popular allusions in the wake of Saddam's fall, especially with initial claims that U.S. forces had stood by while 170,000 pieces were looted from Iraq's National Museum. By now most people know that this estimate was a gross

Jan 23, 2004

The History of the Iowa Caucuses

Excerpts from David Yepsen's history of the Iowa Caucus, published in the Des Moines Register:Iowa's precinct caucuses became an early, if controversial, test of strength for major party presidential candidates during the 1970s and 1980s. Other states and critics seek to limit their significance, and Iowa works to resist those efforts. Since they become nationally significant in 1