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Give Al a Chance

by Leonard Steinhorn

Though we were riveted by it just one year ago, the election trauma from last year seems so distant and almost petty in the aftermath of September 11. But before we close the emotional books on the 2000 presidential campaign, it’s essential to correct one bit of conventional wisdom that has woven its way into our body politic: the notion that Al Gore blew the election, ran a terrible campaign, and doesn’t deserve another chance. It’s time to take another look. Americans

Presidency: Bush’s Executive Order

by Steven Aftergood

BUSH ORDER IMPEDES RELEASE OF PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS A new executive order could make it substantially more difficult for the public to gain access to historically valuable presidential records by requiring the consent of both the incumbent President and the former President whose Administration generated the records. Earlier this year, the White House had blocked release of records from the Reagan Administration that were supposed to hav

Presidency: Is Bush Protecting His Dad?

by George Beres

The Reagan papers were to have been the first released under the 1978 Presidential Records Act. It came after Watergate and former President Richard Nixon's attempts to keep his papers and tape recordings to himself. Passage made presidental records the property of government, not those who held the office. When the current presidential order was announced, prominent historians immediately complained that it violates the spirit of the 1978 Act. The director of the National Committee for

Presidency: The Reagan Papers Runaround

by Hugh Davis Graham

President Bush on November 1, 2001 signed an executive order that gives all incumbent and former presidents since 1980 full veto authority in perpetuity over public access to documents in their presidential papers. This was what President Nixon tried to achieve in his 1974 agreement with the head of the General Services Administration (which then included the National Archives), a deal that Congress overturned later that year. To preve

Presidency: Release the Reagan Documents

by Bruce Craig

The Bush White House has served to delay the release of some 68,000 pages of presidential papers dating back to the Reagan Administration which ought to be released under provisions of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. On several occasions, the White House has stated that the delays were required,"to review the many constitutional and legal questions raised by potential release of sensitive and confidential Presidential records and to decide

Presidency: Commander in Chief as Actor in Chief

by John Dean

To view national politics as theater, played on both a domestic and world stage, is to appreciate a reality of contemporary public affairs. This fact has long been clear to me as I have observed political figures operate up close and personal, both on stage and off.For this reason I found the thoughts of one of America's preeminent playwrights, Arthur Miller, a man who knows a good thespian when he sees one, of particular interest. In an essay pu

Column: Will Gambling Heal Our Pain?

by William Thompson

Column: WARNING ... Gambling May Be Dangerous to Your Health

by William Thompson

Column: A New Bush?

by P.M. Carpenter

House Republicans are either experimenting with evidentiary methamphetamine smuggled in by Ashcroft over at Justice, or they're wandering about in a psychotic daze made possible by flushing their Thorazine each morning. It's plain that each is in need of his or her own Nurse Ratchet, standing guard and enforcing medicinal duties for the nation's good. But with Ratch

The Response of the British People to Terrorism in the United States

by Harold D. Langley

My wife and I visited England in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and we traveled about that country during a three week period. While visiting historic and cultural sites, as well as shopping, dining, staying at B&B's and enjoying pubs, we had an opportunity to observe and to converse with a cross section of the British people while their country moved toward an active participation in the fight against the Taliba

Repeating History in Afghanistan

by David Corn

As I write, I am trying to hold my breath. My office is across the street from the Senate Hart Office Building. Through yellowing leaves, I can see the corner of the building that was closed after an letter containing anthrax spores was opened by a staffer for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. From the roof of Hart, bright white puffs of steam pop out of vents, and in a reverie of paranoia I envision hardy anthrax bacteria lofting over Capitol H

Apocalypse Now?

by Ted Daniels

When the World Trade Center collapsed like a ghastly flower opening, many of us thought immediately of apocalypse. That metaphor seemed and still seems apt for the hideous images of people plummeting a thousand feet and dust-coated ghosts emerging from the hellish air of ruined buildings. The metaphor is more than that. This war is in all earnest an apocalyptic battle, at least where our enemies are concerned, and we might do well to be aware of that fact. This is not the first time the West has

Civil Rights: Let 'Em Wiretap!

by David Greenberg

At the moment, the House and Senate have hatched different versions of anti-terrorism bill. Both bills would let government agents procure just one warrant to wiretap a person regardless of the phone he uses. (Currently, warrants apply only to individual phones.) Both would let the government monitor the e-mail addresses to which users send messages, without first getting a warrant. Both would ease the standard officials have to meet in order to monitor suspected terrorists overseas. Whe

Column: Bush's Bold New Vision

by P. M. Carpenter

As we pursue mostly unidentified evildoers in accord with the bold new vision of the “Bush Doctrine,” let us pause to review our successes. The list is most impressive. We have killed perhaps hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children. But the Pentagon is dreadfully sorry, so that figure really isn’t as bad as it seems. We have liquidated maybe and exactly one senior member of Al Qaeda, whose majority membership is housed pret

Why We Fear Afghanistan and Why We Shouldn't

by Michael Radu

Much of the current analysis of the U.S.-British military actions against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan seem to accept unquestioningly conventional wisdom on the prospects for military success in that country. But the major premises of this conventional wisdom are simply myths that have developed over the years, either from ignorance or malevolence. The facts, it will be seen, simply do not support them.

Presidency: Bush Should Consider the Fate of Wartime Presidents

by Ira Chernus

President Bush is responding to national disaster by assuming the mantle of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. He would do well to consider the fate of less successful wartime presidents, not only Truman but Lyndon B. Johnson. Leading a nation to war is trickier than it may seem.The frequent references to Pearl Harbor inevitably call up memories of FDR. But Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that the war o

Column: Shameful

by P.M. Carpenter

11The war slogs on. The radical conservatives in power are widely regarded by ethnic minority groups, as well as by discontented pockets within the majority ethnic group and some of the international community, to be illegitimate. The ruling elite came to power only through intimidation, behind-the-scenes power plays, and close ties to a few sympathetically minded judicial mullahs. Its inspiration is a religious and social fundamentalism clearly out of step with secular-humanist enlightenment th

Undermining Musharraf

by Joseph Palermo

General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, is in a difficult predicament which President George W. Bush and his advisers have made even more thorny with their recent insensitive and undiplomatic public statements. The Musharraf government has been performing a high wire act from the time the United States military buildup in South Asia began. Violent anti-American street demonstrations have rocked Pakistan with thousands of supporters of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden participatin

Column: Succeeding in Alienating the Islamic World

by P.M. Carpenter

Every time the president steps before a mike to fill us in on international matters, I become more bewildered on what in the world -- literally -- is going on. While the major dailies were applauding the leadership and “grit” of his latest address (Thursday, October 11), I was still waiting for an interpreter of what seemed very much like executive bran

The Enemy of My Enemy

by Alvin Finkel

While a long-term appreciation of American foreign policy is of little help while America is at war, it is of great importance in trying to anticipate future crises. A key problem in American foreign policy that marks it off sharply from domestic policy is the small number of players involved in shaping policy. Large corporations of course play a huge role in the shaping of most key government policies in America, domestic and foreign. But in the area of domestic policy, public involvement is gr