Lawrence Silberman: No Friend of the United States

While driving this morning I listened to an NPR profile of retired Republican US Appeals Court Justice Lawrence Silberman, who, along with Democratic Senator Chuck Robb, is leading Bush's WMD commission. The report described Silberman's collusion (as a Reagan campaign aide) in attempts to forestall the "October surprise," the release of Iranian hostages before the election, which was seen as a boon to Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Appointed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals by Reagan, Silberman presided over the appeals of Lt. Col. Oliver North and Adm. John Poindexter in 1990, and decided to void the convictions of both, earning an accusation of judicial misconduct by Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. (The dubious logic behind the decision was that it could not be proved that North's and Poindexter's nationally televised, immunized congressional testimony did not affect witnesses or jury members in both cases—though the prosecution specifically had been shielded from such testimony. Simply put, the prosecution could not prove a negative.)

As NPR is successfully waging its war against archived material, even from this morning, I found details from Lawrence Walsh's report on the Iran-Contra affair. First, here's Justice Silberman on his opinion that Oliver North received an unfair trial:

Presidents, even ex-Presidents, may not be called to testify capriciously or needlessly. But this is not such a case. North worked in the White House, only one step removed from the President himself, with what appears to have been enormous responsibility. He has been convicted of violating criminal statutes (never before employed as here) and his defense is that he was lawfully doing the President's bidding, and doing so with regard to a substantive area of national security policy, which, whatever one's view of those policies, would have been thought at the core of the Chief Executive's constitutional responsibility. His immediate superior, Admiral Poindexter, was unavailable as a defense witness. Under these circumstances, for the trial judge to have refused to compel Reagan's testimony, was to deprive North of a fair trial.

Circular to say the least, because as Walsh explains, Judge Gesell (who presided over North's conviction) flatly denied North's subpoena of President Reagan for good reason:

. . . Whether or not authorization is a defense, authorization is not established by atmosphere, surmise or inference. The written record has been exhausted in this regard. The trial record presently contains no proof that defendant North ever received any authorization from President Reagan to engage in the illegal conduct alleged, either directly or indirectly, orally or in writing. No such authorization to any obstruction or false statement count has been identified in materials submitted to the Court by the defense either in CIPA proceedings or on the public record. Additionally, the Court has examined President Reagan's responses to extensive interrogatories furnished by him under oath to the grand jury as well as references (filed herewith under seal) to portions of Mr. Reagan's personal diary developed by Independent Counsel during the investigatory stages of this matter. Nothing there even remotely supports an authorization claim.

These decisions reveal a particular bent to Silberman's definition of national security. Silberman is not an appropriate candidate for the Iraq intelligence commission. Bush had any number of Republican officials to choose from that would served perfectly well in an intelligence commission, but instead he displayed the same lack of integrity he showed when he chose Henry Kissinger for the 9/11 commission. It will be up to Sen. Robb and Sen. McCain to keep Silberman's whitewashing leanings in check.


Maybe someone can explain to me one day how you can be involved with Pinochet or the Iran-Contra affair or Cambodia and always be guaranteed a job in a Republican administration. I think that party lacks a sense of shame.
posted by kriston at 8:33 AM........

Sunday, February 08, 2004

Quantum Political Dynamics

QPD course description, to be taught by The Poor Man:

Anyone with any understanding of the political process understands instinctively that things like positions on issues, policy proposals, and voting records are entirely superfluous to any serious analysis. Candidates are, according to the Standard Model of Political Science, completely described as stable groupings of 3 characteristics or anti-characteristics, analogous to the "three-quark" model of baryons. These so-called "candidatons" are:

S: Southern, or nS: non-Southern
V: Veteran, or nV: non-Veteran
O: Outsider, or nO: non-Outsider

The fundamental structure of the Democratic candidates are as follows:

Clark: S,V,O
Dean: nS,nV,O
Kerry: nS,V,nO
Edwards: S,nV,nO

Please note that QPD is an UPPER-DIVISION section course. You will not be admitted unless you have taken at least nine hours of lower-division amateur political analysis (ex: The Corner, Instapundit.) G.p counts only for non-majors. SOC 322 (Physical Health and the Primaries—"Our Candidates, Our Selves") may be substituted for three hours of lower-division coursework.


Thank you for calling. Goodbye, and good luck.
posted by kriston at 5:49 PM........

The WTC: Too Fast, Too Furious

An enlightening survey from the New Yorker summarizes the misstepts and compromises that have eroded Daniel Libeskind's initial master plan for the WTC into a mishmash more closely resembling the first designs that New York and the nation collectively rejected. Dissolved, basically, is the Freedom Tower, the literal and metaphorical pinnacle of Libeskind's plan—the top of which transformed from an assymetrical spire to a skeletal cable cap enclosing a windmill farm (under a different architect's pen), which itself will probably never materialize. The slurry wall has been slushed by Michael Arad and the development team responsible for the memorial—another of Libeskind's defining features.

I don't hesitate to sympathize with Libeskind, and not just because he's one of the few associated architects not employed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and as (not) such is working for a purer pursuit; New York approved of Libeskind's design, and rightly thought it was what they'd be getting. My partisan stance isn't totally justifiable—there are a lot of players involved and the the process has been degraded more by a brutally accelerated schedule than by any individual's machinations—but I'm only interested in what makes the best skyline.


As the writer notes, there's still more to come, though it doesn't like good news will be pouring in.
posted by kriston at 5:25 PM........

The Aftermath

I'm not acting in accordance with standard US Blogger Protocols (as outlined by the WiFi Cafe Convention) in not commenting exhaustively on Bush's Meet the Press appearance this morning. It wasn't the softball I thought it was going to be; when Tim Russert gave air to the AWOL theme, newly resurfaced (and escalated) by Terry McAuliffe, I was impressed. But beyond that item, this interview was identical to one that might've taken place in the fall of last year. Really the entire political debate is still stuck in a quagmire regarding the wisdom of the Iraq decision, which is striking, since we're ostensibly leaving Iraq in June. The national reticence to move on might be both Howard Dean's fault and his fall—he built a trend-setting platform based on what he saw as his competitors' erroneous support, but the voters dropped the question well before the pundits did. I get the impression that Tom Friedman, for example, will never get past it, and will spend the rest of his life telling us he was right, no matter how it turns out. Maybe the dialogue isn't progressing because the questions don't have great answers.

Nevertheless, Meet the Press: No Valerie Plame, no Massachusetts decision, no budget outlook over the next four years, no real talk about the future of the war on terror. Matt Yglesias noticed quickly that Tim Russert missed some very obvious follow-ups regarding "[a]nything demonstrating awareness of the difference between Nat. Guard service today (onerous, honorable) and during the Vietnam era (neat way to dodge combat)" and "[a]nything about the use of family connections to secure the Guard slot." Total dodge. Still, there's a gold star waiting for the first reporter who asks Scott McClellan tomorrow morning to fork over those serviced records that President Bush promised in the interview. Five'll get you ten it's Dana Milbank.


Scott won't be calling on Helen Thomas, that much is certain.
posted by kriston at 3:08 PM........

Twisted Metal

Though I'm all for worried speculation about the rise of a domineering Republican oligarchy in the United States and the changing texture of American politics, there brews a silent force that is changing the face of America itself: Frank Gehry. Having conquered LA and with a facade in the works for DC, Gehry extends his power-hungry grasp toward Chicago, contributing his signature to both a music pavillion and a bridge for Millenium Park. Apocalyptic sci-fi sybils usually attribute their dark portents to geopolitical meltdowns and ensuing atomic wars, but the reason the future is draped in blasted, twisted, stainless steel is because Frank Gehry will have designed the entire United States to the tune of his industrial vision.


Where will the last stand against seemingly provocative but readily accessible architecture take place? Texas—which will always stand true against the forces of art.
posted by kriston at 2:36 PM........

! - ?

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