Entries for April 2007

Speaking of nonagenarian newspaper columnists, as I was last week, you should know if you don't know already that Arnold Beichman is still going strong. You can read his columns regularly in, among other places, the Washington Times. Beichman was born on May 17, 1913, some 16 days before W.F. Deedes, whom I mentioned last week. A recent Beichman column draws on his long historical experience–he took the anti-Communist side in the fierce battles on the left between Communists and anti-Communists in the 1930s and 1940s–to make the point that seemingly well-meaning people can be the accomplices of evil. Here's a wonderful profile by David Brooks in the Weekly Standard on Beichman turning 90. I can't improve on it, so please read it all. I can add that I was Arnold and his wife, Carroll's, guest for dinner at their apartment just off the Stanford campus, not far from his office at the Hoover Institution, several years ago, and remember the vividness of their memories of things that happened many years ago and discussion of things that were happening right then.

Eugene Volokh reports on a decision of the Washington Supreme Court holding that radio talk show hosts' support of a ballot proposition does not constitute a political contribution. Municipalities opposed to the ballot proposition–or, to put it another way, greedy for more tax revenue–got a preliminary injunction blocking the talk show hosts from speaking out on the issue. A concurring opinion sets this out even more starkly.

Hugh Hewitt urges Joe Lieberman to switch parties. This would be a tough thing for him to do and might cost him his seat in 2012. But he has already taken great political risks in the service of principle, and I think he is prepared to bow out of public office at age 70 if that is what the voters of Connecticut demand. He could still run as an independent. More important to him, it would snap his ties with the very many Connecticut and national Democrats he has worked with for many years. But many of those ties snapped when Lieberman lost the primary and the Democrats endorsed Lamont. I haven't noticed Lieberman running to endorse his colleague Chris Dodd's presidential candidacy.

David Halberstam died Monday in a car crash in California. Characteristically, he was there to research his latest book, still completely active at age 73. Halberstam was an excellent and controversial reporter and a very fine writer. I've read several of his books and some of his journalism, including articles he wrote for the New York Times in the early 1960s from Vietnam. His brother, Michael Halberstam, was my physician in Washington in the early 1970s; he was murdered by a burglar in 1980. He was a writer, too; his novel The Wanting of Levine was terrific and very funny. It's sad to reflect that both brothers died violently and were taken away from us far too soon, when they had much more good work to do.

Boris Yeltsin has died in Moscow at age 76. I'm not going to give an assessment of his whole career. For that, you might want to read this nuanced appreciation by Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post and this more critical account by David Satter in the Wall Street Journal.

Updated: 4/24/07, 4:30 p.m.

France voted Sunday in the first round of its presidential election. I haven't followed French elections very closely, because it has long seemed to be that it didn't matter who won–he would be French. But this year may be different and not only because one of the two candidates who made it to the second round is a woman. Here are the election results nationally and by department.

Byron York offers a harsh assessment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.