The Limits of Limits
Our long national nightmare has just begun. There is now little doubt that the next three years will bring one revelation after another about the magnitude of congressional corruption. Democrats will relish this prospect, and “reform” will be an inevitable theme of the next two election cycles. But some political scandals lead to change, while…
Bush vs. Constitution
Repeatedly through our history, the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution have been threatened in war by an overreacting government and then reaffirmed in peace by calmer leadership. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, the suppression of free speech during and after World War I, the internment of Japanese Americans…
Welfare Redux
When welfare reform passed in 1996, critics (including all of us) feared a substantial increase in material hardship among single mothers and their children. We were wrong. Six years ago, after reviewing dozens of government surveys, two of us wrote in these pages that the record was neither as grim as critics had feared nor…
The Accused
For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire by James Yee (with Aimee Molloy) (PublicAffairs, 240 pages, $24.00) One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story by Janis Karpinski (with Steven Strasser) (Hyperion, 256 pages, $24.95) War upends ordinary lives. At times, it can catapult individuals,…
All Power to the President
The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 by John Yoo (University of Chicago Press, 378 pages, $29.00) George W. Bush was caught flat-footed on the morning of September 11, 2001. Intent on exercising executive power without any interference from the courts or Congress, the White House…
Dwight and Left
In 1958, writing in the Jesuit weekly America, the historian John Lukacs speculated whether Dwight Macdonald might become “The American Orwell.” Noting that Macdonald’s American “reputation is rising,” Lukacs wrote that he was already known among British intellectuals “as one of the most interesting American critics of these times.” In particular Lukacs lauded Macdonald’s “lonely…
Persian Cat-astrophe
The atmosphere on the morning of Monday, January 23, was more of a bad dream than a press conference. I was in a small room in the basement of the U.S. Capitol; sitting directly behind me amid the rows of cheap folding chairs was a young man from the National Union for Democracy in Iran,…
Wage War
Bob Schwartz is out to raise Arizona’s minimum wage. Or, more accurately, he’s trying to create one, since the state has no minimum wage of its own and relies instead on the federal standard, which has been stuck at $5.15 since 1997. Last summer the Tucson lawyer launched a campaign to collect 300,000 signatures to…
Ashes of ACT
In the summer of 2005, the director of the largest voter-mobilization organization that progressives have ever seen, sent e-mails out to most of its 30 staffers warning them that their paychecks would be cut off by the end of August. America Coming Together (ACT), the flagship progressive “527” organization, headed by former ALF-CIO political director…
The Italian Job
Rome — In this ancient city, just as in Washington, the origins of the infamous Niger yellowcake forgeries — the documents purporting to prove that Iraq was contracting to purchase vast quantities of uranium and cited by George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address as a pretext for war — continue…
Prescription for Leadership
Seemingly, divine providence has delivered the Democrats the perfect issue for 2006 — the epic Medicare prescription-drug screwup. Far from being an abstract (if grave) public issue like nuclear non-proliferation, this one hits up close and personal. If you don’t feel the drug debacle directly, you know about it from Mom or Grandpa. With its…
Marital Blitz
This November, anti-gay-marriage bills will be back on ballots with a vengeance. But this time around, the gay and lesbian activist network is ready to play hardball.
If Washington Blows Up
November 2009: After a hard-fought victory the year before, the new Democratic administration has come out of the starting gates in good shape. With the airwaves full of brave talk of new initiatives, there is real hope of a new beginning. Then the unthinkable happens. A small nuclear device rips the heart out of Pennsylvania…
Sour Charity
Ever conscious of political fashion, Rick Santorum wanted to demonstrate that he, too, was a “compassionate conservative” in 2000, when the Bush campaign popularized the phrase. Santorum helped sponsor the Good Neighbor Initiative, a fund-raising drive that netted $700,000, mostly from big corporations, to do good works in Philadelphia. “When I found out the Republican…
With A Little Help From His Friends
“In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to.” — U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good * * * The estates at…
Meet the New Boss
“What, is Katherine Harris counting the ballots in there?” Several journalists shot out the same joke after flak emerged from the closed-door House Republican conference meeting to announce that more ballots than actual voters had been tallied in the February 2 election for majority leader. The snafu resonated uncomfortably in the air of corruption and…
White House Strategy Leak
The following is the transcript of a recent White House meeting of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove. The Justice Department is probing this leak. HASTERT and FRIST (hereafter, H&F): Thanks for seeing us, Mr. President. POTUS: Hastie! Billie!…
Beyond Repair
I am struggling with a moral and intellectual dilemma. I am a progressive, African American academic committed to battling racial inequality and I do not want my public voice deployed against struggling communities. So I have been reluctant to admit that I am ambivalent about racialized demands to rebuild New Orleans. Displaced black citizens are…
White House Strategy Leak
The following is the transcript of a recent White House meeting of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove. The Justice Department is probing this leak. HASTERT and FRIST (hereafter, H&F): Thanks for seeing us, Mr. President. POTUS: Hastie! Billie!…
