It was reported yesterday that housekeeping and tax issues may have forced Caroline Kennedy to withdraw from Senate consideration. As the news flashed, I suddenly remembered a former professor of mine, Paul Bator of the Harvard Law School, a former solicitor general of the United States and one of the very few Reagan conservatives on the faculty then.
He told the class the story of James Landis, one of the most brilliant of the New Dealers, the second chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, holder of a series of important government jobs, then dean of the Harvard Law School and an important adviser to the Kennedy family. Everyone expected President Kennedy to appoint him to the first available vacancy on the Supreme Court – until it was revealed that he had not filed tax returns for years.
Bator detailed the story, then commented in his very distinctively wry voice, “What is it with these liberals?” I can still hear him now, and I still don’t know the answer.
14 responses so far
1 JJWFromME // Jan 23, 2009 at 7:57 am
I think there’s a tendency on the right to paint everyone not in their group with the same broad brush. I could see why you’d do it. It revs everybody up (and ideological fuel is hard to come by these days on the right). But it’s a distortion just the same. Recalling Kevin Phillips’ phrase, a lot of *us* don’t want a “Toryhood of Change” either. Caroline Kennedy got a pretty hardy thumbs down among many in the party:
http://blogometer.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/12/1217_caroline_a.html
2 turnturn // Jan 23, 2009 at 8:33 am
Great anecdote. My question for Mr. Frum…What else are you planning? A web site and young bloggers is a good start, but what is the mission?
3 senorlechero // Jan 23, 2009 at 10:32 am
Mr. Frum. Is gossip about Caroline Kennedy your idea of “new” conservative thought? BORING! And you forgot to bash Bush and Cheney. Come on man, throw your “new” conservatives some red meat
4 jkosar // Jan 23, 2009 at 10:36 am
I love that “What is it with these liberals”. As usual, the right rarely looks beyond their own door and loves to point fingers. God forbid you look in your own house.
If you were to say out loud “What is it with these politicians, I could accept your rancorous statements.
How about this…..
Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting two 8-year old girls, one of whom appeared in an anti-Gore television commercial.
Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
What is it with these conservatives?
5 empirical // Jan 23, 2009 at 10:53 am
I believe this site may prove to be more interesting if you had articles on one side of the screen and then a comments blog on the other side.
And providing longer articles like the New Yorker used to, back in the seventies, may prove to be advantageous to your readers.
6 empirical // Jan 23, 2009 at 10:57 am
I believe this site may prove to be more interesting if you had articles on one side of the screen and then a comments blog on the other side.
And providing longer articles like the New Yorker used to, back in the seventies, may prove to be advantageous for your readers.
7 senorlechero // Jan 23, 2009 at 11:33 am
jkosar….every case you cite involves “former” republican or for freinds/consultants of republicans. I wonder if you know what the word “former” means? Since democrats never get rid of their garbage like republicans do, all your perverts, thieves and murderers are still in office. So take your self righteous attitude and apply it where it belongs…in your own house.
8 JJWFromME // Jan 23, 2009 at 11:40 am
Actually, our Toryhood hasn’t delivered Change in quite a while, which is why relative outsiders have been so successful recently in the Democratic party.
9 joycec // Jan 23, 2009 at 12:30 pm
What about Rangel, Dingell(sp?) and that new poster child — Geithner? Feet of clay???
We need to demonstrate a better class of politician —
One thing that we should learn from Obama is that the American people like the high ground –. If they take the low, we must keep focused on the high!!
10 audiemurphy // Jan 23, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Paul Bator is an unusual choice to site about conservatives who accuse liberals of keeping secrets in the closet. He was a gay man who died of AIDS while aiding gay-bashing Republicans. Keeping secrets literally killed him. What is it with conservatives like Paul Bator, Larry Craig, David Vitter, Dan Crane and Ted Haggard?
11 senorlechero // Jan 23, 2009 at 4:18 pm
audie…you are messed up
12 WestCoaster // Jan 23, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Geithner missed a perfect response to the issue: “Well, I do my own taxes and as a result I have a good view of the complexity that taxpayers are up against in the bewildering mass of the Internal Revenue Code. One of my goals would be to simplify the Code so all taxpayers are less burdened and can comply more easily with the requirements of the law.”
13 senorlechero // Jan 23, 2009 at 7:57 pm
WC…only a republican could have pulled that off…..good one
14 Paros // Jan 24, 2009 at 11:27 pm
WestCoaster – Amen!
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