“One of the most laudable things about Obama is that he always elects to rise above the politics of victimization. One of the most troubling things about Hillary Clinton is that she is never above cashing in on it.” Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick and Melinda Hennenberger explain what Sen. Clinton might say in a “gender” speech akin to Sen. Obama’s remarks on race last week — and why she’d never deliver it. “She won’t give that speech because the whole narrative of her candidacy — and more broadly, her life — is as rooted in grievance as Obama’s is in getting past grievance. Her biggest supporters are the women who see themselves in her and who feel that she is/they are owed this; after all she has/they have endured…She won’t give that speech because she has been on the wrong side of gender bias.”
Tag: Dahlia Lithwick
Wild Bill.
“It’s not so much that women aren’t ready for a woman president. We are. But there’s something about last week’s spectacle of Bill Clinton crashing through South Carolina like the guy poised to drag her back to his cave by the hair that reminds us that Hillary has some stuff to work out in her marriage before she works it out with the rest of us.” Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick ponders what feminists should make of President Clinton’s newly increased role in his wife’s campaign. “It hasn’t helped that this Clinton campaign has also reinvented itself almost weekly since January: We’ve had Falling to Pieces Week; Finding Our Voice Week; Unloading a Carton of Whupass Week; and then Heh, Heh, That Bill Is a Maniac Week. Is it just me, or is it true that when it comes to issues of character, you don’t necessarily want a candidate who seems to be testing out new ones for each new crisis?“
And, also in light of Bill Clinton’s hogging of the spotlight — and Dick Cheney — historian Garry Wills surveys the serious problems involved in a co-presidency. “We have seen in this campaign how former President Clinton rushes to the defense of presidential candidate Clinton. Will that pattern of protection be continued into the new presidency, with not only his defending her but also her defending whatever he might do in his energetic way while she’s in office? It seems likely. And at a time when we should be trying to return to the single-executive system the Constitution prescribes, it does not seem to be a good idea to put another co-president in the White House.“
Tortured Reasoning.
“The grim truth is, not much has changed. The Bush administration continues to limit our basic freedoms, conceal its own worst behavior, and insist that it does all this in order to make us more free.” As a follow-up to her 2006 list of civil liberties violations, Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick surveys The Bush Administration’s Top 10 Stupidest Legal Arguments of 2007.
The Lost Langley Terror Tapes.
“[H]ere’s a different thought experiment: How would the national debate over torture have changed if we’d known about the CIA tapes all along? How would our big terror trials and Supreme Court cases have played out? Yes, this is also a speculative enterprise, but it’s critical to understanding the extent of the CIA’s wrongdoing here.” In light of the recent revelation that the CIA destroyed video evidence of their abusive interogation procedures in 2005, well after they’d become relevant both in many different legal cases and in the national discussion about torture, Slate‘s Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick survey the wreckage the CIA has made of our legal process. “Video of hours of repetitive torture could have had a similarly significant impact — the truism about the power of images holds. If we are right about that — and we think we are — this evidence that has been destroyed would have fundamentally changed the legal and policy backdrop for the war on terror in ways we’ve only begun to figure out.” If nothing else, an independent counsel should be named immediately. Even given the criminality and contempt for the rule of law we’ve come to expect from this administration, this sort of thuggish, gangland behavior is shocking news.
Doubting Thomas.
“In his telling, virtually everyone who has ever wronged him has done so because of his race…And maybe because he can see no shades of gray, in the end, Thomas careens back and forth in this book between seeing himself as a victim or a self-actualized hero. There is precious little in between.” Dahlia Lithwick reads My Grandfather’s Son, the new autobiography by Justice Clarence Thomas.
Pay no attention to the men (and woman) behind the curtain.
“And then this year, all hell breaks loose. The last few weeks have produced one Oprah-grade revelation after another. Which makes gazing up at the justices today something like waking up the morning after Woodstock: There’s a tangle of naked judicial limbs up there on the bench, and the uneasy collective sense that it’s best to avoid eye contact.” It’s that time of
year again: Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick reports in from the Supreme Court’s first Monday, one made more uncomfortable than usual by the summer’s events. “Of this I am certain: In the few hundred pages of his new book, Thomas has managed to undo years of effort by his colleagues to depoliticize the judicial branch.“
Above the Law.
“The story isn’t who picked on a sick guy or even who did or didn’t break laws. The story is who gets to decide what’s legal. And the president’s now-familiar claim, a la Richard Nixon, is that it’s never illegal when he does it.” Dahlia Lithwick drives home the disturbing message of last week’s Comey revelations. And, also in Slate, Frank Bowman offers another reason why Alberto Gonzales should be impeached: the firing of David Iglesias. Update: In related news, Specter thinks Gonzales will soon quit, particularly if the Senate passes a no-confidence vote on him. (The White House, thus far, disagrees.)
Paid for by the John-Roberts-is-a-Corporate Stooge Committee.
“‘This is deja vu all over again,’ said Justice Stephen G. Breyer. ‘We’ve heard it.’” The Supreme Court hears oral arguments on McCain-Feingold…again, and word suggests the act’s fate may now be in jeopardy with Roberts and Alito on the Court. “Those justices seemed open to a Wisconsin anti-abortion group’s challenge of a provision that corporate-funded ads broadcast in the weeks before an election not mention a candidate by name.” Update: Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick was watching too, and agrees that it doesn’t look good for McCain-Feingold, which she labels a “Dead Duck Walking.”
If you’ll be my bodyguard, I’ll be your long lost pal.
“‘Everybody at the White House…all think he needs to go, but the president doesn’t,’ said a Republican who consulted the Bush team yesterday. Another White House ally said Bush and Gonzales are ignoring reality: ‘They’re the only two people on the planet Earth who don’t see it.’” True to form, Dubya responds to Alberto Gonzales’ flameout on Thursday by declaring he has “full confidence” in the Attorney General and calling his service “fantastic.” (Fantastic? Really? Do you mean that in the “fanciful” sense, perhaps?) In light of this bizarre news, Dahlia Lithwick reevaluates Gonzales’ testimony, arguing that what came across to us in the reality-based community as evasive, misleading, or just plain stammering seemed to Dubya a solid defense of the unitary executive theory. The really scary thing is, she’s probably right.
The Other Shoe Drops.
“The government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman.” In keeping with a tendency to move right incrementally, without necessarily overturning any laws (one that may also pose trouble for the McCain-Feingold act in coming weeks), the Roberts Court upholds a ban against partial-birth abortion 5-4, with Justice Anthony Kennedy the swing vote. (He was joined, of course, by Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito.) Kennedy’s reasoning? According to Slate‘s always-perceptive Dahlia Lithwick, it was fear of the Inconstant Woman: “Today’s holding is a strange reworking of Taming of the Shrew, with Kennedy playing an all-knowing Baptista to a nation of fickle Biancas.” For her part, Senator Barbara Boxer sadly summed it up as such: “‘It confirms that elections have consequences,’…alluding to Bush’s re-election and the seven GOP Senate wins in 2004 which set the stage for the appointment of Roberts and Alito.“
With that in mind, all the major candidates for 2008 obviously weighed in on the decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, although everyone pretty much followed to party script, even the ostensibly pro-choice Giuliani. [Clinton | Edwards | Giuliani | McCain | Obama | Richardson | Romney] “Wednesday’s ruling raises the stakes for the 2008 presidential election, which is almost certain to pit an abortion-rights Democrat against an anti-abortion Republican.” Let’s not make the same mistake again, y’all.