Bizarro World

For the second week in a row I agree with columns by both liberal weenie Michael Kinsley and Neo-coo-coo Charles Krauthammer. Is this a sign that the end of days is near? Am I possessed by demonic forces? Possibly. Fortunately, I just signed up to take "problems related to exorcism and correlated issues" at the Vatican.

Michael Kinsley argues two great points in today's Washington Post.

1) Bloggers are cool.

Blogging is, if anything, more like the kind of pamphleteering the Framers had in mind when they guaranteed 'freedom of the press' than are the New York Times
or The Washington Post.

2) Campaign finance spending limits violate the First Amendment.

Yet the Times believes that its First Amendment right to speak includes a right (for journalists only) not to speak when subpoenaed in a criminal investigation. Meanwhile, it cannot see how a right to speak includes the right to spend money
on speech.

Also in today's Post, Charles Krauthammer lays out a strategy for Bush to withdraw the Mier nomination while saving face.

For a nominee who, unlike John Roberts, has practically no record on constitutional issues, such documentation is essential for the Senate to judge her thinking and legal acumen. But there is no way that any president would release this kind of information -- "policy documents" and "legal analysis" -- from such a close confidante. It would forever undermine the ability of any president to get unguarded advice.

That creates a classic conflict, not of personality, not of competence, not of ideology, but of simple constitutional prerogatives: The Senate cannot confirm her unless it has this information. And the White House cannot allow release of this information lest it jeopardize executive privilege.

Hence the perfectly honorable way to solve the conundrum: Miers withdraws out of respect for both the Senate and the executive's prerogatives, the Senate expresses appreciation for this gracious acknowledgment of its needs and responsibilities, and the White House accepts her decision with the deepest regret and with gratitude for Miers's putting preservation of executive prerogative above personal ambition.