-Caveat Lector-
The Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Payback for Florida
Pat Leahy uses the powers of his office to intimidate a small magazine.
Thursday, May 17, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT
Today, Senate Judiciary members are scheduled to vote on the nomination
of Ted Olson to be Solicitor General of the Justice Department. Some
Democrats want to wreck the vote to pay Mr. Olson back for the Florida
Presidential contest.
Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee,
is demanding a full investigation of alleged discrepancies in Mr.
Olson's testimony about his work as a lawyer and board member for the
American Spectator magazine. If Mr. Leahy doesn't get his probe, he
says he'll demand that his fellow committee Democrats block Mr.
Olson's nomination.
The Spectator was a dogged critic of the Clinton scandals and hit the
bull's-eye earlier than many larger publications.
Some of its articles came out of an "Arkansas Project" funded in part by
philanthropist Richard Scaife, a bugbear of liberals.
Senator Leahy, acting at the prompting of Clinton acolytes at
Internet-based Salon magazine, is demanding "the project's billing
records" as well as the Spectator's own audit of the Arkansas reporting
effort. He also wants internal details of the report the Justice
Department filed that cleared the Spectator of charges that it
influenced witnesses in Ken Starr's probe.
The American Spectator was engaged in First Amendment activity, as Nina
Totenberg of National Public Radio or Tim Phelps of Newsday were when
they revealed Anita Hill's charges against Clarence Thomas. In fact, it
was Ted Olson who represented Mr. Phelps against attempts to have him
reveal his sources on the Anita Hill story. Senator Leahy is using the
powers of his office to intimidate a small magazine and punish Mr.
Olson, who successfully represented George Bush before the Supreme Court
in winning the Florida recount case.
This political jihad was promoted by a small group of Clinton media
allies led by Joe Conason and Salon. Mr. Conason says Mr. Olson had
firsthand knowledge of the Arkansas Project, based on the fact that the
Spectator paid him money for legal services and based on the testimony
of David Brock, a former Spectator writer who at some point decided to
be a Clinton supporter.
The heart of the Leahy/Salon complaint against Mr. Olson is that
because he knew of some of the Spectator's anti-Clinton articles, his
denial that he was aware of the Arkansas Project doesn't ring true. The
New York Times reported yesterday that Mr. Brock believed all the
Spectator's anti-Clinton articles were part of the Arkansas Project and
suggested that James Ring Adams, the project's lead writer, would
confirm that. Mr. Adams does not, and wrote the Judiciary Committee
this week that "it is false and wrong to assert that Mr. Olson had any
role whatsoever in managing or directing" the Arkansas reporting and
that Mr.Adams had only one conversation with him--and that in1998.
Mr. Adams is one of eight people familiar with the Spectator's
reporting who have formally verified the accuracy of Mr.
Olson's testimony. The Judiciary Committee has also received statements
from an array of Democratic legal minds who attest to Mr. Olson's
ironclad integrity and fitness for the job.
They include Laurence Tribe, who was the opposing counsel for Mr. Gore
in the Bush v. Gore case ("His briefs and arguments have treated the
applicable law and the underlying facts honestly and forthrightly, not
disingenuously or deceptively") and prominent First Amendment attorney
Floyd Abrams ("I've always been impressed with his talent, his personal
decency and his honor. He would serve with distinction as Solicitor
General"). Robert Bennett, President Clinton's personal lawyer, in
yesterday's Washington Post praised Mr. Olson as "a truth teller whose
explanation of the events can be relied upon."
Who cares what the Democratic legal establishment thinks, says Senator
Leahy. He's marching to the higher authority of Salon magazine and
David Brock, and he's threatening to lead a walkout of today's vote.
The other Judiciary Democrats are Senators Kennedy, Biden, Kohl,
Feinstein, Feingold, Schumer, Durbin and Cantwell. Senators Schumer and
Kennedy can be counted on, but if the rest go we'll know something about
the Democrats.
The walkout to prevent a quorum would be a bad-faith subversion of the
power-sharing deal between Senators Lott and Daschle. The GOP could
have used a Cheney tiebreaker to organize the Senate, but precisely to
avoid a disruption of business Mr. Lott agreed to give Democrats equal
committee votes, staffs, etc. The bargain was that tie votes would go
to the floor, with Mr. Cheney available to break any tie. They are now
going back on the deal and disrupting business anyway. Some party.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
