Edwards' Blog
Let me take the floor for a moment to thank John Edwards for joining us at our Table for One for our debut week. All things being equal, I'd have preferred to have him as vice president; but as consolation prizes go, this was a pretty good one.
Sen. Edwards helped us get started with a splash of added publicity. And if comments are any indicator readers really enjoyed his blogging.
We hope he'll join us again soon.
To find out more about the issues Sen. Edwards is working on these days stop by the website of his One America Committee.
Sitting down at our Table for One from June 13th through the 17th will be Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. He'll be discussing the renewal of the Patriot and other issues.
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Thanks for getting John Edwards here to guest blog, I enjoyed reading his posts. But I may be looking forward to Mr. Romero's stay even more. I have a very keen interest in civil liberties and the steady erosion of our freedoms since 9/11.
June 4, 2005 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Alterative title for Episode III, perhaps?
In all seriousness, though, while I enjoyed Edwards's blogging, I am more looking forward to the particularized arguments of Romero. I want to see what he thinks the primary civil rights concerns for the next few years are, and I'd like to see if he thinks that facts on the ground have caused the mission statement of the ACLU to change in recent years. In particular, I'd like to see whether, given current backlash to expansive court decisions over the past decades and the increasing tendency for those decisions to go against libel notions of civil liberties, the ACLU is (1) willing to shift its judicial strategy to a minimalist one and (2) focus greater efforts to winning battles over civil liberties in the public arena.
June 4, 2005 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Eeeps! Apologies for the double post. Having some hiccup problems with the laptop.
June 4, 2005 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like Josh Marshall, I always appreciate reading or listening to John Edwards' well chosen comments.
I still can't get over my disappointment, however, with what I consider to be Mr. Edward's ill-considered run for the presidency. He basically pissed away a desperately needed Democratic Senate seat. His replacement, my new senator, Richard Burr is extremely conservative and very loyal to the right wing hacks that currently dominate the Republican party. I am convinced that had Edwards devoted more of his time and energy to his senatorial duties and responsibilties to his constituents, rather than laying the groundwork for his failed campaign, he could have sought and won re-election, gained stature and name recognition in the process, and would have been better positioned for a presidential run in 2008 or 2012.
His absence from the Senate will be most accutely felt every time Bush names a right-wing North Carolinian to either a federal district court seat, or to the 4th Circuit.
June 4, 2005 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am wondering how the ACLU plans to make available all the pictures and video from Abu Graib they are getting later this month because of their successful FOIA case against the Pentagon. According to the ACLU web site, which I hope is expanding its server
June 5, 2005 3:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I had an email correspondence with a friend. He is well-meaning, but he thinks of the ACLU in the sense of how it is often portrayed by propagandists such as Rush Limbaugh--in a very negative light. I sent him the link to the ACLU mission on your web site, and he was stunned to find out what you were about. He had no idea.
Given that the mission of the ACLU is to uphold and maintain the integrity of the First Amendment, it strikes me as really important to make sure everyone is educated on what the ACLU does. It strikes me as insane that people who depend on the First Amendment--meaning every American--could be as bewildered as my friend.
What can you do--what are you doing now--to get the message out?
June 5, 2005 8:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
His posts were great...but do you know if it was him personally writing them? I always wonder with these people if it's them personally of if it's a staffmember. They are pressed for time, afterall, and you wonder how much time they have to write out well thought out pieces like that.
June 5, 2005 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
<pre>(Note: I apologize for the messed-up code. I was using legit HMTL, but apparently that doesn't work on this site. Also, the 'cleanup' function doesn't work at all.) </pre><pre> </pre><pre>Much of a muchness is being made in the press over Howard Dean's alleged 'gaffes'. The press is even working on getting Democrats such as Edwards and Biden to criticize Dean. (This is rich, considering how the media ignores or cleans up after Bush and the GOP. But I digress.)</pre><pre>Now, I didn't see anything wrong in what Dean said. Period.</pre><pre>But since both Edwards and Biden still seem to be fighting the 2003 primary battles, perhaps this is affecting their judgement.</pre><pre> </pre><pre>The thing for the Democrats to remember when venturing in front of a microphone or TV camera is that they will be confronted by "gotcha" nonsense intended to get them to attack their most powerful leaders so as to weaken those leaders personally and the party as a whole. </pre><pre>Solution: Use the event as a pretext to turn around and bring up the instances of GOP atrocities that the SCLM refuses to cover. This is known as verbal judo, and every politician worth his/her salt knows how to do it. (See, for example, George Galloway's magnificent vivisection of Norm Coleman a few weeks ago.) If they're NOT doing it, they're either incompetent, or looking to stick a shiv in somebody.</pre> <pre>For example, here's how the Biden-Stephanopoulous Exchange should have gone yesterday:
<pre>Or, Biden could have used a less confrontational version:</pre>
</pre> <pre>
Or, if Biden didn't want to talk about Laura's fondness for horse-wanking jokes, he could have brought up <<span class="start-tag">a</span><span class="attribute-name"> href</span>=<span class="attribute-value">"http://slate.msn.com/id/76886/"</span>>these genuine <<span class="start-tag">i</span>>faux pas</<span class="end-tag">i</span>> uttered by her husband.</<span class="end-tag">a</span>></<span class="end-tag">p</span>><<span class="start-tag">p</span>>
With this method, the subject abruptly gets judo-flipped from the bogus
"Oooh, isn't Dean icky!?" to "The first lady said WHAT?!?" or "Bush
said WHAT?!". And the viewers at home -- most of whom have never
heard about these things -- suddenly start wondering "Hmmm, what other
things about Bush aren't we being told?"
</pre> <pre>Of course, the GOP/Media 'hos will immediately try to change the
subject. <span class="entity"> </span>But that's OK, too.<span class="entity"> </span>Either way we will have
achieved the objective, which is to kill a GOP/Media lie about one of
our leaders before it can take flight.
</pre><pre>Then again, while Edwards may be amenable to this, I doubt that Joe Biden would listen to this. <span class="entity"> </span>He is
the classic "FOX Democrat" -- a Democratic guy/gal whose
livelihood was endangered through their own misdeeds and/or malfeasance,
and so seeks to avoid crippling damage to his/her career/bank account
by sucking up to the So-Called Liberal Media, especially FOX, by
trashing those Democrats the SCLM wants them to trash. (See: Jim Traficant, Susan
Estrich, Joe Lieberman, and Joe 'Plagiarism' Biden himself. <span class="entity"> </span>I'd
include Toesucker Dick Morris in this category, but I don't think he
ever stopped being a Republican.)
</pre>
June 6, 2005 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
and it needs longer subject lines.
A year from now I should be able to find JRE's week on T41 in about three clicks from TPM or TC.
June 7, 2005 6:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/6/4/121654/section/tableforone
You really could use some help.
June 7, 2005 6:43 AM | Reply | Permalink