Paul Cassell and the Goblet of Fire
W arning: The editorial comment you are about to listen to has not been endorsed by the management of the College of Law. Most academic commentators have arrived at contrary opinions. But–darn it–I’m right.” Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah, often flashes this message to his students on an overhead projector.…
Speech for Free
F ew institutions demand more protection of intellectual property than do corporate media. Eager to exploit the digital age but fearful of the ease with which copyrighted material can be borrowed or stolen, major media companies have successfully pressured Congress into enhancing penalties for copyright violations. The Motion Picture Association of America has gone to…
Comment: O, Freedom
W hen father was a boy, freedom was much on the minds of college students. We marched for the civil rights of blacks and for the freedom of farm workers to join unions. Many of us resisted sacrificing our freedom to an unjust war. We asserted the freedom of women to transcend ancient, confining roles,…
Beyond the Third Way
What is “the third way?” According to the joint declaration by Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder (“The Third Way/Die Neue Mitte”), it is “about addressing the concerns of people who live and cope with societies undergoing rapid change–both winners and losers. In this newly emerging world, people want politicians who approach issues without…
Liberalism After Clinton
W ill a conservative or liberal agenda be at the center of national politics during the next four years? No matter how centrist George W. Bush and Al Gore sound, that is what the fall election is still fundamentally about. Conservatives seem to understand the choice and have lined up behind Bush. Many liberals don’t…
Did Clinton Succeed or Fail?
Dear E.J. Dionne: Did Clinton succeed or fail? It depends on how you define success. We need to consider him as a president, as a party man, as a world leader, and as a political figure who we hoped would rebuild confidence in the enterprise of democratic government. The U.S. economy certainly boomed during his…
Young Master P
G eorge P. Bush does not smirk. He smiles. A brilliant, movie-star smile, a smile that has earned him the number-four slot on People’s list of America’s 100 Most Eligible Bachelors and the adoration of thousands of reporters at the Republican convention. And when “P.” bounds onto the stage at Philadelphia’s Finnegan’s Wake Pub, accompanied…
Jumping the Gun
The Weekly Standard ran a story in July titled “Taking the Second Amendment Seriously,” its cover art showing the weather-stained statue of what looks like a militiaman. The article–actually a thick chunk of legalese by George Mason law professor Nelson Lund–turns out to be the latest conservative gush-fest over an April 1999 federal district court…
Wreaking Ruckus
I n a cloud of dust, high in the Malibu hills, the column of protesters surged forward. The Ruckus Society, trainers of activists, had chosen this empty field of stubble for the first march of the Democratic convention, still 25 miles away and a month distant. It was a drill. In a shimmer of mid-July…
A Fox in Sheep’s Clothing
It was a moment that had political junkies, just out of bed for the Sunday morning talk shows and slurping cereal milk, snarfing with laughter. Asked by ABC’s Sam Donaldson to comment on Pat Buchanan’s build-a-wall protectionist views on the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox responded, “Is he still alive?” The real Fox-Buchanan joke…
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Y ou can’t judge most presidential candidates simply by their retinue of advisers and fundraisers, but Texas Governor George W. Bush may be a special case. Neither major party has nominated a candidate with so little national experience since the Republicans sent Kansas Governor and former oilman Alf Landon up against Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.…
Adding Values
I sn’t there something puzzling about our current political debate? With a popular Democrat having served two terms in the White House, the nation has seen sustained economic growth with low unemployment and low inflation. A well-qualified vice president is positioned to carry Democratic policies forward. If he were to gain Democratic majorities in Congress,…
Against Execution
W hen Julie Marie Welch enrolled for her freshman year at Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City, she registered for classes in German, Latin, and Spanish. Her freshman adviser reminded her that the school also offered classes in math, science, and history, to name a few, but Julie was intent on studying languages. During…
The Care and Feeding of Fat Cats
Last issue [“Labor’s Loss,” August 14, 2000], we described how, in the race for campaign dollars, business is outpacing labor by an increasingly wide margin: eight to one in 1994, 11 to one in 1996 and 1998, and 15 to one in the 2000 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The contribution…
Silent Scream
R emember pro-choice Republicans? They asked for so little–and they usually got it. But the elected officials among them could at least be counted on to show up and make a bit of a fuss at conventions and party functions. Remember a Bill Weld or a Christine Todd Whitman vaguely threatening a floor fight (even…
The Rise and Fall of Job Training
With unemployment at a 30-year low, opponents of current proposals to raise the minimum wage by a dollar to $6.15 an hour will be hard-pressed to argue such a move will cost low-wage workers their jobs. But what about that other stock argument that a higher minimum will reduce training for low-wage workers? New research…
The Double-Edge Wedge
This year’s presidential election may be the first in which gay and lesbian voters play a decisive role. That could be bad news for George W. Bush, who last April held a widely publicized meeting with a dozen gay Republican backers, amid hints that he’d like to corral homosexuals into his compassionate-conservative corner. “I welcome…
The Money Game
In the world of Washington insiders, you are either “a player” or “not a player.” Republican fundraiser Peter Terpeluk is a player. Described by Jeffrey Birnbaum as “one of the nation’s top money men,” whose vocation is giving “strategic advice to those who needed favors from government, whether federal or local,” here is Terpeluk hitting…
Family Unfriendly
Now we are told to add parents and children to the list of privileged groups who are getting a free ride from the government. Leading the backlash against “family friendly” social policy is Elinor Burkett’s Baby Boon, which argues that nonparents shouldn’t be forced to pay taxes and suffer other inconveniences to help support other…
What Old Women Remember
T he forbidden love affair between Lilly Wust and Felice Schragenheim was made for the movies. The setting: World War II Berlin. Lilly, the wife of a German army officer and the mother of four children, met Felice, an aspiring journalist and a Jew. While bombs rained down on Berlin and Lilly’s husband was away…
What Becomes a Legend
D eveloping side by side in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, biography and the novel made private lives public. Abiding interest in the unsolved mystery of personality has kept both these long-winded genres popular–and especially so since the culture of celebrity began to blur the distinctions between them. Today, the life stories of prominent people,…
Friends of Bill
ACROSS: 1 CIT(I)FIED (deficit anag.); 5 SWAP (rev.); 9 NINJA (hidden); 10 ACCRUAL (a cruel hom.); 11 REC(K)ON; 12 MEDI + C (dime anag.); 14 ON SAL + E (loans anag.); 16 INC + ‘OME; 19 GI(FT)S; 21 A + F,F + RAY; 24 E(CO)NOMY (money anag.); 25 NEIGH (nay hom.); 26 MARK (2 defs.);…
