Free Republic

--snip-- “Norm is a good, old-fashioned, far-left guy,” McConnell said. “I like him. He’s fine. He’s been wrong for as long as I can remember. And it’s great to see you here. I’ve been wanting to spar with you for years.”

But on one policy Truman went further than his top advisers or Dewey's. When the Soviets blocked land access to West Berlin in June 1948, Truman's advisers -- men of the caliber of George Marshall and Omar Bradley -- said that it was impossible to supply food and fuel to Berlin and we should just abandon it. At a crucial meeting in July 1948 Truman listened to this advice. After others finished talking, Truman said simply, "We're not leaving Berlin." Gen. Lucius Clay, our proconsul in Germany, set about organizing what became the Berlin airlift. Gen. William Tunner, who had...

Topic A: What Happens If Democrats Lose In Massachusetts? January 17 The Post asked political experts to explain the prospects for Democrats if Martha Coakley is defeated in Tuesday's special Senate election in Massachusetts. Below are contributions from Norman J. Ornstein, Dan Schnur, Mary Beth Cahill, Ed Rogers, Robert J. Blendon and Martin Frost. NORMAN J. ORNSTEIN Resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute A Scott Brown victory would send shock waves through Democratic Party circles, the Senate and the White House -- and not just because of the improbability of a Republican win in deep-blue Massachusetts. The real impact...

In a full page article about the falling value of the Dollar in Financial Times the article notes that Sarah Palin posted a comment on her Facebook page on the issue. The opening paragraphs of the article contained her quote: The falling US dollar is giving ammunition to the critics of the Obama administration and fuelling broader concerns about the potential erosion of America’s reserve currency status. Republican politicians have highlighted the dollar’s slide as evidence of waning US power. Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential Republican candidate, on Wednesday sought to link the dollar decline to rising US indebtedness and...

Apparently Governor Palin's timely entry into the debate offended the sensibilities of Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. In an article in the Financial Times, Ornstein was asked to comment: “The dollar has always been a testosterone issue among America’s political classes,” says Norm Ornstein, a veteran analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “This time there may be a legitimate debate to be had over the dollar’s reserve status, but Sarah Palin is not qualified to participate in it.”

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Congressional Republican leaders had a banner final week. Passage of the energy bill (after years of futility), the highway bill (after years of veto threats) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (after months of dire predictions of failure) was major league. The package let Congress leave town for August with a spring in its collective step, instead of slinking away in embarrassment at continuing gridlock on important issues. These successes tell us several things about politics today. First is to never underestimate the power of a politically savvy president, nor to make...

The lefties are furiously linking to this column by Norman Ornstein of AEI, trying to demonstrate the radical nature of the operation contemplated by Dr. Frist and the Republicans to restore the 214-year tradition of voting up-or-down on judicial nominees who have majority support. Wrong. The facts: Senate procedures and practices can be set either by amending the Standing Rules of the Senate or by establishing parliamentary precedent. Amending the Standing Rules takes a simple majority vote, but such amendments can themselves be filibustered. So the same 60 votes needed to break the filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees would...

WASHINGTON - With no fanfare, the U.S. House has passed a controversial doomsday provision that would allow a handful of lawmakers to run Congress if a terrorist attack or major disaster killed or incapacitated large numbers of congressmen.      ``I think (the new rule) is terrible in a whole host of ways - first, I think it's unconstitutional,'' said Norm Ornstein, a counselor to the independent Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan panel created to study the issue. ``It's a very foolish thing to do, I believe, and the way in which it was done was more foolish.'' But supporters say...

WHY INAUGURATION DAY IS DANGEROUS. Unprepared by Norman Ornstein Traveling around Boston, Massachusetts, during the Democratic convention last summer wasn't easy. Fearing a terrorist attack, the Secret Service had ordered the closure of 40 miles of roads around the FleetCenter, where the convention was held, and 3,000 police were on duty to guard the site. The security measures taken during the Republican convention in New York City were even more extreme, with 10,000 police--many clad in riot gear--patrolling the streets immediately surrounding Madison Square Garden, seven police helicopters hovering overhead, and 26 police launches patrolling the Hudson and East rivers....

Were terrorists to wipe out most of the Congress, how would republican government survive? Some fear the current plan to elect new congressmen won't work. The ensuing elections might be . . . uncompetitive! This week in The Washington Post, Norman Ornstein, a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, complained, "These elections, in other words, would be a sham: no chance for a range of candidates to emerge and test their appeal to the electorate; no chance for alternative voices; no real opportunity for debate and give-and-take." No doubt. Still, I can't help but notice that what he says also...

The world in recent days saw two direct threats to the sanctity of democratic elections: the horrific terrorist bombing in Spain and the assassination attempt against the Taiwanese president. Both occurred on the eve of national elections. Both show that terrorists and crazed or criminal individuals are focused on undermining the electoral process that underlies democracies. The United States, of course, is target No. 1. We must recognize a sobering reality: It is imperative that our elections and basic institutions of government continue even if attacks kill our leaders. Columnist Robert Novak noted last week that intelligence sources had seen...

One of the most disgraceful moments in American sports came in the 1972 Olympics, when officials gave the Soviet Union's basketball team three chances to shoot the ball after the clock had apparently run out--allowing it to defeat the U.S. team. American politics now has its own version of that infamous game. Early last Sunday, starting at about 3 a.m., the House of Representatives began its roll call on the Medicare prescription drug plan--the most significant vote of the year. The House votes by electronic device, with each vote normally taking 15 minutes. After the allotted time, the bill, supported...