Swift Boat Veterans Spoke the Truth

Just a couple of items from a busy day. First, John Hinderaker at Powerline skewers the claim, often made in mainstream media and the left blogosphere, that the charges made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against John Kerry have been "discredited." To the contrary. There can be disagreement about their characterization of Kerry's service, and some factual dispute about the way in which he earned at least one of his decorations, but nothing has been proved false. On the contrary, it was Kerry who had to abandon the claim, "seared, seared in my memory" as he said on the Senate floor, that he was in Cambodia at Christmastime 1968.

Second, Jonathan Adler on the Volokh Conspiracy nails Sen. Harry Reid for regretting that a law he voted for–the partial-birth abortion ban, was upheld against constitutional challenge by the Supreme Court. Adler makes the very strong argument (which I made here) that all federal elected officials have an obligation not to vote for measures they believe are unconstitutional. After all, they've sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution. Adler makes another strong argument: that members of Congress (and the president) should not just leave the decision on constitutionality to the courts; nor should they feel themselves bound by Supreme Court precedent in the judgments they make. Abraham Lincoln didn't feel himself bound by the Taney Court's Dred Scott decision.

Similarly, members of Congress could vote against the legislation granting the District of Columbia full representation in the House if they believe that violates the constitutional provision that only "states" should be represented in the House.

Anyway, Reid seems to have a habit of reversing himself. Last November, he said Congress is not "going to do anything to limit funding or cut off funding" for the troops in Iraq, and now he's supporting Sen. Russ Feingold's measure to quit funding troops in Iraq in March 2008. When longtime senators are retiring, their colleagues like to remember that they were men (or women) of their word.

Is Reid trying to lose that reputation? Just asking.