Article II, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution reads: The President… shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint… Judges of the supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States…” (Pay particular attention to the usage of the words “Advice and Consent,” for that phrase is what this entire debate revolves ... Read More
One point that stands out to me about the failure to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is the irrelevance of public opinion on this issue. Polls have consistently shown that DADT is extremely unpopular—clear majorities of the American people support repeal. Since DADT was introduced in 1993, it has become consistently more unpopular. Now, 57 senators voted for repeal and ... Read More
In this issue, the HPR has stepped outside its comfort zone by choosing a Covers topic on a region which often gets short shrift in political circles around Harvard and the Institute of Politics. Africa might not seem as current as health care reform, and it might not seem as sexy as drug politics or financial reform, our two most ... Read More
My Harvard Independent column for this week addresses the retirement of John Paul Stevens and the issue of picking his successor. Read the original here. If they made posters of Supreme Court Justices, I’d put John Paul Stevens on my bedroom wall. The man is a progressive hero — first and foremost, for his longevity. In 2006, the liberal radio ... Read More
The Spring 2010 issue of the Harvard Political Review is available here in an online browseable pdf format. Most articles are also now available on HarvardPoliticalReview.com, and the rest will be rolling out soon. Harvard students, look for print copies in your house dining halls starting on Wednesday, and in Annenberg on Friday and Saturday! COVERS SECTION: AFRICA: READY TO ... Read More
Didn’t want to let this go by without comment. From the Feb. 18 edition (“What’s Wrong With Washington?”): Washington has its faults, some of which could easily be fixed. But much of the current fuss forgets the purpose of American government; and it lets current politicians (Mr Obama in particular) off the hook. America’s political structure was designed to make ... Read More
Will Leiter gives us an overview of Obama’s “bipartisan summit” strategy and asks, in effect, will it work? Some smart people whom I respect say that this is capitulation and error (see Yglesias’ “doomed strategy” post). That viewpoint conforms nicely with the basic stance on the left since Scott Brown’s election, which has been that either (a) healthcare reform is ... Read More
James Fallows makes a lot of good points in his long Atlantic article, “How American Can Rise Again.” I’ll highlight just one. Let’s call it “the pathos of helplessness”: The full details are beyond us here, but the crucial point is that in principle, the United States itself has the power to correct what is wrong in each case. Take ... Read More
Jay Cost has a passionate response to recent liberal criticisms of the filibuster. In his view, it’s a good thing to pass legislation that has broad (and perhaps bipartisan) support, rather than to pass legislation with increasingly partisan “simple majorities.” But there are several little problems with Cost’s argument that need to be pointed out, and I think they add ... Read More
But then, every week lately is a tough week for Republicans. First the Republicans became the semi-official Torture Party. Then, while the Republicans are still bragging about stripping the “porky” stimulus provisions for flu pandemic preparedness, we have this pesky little flu pandemic. Finally, the humiliation has become too much for at least one Republican Senator. Facing a very tough ... Read More
New role, new tactics for Kathleen Sebelius In December 1999, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius expressed concern that new privacy rules imposed by the federal department of Health and Human Services would undercut state jurisdiction over health information. Federal bureaucracy, she argued, could not handle enforcement as nimbly as the states. A decade later, Sebelius will have the opportunity to ... Read More
Midterm elections already loom Each election cycle seems to begin the day its predecessor ends. Since the midterm elections will affect President Obama’s ability to enact major pieces of his long-term agenda, it is already worthwhile to start examining the outlook for November 2010. The president’s party ordinarily loses congressional seats in the midterm elections. In the past 19 off-year ... Read More
At this point, the only force that continues to pose an effective threat to a progressive agenda is the Democratic Party. Not the party institution as a whole, necessarily; it remains at least nominally devoted to the progressive program. However, its current status as the big-tent party necessarily means that it is composed of a large array of different interest ... Read More
Obama and the conservative legal movement That a president would search for judges who are ideological allies is unsurprising, to say the least. Certainly we are used to the idea that this is how presidents behave when it comes toƒ their Supreme Court nominees. President Bush vetted his nominees to the federal courts of appeals “to find those who shared ... Read More
