Gilbert Cranberg: KINSLEY’S SUPERFICIAL TAKE ON THE TIMES

When I saw that Michael Kinsley, who has a deep journalism resume, was doing a take-out on the New York Times for the New Republic, for which he is editor-at–large, I put the magazine on my to-read list. Kinsley’s piece ran in the Sept. 2 issue and took up oodles of space. Mostly it was about Jill Abramson, the top editor at the Times.

For me, the surprise in Kinsley’s piece was its brush-off of the Times editorials. Kinsley wasn’t tasked to tell the Times how to economize, but he went down that road anyway. He wrote, after noting that the Times has a staff of about 50 putting out its opinion pages, that “the paper need not invest so heavily in anonymous editorials that -- with rare exceptions -- would not be widely missed.”

The surprise in Kinsley’s comment was on two levels. First, he is a former editorial page editor himself. Second, as such, he should be aware that the Times approach to editorial writing is high-cost. Its staff does not simply regurgitate the facts on a news subject but does lots of original reporting. That produces more knowledgeable writers and a pay-off for readers in informed commentary.

The country’s editorial pages are plagued by skeleton staffs too short-handed to do serious research. The Times is a wonderful exception. Instead of celebrating its willingness to invest in quality, Kinsley, who assuredly knows better, takes a superficial potshot at the paper in what amounts to a lapse into a cost-accounting approach to journalism.

Gilbert Cranberg: GEORGE W. BUSH’S FAREWELL ADDRESS

My fellow Americans:

 At the outset I want to thank the networks for granting my request for time to respond to critics of my handling of Iraq during my term in office. My initial reaction was to let it go, but I see now there has been no let-up; the events in Syria have given my critics a fresh excuse to heap abuse on my conduct of the war against Saddam, so I have decided to way (sic) in and share with you my reasons for this country’s decision to wage war on Iraq. 

But first, I want to share with you what I learned in Washington. It’s a place where folks will look you square in the eye and lie, lie, lie. My big regret is that I did not learn the cardinal rule of Washington life until I trusted what the liars told me about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and allowed Colin Powell to fall into the same trap.

Powell was a four-star general. I was a lowly member of the Texas Air National Guard. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to the Guard for allowing me to serve. Whenever I hear the term boots on the ground I am reminded all over again of the fine young men and women who serve their country in whatever role fate decrees for them. As for Powell, for the life of me I can’t figure out how he failed to question the lies he was fed and then embarrassed hisself (sic) at the United Nations before a worldwide audience. Colin deserved much better and for any part I played in the disgraceful treatment of him, I hereby apologize.

Now, why did we declare war on Iraq? That’s a very good question. I think about it a lot, especially when I lie awake in the middle of the night. To be honest, I’m not rightly sure. It made sense at the time. I was showed (sic) a map. Iraq and Iran were very close together; both began with I and each had four letters. And one of them had plans for a new-caler (sic) weapon.

Every now and then I wake from a nightmare about starting a war with the wrong country. But I shouldn’t burden all you fine folks with my problems. May the good Lord shine his countinence (sic) upon you.

Gilbert Cranberg: THE NON-MILITARY OPTION

Even critics of President Obama’s plan to punish Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for killing hundreds of Syrians with poison gas concede that his criminal conduct calls for a response. Among the suggestions: Invoke the International Criminal Court. Tom Friedman, the foreign affairs commentator for the New York Times, wrote of Assad and his collaborators, “We need to bring their names before the United Nations Security Council for condemnation. We need to haul them before the International Criminal Court.” A few days later, another Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, also mentioned the court, but said that while invoking the court “sounds wonderful” it would complicate getting rid of Assad.

Neither columnist noted the gaping hole in the court proposal: the U.S. is no fan of the International Criminal Court. It signed the statute creating the tribunal, but subsequently backed away, notifying the U.N. secretary general that it no longer intends to become a signatory or to have legal obligations arising from its initial signing. The U.S. retreat was due to fears of lost sovereignty and to worry that we would be targets for prosecution in the new body.

That is shamefully shortsighted. The court was created to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. It is tailor made to deal with such an offense as the Assad regime appears to have committed. Having made it awkward to invoke the jurisdiction of the court in a legal proceeding, the U.S. is left with threatening military action, an option that critics have been quick to point out can punish innocent bystanders but not Assad.

The U.S. unilaterally disarmed itself when it withdrew support for the International Criminal court. It needs to remedy the error. The difficulty the Obama administration is having in rounding up support for action against Assad illustrates the need to rectify this mistake. Unilateral military responses to war crimes are fraught with peril. They can lead to unexpected consequences. They can cause more problems than they solve. The public is rightfully suspicious of military steps, sold as measured and limited, but that can spin out of control into all-out war.

The option of resort to the International Criminal Court is an alternative with none of the downsides of military force. The Obama administration ought to take the need to withdraw U.S. objections to the International Criminal Court as among the lessons learned from the tangle we are in over how to respond to Assad.      

Gilbert Cranberg: SYRIA IS NOT IRAQ

Some things keep giving and some keep taking. A prime example of the latter is the way the bad taste in people’s mouths left by the Iraq war keeps getting in the way of a response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Congress and the American public surely would have supported by now punishing Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad if not for lingering skepticism of government claims left in the wake of the Iraq war. The U.S. intelligence community has “high confidence” that Syria used chemical weapons? Well, so did it have “high confidence” that Saddam Hussein stockpiled chemical and other weapons of mass destruction, but none ever materialized.

It’s healthy that Americans, bamboozled once, have their guard up against being bamboozled once again. But it would be decidedly unhealthy if the determination not to be fooled leads to paralysis in the face of real provocation that warrants response.

President Obama had absolutely nothing to do with the Iraq war deceptions, but he is saddled with them nonetheless. It would be salutary if those responsible for the deceptions – from President Bush, and on down a very lengthy list – stepped forward to admit responsibility and to remind Americans that Syria is not Iraq.

Gilbert Cranberg: KERRY A WINNER ON SYRIA

The big winner in the showdown with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad appears to be Secretary of State John Kerry, the administration’s chief spokesman for action against Assad. Kerry both looks and sounds presidential in making the case for doing-in Assad. Does that make him a viable presidential candidate? It certainly doesn’t hurt to have on your resume the enmity of a mass murderer.

Kerry ran for president on the Democratic ticket in 2004. He didn’t do such a hot job of it. Inexplicably, he allowed his exemplary combat record during the Vietnam war to be smeared without much of an effective response. In leading the administration’s attack on Assad, Kerry is showing that he can be an effective campaigner. Of course, Assad is not making television buys for rebuttal.

Harold Ickes, FDR’s Interior secretary, famously once said that the desire to be president is a disease cured only by embalming fluid. Kerry has not shown any sign of a relapse as yet. But that makes him all the more effective in his job of Secretary of State.

As Barack Obama looks forward to a future of polishing his three-point shot, Democrats are fortunate to have a veteran bench in waiting. Hillary Clinton not only has on-the-job experience confronting bad actors around the world, so now too does John Kerry. Republicans at this point have to offer only the butt of late-night jokes, Sarah Palin, and her clear views of Russia from Alaska.

Of course, the Mideast may yet explode in chaos and Kerry’s rhetorical heroics can well come back to haunt him. After all, his fingerprints are all over the administration’s efforts to punish the gasser of Damascus, where the outcome remains very much in doubt.

Gilbert Cranberg: THE FAVOR OBAMA HAS DONE CONGRESS

Barack Obama has done Congress a huge favor by dumping in its lap the problem of dealing with Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, the Gasser of Damascus, who recently showed his contempt for his own people by killing more than 1,400 Syrians, among them at least 426 children, by spraying them with poison gas.

Congress in its own way is as unpopular as Assad. A recent Gallup poll shows that more than 80 percent of Americans rate it unfavorably. Gallup calls this “historic unfavorability.” Therein lies opportunity. Americans give Congress low marks primarily because of the childish partisan games it plays. The Syrian issue gives Congress the opportunity to show it can act responsibly on the world stage.

The partisanship in Congress is evident mostly on domestic issues, where Republicans try to lose no opportunity to make Obama look bad. How to respond to the Syrian civil war is not such an issue. In fact, congressional Republicans as well as Democrats have got a lot to both gain and lose by their conduct on the Syria question. Seldom does Congress grapple with an issue with the whole world watching.

President Obama has given Congressional Republicans the opportunity to redeem themselves by breaking their addiction to childish games and by dealing with the question of intervening in Syria with the seriousness it deserves. Democrats can do their part by reminding both parties that a war crime was committed for which Congress in a sense also is on trial.

Gilbert Cranberg: A CHALLENGE TO MISSOURI BAR

Have Republicans lost their collective minds? It’s a fair question in light of Missouri’s embrace of “nullification,” the loony legal theory that says states can refuse to obey federal laws they dislike. Courts have rejected the theory wherever it’s been tested.

Missouri is trying for now to get away with nullifying federal firearms laws. In the unlikely event it succeeds, it will be a crime to enforce federal gun laws in the state. Federal agents even could be sued for doing their jobs in Missouri. Missouri Republicans in both Houses of the Legislature backed nullification almost unanimously.

Will the state’s lawyers? Judges in Missouri would be within their rights to discipline any lawyer who clutters the courts with discredited and untenable legal arguments. The judiciary should let it be known that while the legislature endorses nullification, respect for precedent requires the courts even to consider disciplinary action against lawyers who raise frivolous arguments that have no chance of success.

The Missouri bar, in fact, should refrain from defending any of its members disciplined for advocating nullification within earshot of a courtroom. This would be consistent with the Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct, which prohibit lawyers in the state from bringing or defending frivolous proceedings. 

It’s one thing to babble nonsense on a soapbox or in a state legislature. It’s altogether different to put nonsense in a statute and expect the state’s bar to cite it. The Missouri bar should announce that it will back any of its members who declare their refusal to have anything to do with nullification and it should denounce lawmakers for making a mockery of their responsibilities.