Wednesday, September 05, 2007
'The central irony'
Jack L. Goldsmith confirms my theory that the current Bush administration has long been refighting the political battles of the 1970s. ... The conservative Goldsmith, the former head of DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, thinks the 'central irony' is that the White House's obsession with overturning post-Vietnam/Watergate laws ended up diminishing, not enhancing, executive powers. ... I'd add that a similar '70s-time-warp obsession with avoiding another Vietnam ended up bringing about another Vietnam. I.e., the decisions on troops levels, the refusal to acknowledge and react to an insurgency, etc. ... Sorry, but it was the president who made Vietnam analogies fair game, not me. ...
Jack L. Goldsmith confirms my theory that the current Bush administration has long been refighting the political battles of the 1970s. ... The conservative Goldsmith, the former head of DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, thinks the 'central irony' is that the White House's obsession with overturning post-Vietnam/Watergate laws ended up diminishing, not enhancing, executive powers. ... I'd add that a similar '70s-time-warp obsession with avoiding another Vietnam ended up bringing about another Vietnam. I.e., the decisions on troops levels, the refusal to acknowledge and react to an insurgency, etc. ... Sorry, but it was the president who made Vietnam analogies fair game, not me. ...
