Canada's Anti-terrorist Law

Canada has allowed a temporary anti-terrorist law that had given that country's federal government sweeping powers to detain suspects. Wouldn't it be refreshing if our government allowed a law that granted it extraordinary powers to expire? Unfortunately, Washington doesn't operate that way; it never voluntarily surrenders power.

Scooter Libby Case

The Scooter Libby case is with the jury, now deliberating for its second day. This may be a bad sign for the prosecution, which attempted to present the case as a very simple one of lying or obstructing an investigation. The defense may have succeeded in sowing sufficient doubts to establish at least the possibility Libby was a scapegoat, or that the case was not as simple and clear cut as the government wanted the jury to believe. Scooter may scoot on this one.

Bush's North Korean Proposal

Before people criticize the Bush Administration's "deal" with North Korea, they might want to wait to see how the Administration proposes to monitor North Korea's compliance, which is key to the entire agreement. Conservative critics also might want to keep in mind that two important factors in President Reagan's success in directing a plan that led eventually to the demise of the Soviet Union were:

(1) opening the country to more western culture and information, and
(2) a verifiable compliance agreement.

Both of these figure in Bush's North Korean proposal.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood

U.S. Representative Charlie Norwood of Georgia passed away this afternoon. Charlie was an outstanding Congressman -- strongly and consistently conservative, loyal, honest and with a great sense of humor. Not only will all of us fortunate enough to call him friend and colleague miss him deeply, but his principled voice and actions will be sorely missed by all Americans who he represented so ably in the Congress.