2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session 2013 special election arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration international internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

And if I was president, I wouldn't appoint him Attorney General because I'm not a hard-core conservative. But this president is. And Ted Olson, unlike Alberto Gonzales, is incredibly well qualified, maybe the best qualified person, to take the job under a Republican president. What's more, he's right wing but not, I think, reflexively so. After all, he sided with former Associate Attorney General James Comey in that showdown with Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card at John Ashcroft's hospital room. He's got a civil libertarian streak; see his work on First Amendment issues. As an experienced litigator, he's by nature less of an ideologue than a judge or academic. I think the Clinton witchhunts of the 90s were crazy and not just because my wife works for Hillary Clinton. Olson was a part of that, with ties to the American Spectator although he denies being part of the so-called Arkansas Project. I take him at his word. Maybe Bush would be better off with some national unity type attorney general. But he shouldn't have to neuter himself. He has a right to appoint who he wants if they're within parameters of integrity and competence. Olson more than meets those standards. And if Dems reject him, that's a bad precedent for their presidencies. They ought to be free to appoint liberals who are as partisan and brilliant as Olson.
---------------------
neiljones

oregon drug rehab

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
view in context