Category: The Dish

“Just Last Week” Ctd.

A reader writes:

No matter how many times he does this kind of thing, it will never ever cease to amaze me that Bush thinks it looks better for him to have been completely ignorant of the NIE on the country he’s been portraying as America’s greatest threat in the world, than for him to have actually been informed but issuing public contradictory statements anyway. 

"Lucky" for us he’s obviously lying, but really, when can we all wake up and let our leaders and media know that being ignorant of critically important knowledge is no better than lying? In fact, I’d say it’s worse, because a liar can promise to tell the truth next time and has at least a chance of making good on that promise. Those who plead ignorance as some kind of vindication aren’t even trying to pretend they’ll be less ignorant in the future.

The Real Hamilton

William Hogeland suggests that Alexander Hamilton’s legacy is not as benign as some "new Hamiltonians" seem to think:

Hamilton is routinely credited as favoring a strong executive branch. What he really favored, from Newburgh through the Whiskey Rebellion, from the quasi-war with France through his response to the anti-federalism of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, was an executive branch run by him, strong enough to do anything it deemed in the national interest. For Hamilton, personal and military force, unrestrained by the slightest consideration of law, were joined ineluctably to American wealth, American unity, and America modernity.