Entries for July 2007

NASHVILLE—One of the nation's crusading newspaper editors at 32, and a devoted champion of the First Amendment throughout his career, turned 80 last weekend.

To celebrate the event, John Seigenthaler invited 400 of his closest friends to a festive party at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. Fittingly, the building bears his name: the John Seigenthaler Center.

While watching Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in his bewildering and even maddening appearances before congressional committees, I am of two minds about his future.

First, Democrats should continue to call for his resignation because of his utter incompetence, even though we know President Bush will not budge on removing him. Justice is not well served by this man.

Second, Democrats should allow him to remain in office for the rest of Bush's term and watch him drag down already dim hopes for the GOP in the 2008 election. He will make a fine target.

To no one's surprise, former House GOP leader Tom DeLay is out with a book titled No Retreat, No Surrender.

The title is wrong; it should be My Problems Were and Are Everyone Else's Fault.

Voters should beware of politicians who trumpet family values and position themselves as holier than the rest of us mere mortals. They are probably hiding something.

The latest sanctimonious one to fall is GOP Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana. The less said of him the better, but his conduct is so outrageous that you can't ignore him.

A sizable group of primarily old political junkies gathered in Washington last weekend to celebrate the 85th birthday of George McGovern.

You remember him? He's the Democratic senator from South Dakota who lost a presidential race to Richard Nixon by landslide proportions. McGovern carried only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He even lost his home state.

President Bush's strategy in Iraq can be defined in sports terms of boxing (rope-a-dope) or in basketball before a shot clock (stall). He is playing for time, more time, and still more time.

His latest press conference was a case study in a leader who can't understand why most Americans are no longer with him on the war.

President Bush is not the decider even though he told us so in plain English.

Speaking to a business group in Cleveland, Bush said any decision on troop withdrawal in Iraq would be decided by commanders in the field—not in Washington. He is taking a hike.