AT YALE DOUBLESTUART JEOPARDY TAYLOR JR. APRIL 2 / APRIL 9, 2018 $5.99 PARTY OF ONE John Kasich eyes 2020 BY JOHN MCCORMACK WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM THIS IS A COMBINED ISSUE. THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE WEEKLY STANDARD WILL APPEAR IN TWO WEEKS. Contents April 2 / April 9, 2018 • Volume 23, Number 29 2 The Scrapbook The Barbara Boxer Prize, mocking Mike Pence, & more 5 Casual Eric Felten: no quiet, no peace 6 Editorials What to Do About Putin • Forced Speech 8 Comment Hurrah for the First Amendment, but . BY ANDREW FERGUSON The decline and fall of Elizabeth Warren BY FRED BARNES It’s not easy being attorney general BY PHILIP TERZIAN Still a Republican BY WILLIam KRISTOL 5 Articles 14 A Constructive Populism BY ANDREW EGGER Josh Hawley’s star rises in Missouri 16 Saying the Unsayable BY MARK BAUERLEIN Why Amy Wax’s Penn Law colleagues revile her 22 Who Will Save Detroit’s Schools? BY INGRID JACQUES The task is daunting 23 Good and Evil, Right and Wrong BY NATALIA DASHAN School massacres and the conscience supply & DAVID GELERNTER 23 Features 25 Party of One BY JOHN MCCORmaCK John Kasich, ‘positive populist,’ eyes 2020 30 Double Jeopardy at Yale BY STUART TAYLOR JR. Saifullah Khan was exonerated in court but now faces a campus committee 34 Murders Most Foul BY DOMINIC GREEN Russia’s poisonous aggression in the U.K. 34 Books & Arts 38 The Pope’s Mess BY STEPHEN P. WHITE Five years into his papacy, assessing the Francis record 42 Maturing with Cole BY JamES GARDNER The course of the great landscape painter’s career 44 Postmortem Power Struggle BY JOHN PODHORETZ Slapstick, satire, and terror in ‘The Death of Stalin’ 45 Taking Offense at the Opera BY NICHOLAS M. GALLAGHER ‘Turandot’ is musically irresistible, but can it survive today’s cultural sensitivities? 38 48 Not a Parody Elon Musk raids ‘The Onion’ COVER: THOMAS FLUHARTY THE SCRAPBOOK Announcing: The Boxer Prize n 2005, as readers may remember, Bob Honey meets with a drug lord I Democratic senator Barbara Boxer who has just escaped from prison. In published a novel, A Time to Run. The another passage, Penn—or, rather, book was a flop, largely owing to its Bob Honey—writes a letter to the confusing plot, sick-makingly senti- president of the United States, clev- mental prose, and the obviously self- erly termed “Mr. Landlord,” and the serving tone of the whole story. The attitude sounds just a tad like a cer- story’s protagonist, Ellen Fischer, is an tain crude and outspokenly left-wing idealistic and principled liberal who movie star: reluctantly runs for office and risks her career to stand up to the extreme right- Many wonderful American people in wingers dominating Washington. We pain and rage elected you. Many Rus- sians did, too. Your position is an aster- can’t imagine who Ellen Fischer might isk accepted as literally as your alter- have been based on. (The novel’s fail- native facts. Though the office will ure didn’t stop Sen. Boxer from follow- remain real, you never were nor ing it up with another, Blind Trust, four will be. A million women so dwarfed years later. We confess we didn’t read your penis-edency [sic] on the streets the second one.) Who Just Do Stuff. This work is the of Washington and around the world on the day of your piddly inaugura- It occurs to THE SCRAPBOOK that outgrowth of an audiobook Penn tion. You are not simply a presi- this could very well be a genre in made two years ago under the nom dent of impeachment, you are a man need of recognition: spectacularly de plume “Pappy Pariah.” The pro- in need of an intervention. We are not bad novels whose righteous heroes tagonist, Bob Honey, doesn’t immedi- simply a people in need of an inter- are rather too obviously based on ately sound like the actor Sean Penn; vention, we are a nation in need of an their famous authors. And if it’s a he is a “man of many trades—sewage assassin. Tweet me bitch, I dare you. genre of its own, it must deserve its specialist, purveyor of pyrotechnics, own literary prize. We propose the contract killer for a mysterious gov- Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, pub- creation of the Boxer Prize. ernment agency that pays in small lished by Atria Books, will go on sale On the shortlist to be this year’s bills.” Other facets of the character, next week. The price is $24. The cost, Boxer laureate would surely be Sean however, suggest a kinship with his in terms of things you could do besides Penn, for his debut novel Bob Honey creator. In one passage, for instance, reading it, only you can determine. ♦ The Perils of Nomenclature hen companies change their W names, it often means that the business wants to shed an old, other happy things that aren’t oil. negative image and replace it with The new name, according to Bloom- something more in tune with mod- to the vaguer BP and giving itself a berg News, was “acquired from an Oslo ern sensibilities. Hence Philip Mor- green logo shaped like a sunflower. veterinary practice specializing in ris, the tobacco giant, gave itself the But it doesn’t always work. Con- horses” for an undisclosed sum. The much less tobacco-y name Altria, sider a couple of Scandinavian oil vet, it turns out, offers “serv ices from and Kentucky Fried Chicken’s new, companies—sorry, a couple of Scan- equine dentistry to castration.” The updated name, KFC, conveniently dinavian wind and solar companies new name was widely derided by ana- avoids the word “fried.” that also happen to drill for oil. This lysts and unions. And in Denmark, Oil companies, perhaps sensing that month, Norway’s state-owned oil com- the new name of the state-owned many people think of “oil” and “big pany, straightforwardly named Statoil, oil company is Orsted. That name oil” in negative terms, now want to announced that it plans to change its change was, however, a little more use their names to suggest that they do name to Equinor, which company defensible. The old name of the com- more than sell oil. British Petroleum officials believe better emphasizes pany was Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started the trend by changing its name its commitment to clean energy and or DONG. The name had become MALAN DAVE TOP: 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD APRIL 2 / APRIL 9, 2018 something of a distraction in English- speaking markets. It’s just another reminder that you can’t be too careful when you name a large enterprise. We’re told, though we weren’t able to confirm, that when the Fayetteville, N.C., bus system was first proposed in 1976—it’s now smartly called the Fayetteville Area System of Transit, or FAST—administrators suggested calling it Fayetteville Area Rapid Transit. ♦ A Very, Very Witty Book, We’re Sure n March 18, the top-ranked O Amazon item was a brand-new children’s book titled A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. The book is cred- ited to the late-night TV host John Oliver’s show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, so we assume Oliver is the author. It’s a “children’s picture book about a Very Special boy bunny who falls in love with another boy bunny.” Readers may or may not be aware that Marlon Bundo is the name of a pet rabbit owned by Vice President Mike Pence and his family, and that Karen Pence and daughter Charlotte have just published a children’s book titled Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President. But Pence opposes same-sex mar- riage and has thus made himself repugnant to liberal entertainers and their fans. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton opposed same-sex marriage, children’s book is, therefore, in the name is Mike Pence. But this story too, but unlike them Pence still holds minds of the vice president’s critics, isn’t going to be about him, because to his view. His wife and daughter’s fair game for the razor-sharp wit and he isn’t very fun. This story is about satirical genius of Team Oliver. me, because I’m very, very fun.” From the book description: “Meet We’ll take their word for it. ♦ Marlon Bundo, a lonely bunny who lives with his Grampa, the Vice Presi- Anna Campbell, RIP dent of the United States. But on this Very Special Day, Marlon’s life is about any young people in the to change forever. With its message of M wealthy nations of Europe and tolerance and advocacy, this charming North America, having been taught children’s book explores issues of same by their elders to equate morality sex marriage and democracy. Sweet, with risk-free virtue-signaling, have funny, and beautifully illustrated, this plenty of strong opinions about injus- book is dedicated to every bunny who tice and oppression, but the will to do has ever felt different.” anything about it often seems lacking. THE SCRAPBOOK took just a peek It wasn’t so with Anna Camp- inside the book. A typical line: “My bell, a 26-year-old from Sussex, Eng- The Pence original: Accept no substitutes. Grampa is the Vice President. His land. Campbell studied at Sheffield APRIL 2 / APRIL 9, 2018 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 www.weeklystandard.com Stephen F. Hayes, Editor in Chief Richard Starr, Editor Fred Barnes, Robert Messenger, Executive Editors Christine Rosen, Managing Editor Peter J.