Okay, a real contest. The best title and/or sub-title for Bill Clinton’s forthcoming $10 million plus book will get a free subscription to andrewsullivan.com for … oh, never mind the prize. Let’s just have the contest. My opening bid: “I Cannot Recall – A Southern Boy’s Struggle Against Amnesia.” Send ’em in. I’ll post the best all this week.
A BIG COP: Just what are we to make of an anonymous L.A. cop’s comments, posted in National Review Online about Gary Condit? Here’s the relevant paragraph: “There was a time in America when Mr. Condit might have been brought down to the police station, where he would have been ushered into a small room for a long talk with a big cop. At the conclusion of this conversation the police would very likely have had a better idea of his involvement in Chandra’s disappearance. Or, at the very least, the congressman would be far less prone to maintaining that sickening grin of his. Alas, such methods, though effective, were found lacking in constitutional authority. Mr. Condit thus remains free to flit about and grin like a madman for the cameras.” Am I missing something or is this cop saying Condit should have been physically threatened or intimidated to get at the details of his connection with Chandra Levy? Why else is the investigator supposed to be “big.” Why else the stupid macho rhetoric of wiping the smile of someone’s face? Or the concession that such tactics are unconstitutional? The thuggery of the LAPD is no surprise to anyone – but that conservatives should now be endorsing it is truly news. I guess we now know for sure what some conservatives were really after in the Lewinsky case. They said it wasn’t about sex, but about lying. They were obviously lying. But using cops to enforce their moral code truly is a new departure.
UNFAIR TO BORK?: Several readers think I was engaging in unfair ad hominem arguments against Robert Bork by describing him as ‘sadly bitter.’ Note the ‘sadly.’ I was once a huge fan of Bork’s, wrote the first piece defending him against the jihad in his confirmation hearings, and admired his book “The Tempting of America.” But “Slouching Toward Gomorrah” was a text-book in reactionary extremism. In it, he supports government backed censorship for anything that might undermine moral values, describes modern liberalism in all its many facets as simply fascism, says American culture is in a “free-fall with no bottom in sight,” and on and on. It’s one of the most negative and bitter books about America and the American people I’ve ever read. No wonder he wants to pre-empt a federalist, democratic conversation about same-sex marriage. He has such contempt for the culture that gave rise to equal marriage rights he wants to shut down the debate immediately.
The Dish 