Libertarian Leanings

Deep Throat

Rick Moran thinks Nixon would still have been driven from the White House, even if Deep Throat had not approached Woodward and Bernstein. 

There’s a reason FBI reports aren’t made public; they alert the target of the investigation to the interest of the Bureau. And in Felt’s case, he guided Wood/Stein in such a way as to throw suspicion on people who could have been squeezed by the Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox before their names were associated with the crime. Would this have made a difference in the final analysis? Probably not. But it certainly made the job of Cox and his successor, Leon Jaworski that much harder.

And what about the $64,000 question? The counterfactual of counterfactuals?

What if Felt had kept his mouth shut? Would things have played out the same way? Would Nixon have been forced to resign?

The answer is a resounding yes. And that’s because Felt was more important to the Post than he was to the overall investigation.

The honor for the single most important cog in the Watergate investigation goes to a minor White House functionary named Alexander Butterfield. Butterfield had a rather unique job in in the White House. He liaised with the Secret Service to maintain the massive bugging system that Nixon, in what could only be described as revealing the tragic flaw of overarching hubris, had installed to record his every sentence, every word, every breath for posterity.

The story of Butterfield’s outing is a classic case of serendipity and best told here. And once the information about those tapes were out there, Nixon’s fate was sealed regardless of anything Deep Throat could tell Wood/Stein about the scandal.

Perhaps he's right.  But I tend to think there is the possibility that, without Felt Watergate might have turned out more like Whitewater -- nothing proven.  I watched Watergate on the evening news, but never made any great study of it.  I felt at the time, and still do, while it was a sad moment it was one of America's greatest moments.  It proved us a nation of laws not men.

This is not to say that I have great admiration for Felt.  I guess I don't have any feelings one way or another.  I didn't know of him then and things haven't changed since.  I suspect Mr. Moran is right about one of Felt's motive for coming forward -- resentment at being passed over.  That might put him in a league with Richard Clarke.

Thune

Today I caught this bit in The Wall Street Journal's (subscription required) Review and Outlook column.

The latest line of attack against Mr. Bolton is that, as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, he seems to have expressed views about Syria's WMD capabilities at variance with those of the intelligence community. Also, he made 10 of the 400 Administration requests to see names of U.S. citizens mentioned in intelligence intercepts. Senate Democrats Joe Biden and Chris Dodd demand internal Administration documents on these matters, a demand the Administration is rightly resisting on executive confidentiality grounds. Hence the filibuster.

Now, lest you think the Democrats may be on to something here, consider that Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, who has seen the intercepts, describes them as "almost pure vanilla," an assessment shared by Democrat Jay Rockefeller. As for Syria, it is widely believed to possess an advanced chemical weapons arsenal.

But that isn't material for Messrs. Biden and Dodd, who want to stall the nomination in the hope they can turn up more accusations and turn a few more Republicans their way. They're succeeding. Republicans George Voinovich and John Thune have announced against Mr. Bolton -- the former in a fit of histrionics (he actually cried on the floor of the Senate) the latter in a fit of pique at base closings in his home state.

I just now fired off an email to John Thune regarding his stand on the John Bolton nomination.  Here is the text as best I can remember it.

I am a contributor to your Senate campaign against Tom Daschle.  In view of your position on President Bush's choice of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations, let me say how sorry I am that I did that.  I promise it will never happen again.

I'm sure I could have worded it a little better, but you get the drift.  I'm annoyed.

What's the common thread?

Power Line has a post about Robert Byrd's reference to the Canterbury Tales in his announcement of the filibuster "compromise".  Writer Scott Johnson poured water over the notion of Byrd as a "latter-day Horatius" with these comments.

When Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967, Byrd saw Marshall as too liberal and looked for grounds to attack him. The Honorable Gentleman from West Virginia who formerly served as the Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan called on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to look into Marshall's possible Communist connections.

Today, of course, Byrd opposes President Bush's nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on the ground that she is too conservative, as he had earlier opposed Clarence Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court. Byrd holds the distinction of being the only senator to have voted against both black nominees to the United States Supreme Court.

This was incidental to the thrust of the Power Line post, but it raises the question of motivation.  Would it be unreasonable to see a consistency of objective in Byrd's position in each of these votes?

...and now the Dutch

After a resounding defeat in the French referendum, ratification of the European Union constitution appears headed for another, possibly fatal setback as the Dutch head for the polls.

BRUSSELS -- The European Union scrambled yesterday to pick up the pieces after a devastating French "no" to the new EU constitution -- and braced for a Dutch vote that could deal a killer blow to its long-cherished integration blueprint.

EU leaders called for a "pause for reflection" as opinion polls showed that Dutch voters will probably follow those in France, who voted by some 55 percent to 45 percent Sunday to reject the proposed European constitution.

A snap poll yesterday showed the Dutch "no" camp had been strengthened by the French outcome, with 59 percent now planning to reject the constitution.

People seem to spoil everything.  They just can't be trusted to know what's good for them. 

The polls show a striking disparity between public opinion and that of elected politicians. Some 80 percent of Dutch members of parliament support the text.

Fortunately for the elites, Dutch voters don't necessarily get the last word in this affair.

Unlike the French referendum, the Dutch one is merely consultative, but the main parliamentary groups have said they will take the results into account if voter turnout exceeds 30 percent.

Even if the constitution is ultimately rejected a form of European Union can continue to function as an economic power.

Mrs. Le Bail [European Commission spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail] pointed out that part of the text, Declaration 30, allows for leaders to discuss how to proceed if at least three-quarters of the union's 25 members ratify it.  That aside, she said, the EU can still function as it does now using the Nice Treaty.

Prediction for McCain in '08

In the estimation of Ralph Z. Hallow of the Washington Times, presidential prospects for Senator George Allen have improved because of his stance on the filibuster deal.   

Allen was very vocal in support of changing the rules to eliminate the filibuster of judicial nominees and took the right position in condemning the compromise," said Free Congress Foundation President Paul M. Weyrich.

Conservatives have strongly condemned the compromise as a politically motivated gambit by Arizona Sen. John McCain, key Republican broker in the deal that ensured confirmation of three of President Bush's nominees to federal appeals courts.

"George Allen is helped to the extent that the other potential [Republican] nomination competitors are not helped," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "Allen was on the right side and said the right things."

My bold prediction:  McCain will run as a third party presidential candidate in '08, in a move that may torpedo the Republicans' chances for continued control of the White House.

Amnesty International

A lot of incredulous analysis has been written about Amnesty International on the heels of this year's world wide human rights assessment.  Justifiably so, it seems.  Here is an excerpt from Amnesty Unbelievable by David Rivkin.

Among other things, the report accuses the United States of “war crimes,” and openly compares the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with the Gulag Archipelago. In addition, the executive director of Amnesty International USA has called on foreign governments to seize and prosecute American officials traveling abroad, just as a Spanish judge attempted to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998.

Yes, it's absurd, but we shouldn't puzzle long and hard on the root causes of such idiocy.  I think John Weidner has it right.

Like all non-profits, Amnesty quickly came to be driven by the need for donations, just as businesses are driven by the need for sales. Amnesty is selling a product, and they tailor the product to the market.

Amnesty International is actually selling two related products. One product is relief from White Liberal Guilt. Guilt because we in developed nations are prosperous and have freedom from fear and oppression, while other places are hell-holes of poverty and tyranny. Donations provide the illusion that one is doing something, while not really changing anything...

Which brings us to "product" number two. If you believe something that's insane, and you are bombarded by evidence daily that your deeply-held beliefs are crazy, than you need pain relief! A vast industry has arisen to provide it. Amnesty International is one of the providers, and its real job is to tell people, "You're sane, the other guys are crazy." Hence the gobbledygook about America being the world's worst human rights violator. Or the silly stuff about America being a fascist country (when Republicans are in the White House).

Follow the money.

Reassuring news

Yahoo news reports on an elderly Detroit man who was forced to defend himself against an intruder.

A local homeowner shot and killed an intruder who entered his home overnight, Local 4 reported.

The 70-year-old Detroit resident fired four shots at a man who apparently broke into the home on the 3200 block of Fullerton.

The suspect was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 4 a.m. on Friday, the station reported.

Neighbors said the homeowner had a right to protect himself against the suspected robber.

Turn for a moment toward Great Britain with its rising crime wave.  Stringent controls have demonstrably failed, yet they've come up with this ridiculous proposal.

Tip of the hat to Alphecca.   

Leading question

Judy Woodruff's interview with Hillary Clinton on Inside Politics includes this question on Iraq. 

WOODRUFF: Very different subject, Iraq. Record numbers of Americans continue to die in Iraq. No end to the violence in sight that most people can see. When should the United States begin significant troop withdrawals?

The "insurgents", as they are so fondly called, are stepping up their attacks much to the delight of the liberal press and the Democratic leadership.  With Iraq's post-election euphoria over, they can call it a quagmire again.  "Record numbers of Americans," said Ms. Woodruff.  I'm trying to imagine what record she's talking about, and I'm completely at a loss.  I can only conclude that after a great deal of consideration she picked the phrase "record numbers" for its ominous tone and its complete lack of any meaning.

My apologies for leaving out Hillary's part of this duet, but Tom Maguire does a marvelous job of dissecting the most hoped for Democratic Presidential nominee.  Oh, hell.  Just this one swing.

WOODRUFF: '08. When do you have to make a decision?

CLINTON: Oh, I'm not even, you know, remotely considering that.

Right.

Voinovich

From the New York Post.  I've put all of it right here so it won't get away.

May 27, 2005 -- The Senate yesterday yet again delayed a vote on the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Led by Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, Democrats made the most of their dreary demand that the administration provide yet more supposedly important information.

Blah, blah, blah.

Now the vote has been put off at least until after the week-long Memorial Day recess — when, no doubt, the Democrats will find yet another reason to deny America the services of a patriot.

On one level, the Democrats are just being Democrats. And if they think their best long-term electoral interests reside in coddling Kofi Annan's corrupt world organization, they need to buy a clue somewhere.

Still, one thing is dramatically clear: It's not just Democratic senators who need a brain implant.

Witness Ohio Republican George Voinovich.

The man has embarrassed — nay, humiliated — himself for the second time in little more than a month.

Last month, he prevented the Foreign Relations Committee from voting on Bolton, suddenly announcing that the information he had heard — unrelenting criticism from Democrats — prevented him from supporting Bolton.

Just where Voinovich's damning indictment came from wasn't clear.

He hadn't, after all, troubled himself to attend the committee hearings where Bolton actually defended himself on the matter. (God help anyone who has the bad luck to have George Voinovich on his jury. The Ohioan will listen while the prosecution is up — and sleep through the defense.)

Wednesday, however, Voinovich did manage to make it to the Senate floor — where he choked up and struggled to hold back tears as he asked for Bolton's defeat. He said too many senators didn't seem to understand how crucial the U.N. job was to America's image abroad.

Sens. Biden, Dodd & Co. clearly believe in the efficacy of the United Nations in shaping a peaceful world — Oil-for-Food-related Kofi-coddling and other outrages notwithstanding.

And they are fully entitled to their delusions.

But a far greater number of people believes that America's global image is much better served by a muscular foreign policy of the sort that is paying daily dividends in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Most notable amongst those who share this view is the president of the United States — a man who took that argument to the American people and won a second term on its strength.

That man — George W. Bush — believes John Bolton is best equipped to represent America's interests at the U.N.

George Voinovich demurs: "I came back here [to the Senate] and ran for a second term because I'm worried about my kids and my grandchildren."

Really? How touching.

The fact is that the Bush administration foreign policy will do far more to ensure a safer world for the senator's offspring than any number of weepy Senate speeches.

Quick, somebody: Hand Voinovich a Kleenex.

And then let the heavy lifters at the White House finish the job President Bush began back when the smoke still billowed over Lower Manhattan.

Voinovich should be ashamed of himself.

That pretty well nails it.

Odd disclaimer

Each morning this week while driving in to work WBZ of Boston has been broadcasting this message from American Jewish Committee.

Religion flourishes in the United States.

But in some countries, it's a different story.

Take Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis build mosques and schools around the world. But at home, according to the State Department, the Saudi government bans the practice of all non-Muslim religions. Conversion from Islam to another religion is punishable by death.

Or take Sudan.

Islam is the state religion. The activities of Christians and other faith groups are severely restricted. Conversion to Islam is permitted, but conversion from Islam is also punishable by death.

There are many more examples of religious persecution against Christians and other religious minorities. Churches have been attacked by terrorists in Iraq and Pakistan, Bahais have been suppressed in Iran, and Christians have been quietly emigrating from the Arab world in droves.

It's time to speak out. Freedom of worship must be a universal right. People of good will should stand together and demand no less.

This is David Harris of the American Jewish Committee.

And each time, just before the the message runs, WBZ adds the disclaimer that the views expressed are not necessarily the views of the station.  I know it's perfectly normal to disavow political views expressed in paid messages.  It just seems a little odd to me on this one.