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STYLE AK YS AND INDIANS, GERMAN-BEN NOV COWBO

DECEMBER 25, 2000 • $3.95 Mr.Mr. PresidentPresident AA SecondSecond BushBush AdministrationAdministration ANDREW FERGUSON MATTHEW REES

WHAT THE COURT HAS WROUGHT JohnJohn J.J. DiIulio Jr.Jr.•Michael•Michael S. Greve Tod LindbergLindberg•Nelson•Nelson LundLund•Robert•Robert F. Nagel Michael W.W. SchwartzSchwartz•David•David TellTell Iss15/Dec25 TOC 5/2/01 3:07 PM Page 1

Contents December 25, 2000 • Volume 6, Number 15

2 Scrapbook . . . Hollywood emigrés, biased judges, and more. 6 Correspondence . . . . . On judicial supremacy, Gore, etc. 4 Casual ...... Victorino Matus, cabin boy. 9 Editorial ...... The Bush Victory Articles 12 The Second Bush The model is ’s “spokes of the wheel,” not Bush I...... BY FRED BARNES 13 Nice Guys Finish as Chief of Staff The amiable Andrew Card is competent—but above all, a Bush loyalist.. . . . BY ANDREW FERGUSON 17 The Long Arm of Colin Powell Will the next secretary of state also run the Pentagon?...... BY MATTHEW REES 19 An Act of Courage Under Rehnquist’s courage, the Court did the right thing...... BY NELSON LUND 20 From U.S. v. Nixon to Bush v. Gore Political problems deserve political solutions...... BY ROBERT F. N AGEL 23 ’s Legal Doomsday Machine All those lawyers on Team Gore ended up litigating their way to defeat...... BY TOD LINDBERG iedman r 25 Equal Protection Run Amok Conservatives will come to regret the Court’s rationale for Bush v. Gore. . . . BY JOHN J. DIIULIO JR. 26 The Secret of Footnote 17

Cover: Drew F The Florida Supreme Court finally responded, but no one noticed...... BY MICHAEL W. S CHWARTZ Features

28 The Real Division in the Court The Court’s different views of federalism...... BY MICHAEL S. GREVE

32 After the Bursting of the Dot-Com Bubble Maybe not a depression...... BY IRWIN M. STELZER Books & Arts

35 Cowboys und Indians Karl May’s Teutonic American West...... BY BEN NOVAK 38 Disappearing Genius The strange life of Leon Theremin—inventor, musician, spy...... BY RICHARD KOSTELANETZ 40 Stalin’s Agents None dare call it spying...... BY ROBERT D. NOVAK 42 Liberal Arts Lynne Munson on the decline and fall of the National Endowment for the Arts.. . . BY MARGARET HILDEBRAND 44 Not a Parody...... Laurence Tribe’s personal website.

William Kristol, Editor and Publisher Fred Barnes, Executive Editor David Tell, Opinion Editor David Brooks, Andrew Ferguson, Senior Editors Richard Starr, Claudia Winkler, Managing Editors J. Bottum, Books & Arts Editor Christopher Caldwell, Senior Writer Victorino Matus, David Skinner, Associate Editors , , Matthew Rees, Staff Writers Kent Bain, Design Director Katherine Rybak Torres, Art Director Jonathan V. Last, Reporter Jennifer Kabbany, Edmund Walsh, Editorial Assistants Jan Forbes, Production Manager John J. DiIulio Jr., , , , , , , P. J. O’Rourke, John Podhoretz, Irwin M. Stelzer, Contributing Editors David H. Bass, Deputy Publisher Polly Coreth, Business Manager Nicholas H.B. Swezey, Advertising & Marketing Manager John L. Mackall, Advertising Sales Manager Lauren Trotta Husted, Circulation Director Doris Ridley, Carolyn Wimmer, Executive Assistants Tina Winston, Accounting Ian Slatter, Special Projects Catherine Titus, Davida Weinberger, Staff Assistants THE WEEKLY STANDARD (ISSN 1083-3013) is published weekly (except the last week in April, the second week in July, the first week in September, and the second week in January) by News America Incorporated, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, P.O. Box 96127, Washington, DC 20077-7767. For subscription customer service in the , call 1-800-274-7293. For new subscription orders, please call 1-800-283-2014. Subscribers: Please send new subscription orders to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, P.O. Box 96153, Washington, DC 20090-6153; changes of address to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, P.O. Box 96127, Washington, DC 20077-7767. Please include your latest magazine mailing label. Allow 3 to 5 weeks for arrival of first copy and address changes. Yearly subscriptions, $78.00. Canadian/foreign orders require additional postage and must be paid in full prior to commencement of service. Canadian/foreign subscribers may call 1-850-682-7653 for subscription inquiries. Visa/MasterCard pay- ment accepted. Cover price, $3.95. Back issues, $3.95 (includes postage and handling). Send manuscripts and letters to the editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, 1150 17th Street, N.W., Suite 505, Washington, DC 20036-4617. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. THE WEEKLY STANDARD Advertising Sales Office in Washington, DC, is 1-202-293-4900. Advertising Production: Call Ian Slatter 1-202-496-3354. Copyright 2000, News America Incorporated. All rights reserved. No material in THE WEEKLY STANDARD may be reprinted without permission of the copyright owner. THE WEEKLY STANDARD is a trademark of News America Incorporated. www.weeklystandard.com Iss15/Dec25 log 5/2/01 3:07 PM Page 9

gress (rather than the federal courts) the responsibility for correcting such An Act of Courage problems. This is a plausible interpre- tation of the Constitution, especially Under Rehnquist’s leadership, the Court did the if one also concludes (as Justice Brey- er did not) that the Constitution right thing. BY NELSON LUND authorized the Florida legislature to override the Florida court’s attempted ENERATIONS of law students ed this responsibility, and that is what retroactive rewrite of the state elec- have learned that the U.S. many observers expected. These tion statute. GSupreme Court should avoid expectations had a real foundation. In But Justice Breyer’s position does entanglement in “political” cases in 1992, for example, the Court reaf- not rest on a disinterested interpreta- order to preserve its reputation for firmed the judicially created right to tion of the Constitution. Rather, it is impartiality. Unless, of course, such abortion, even while strongly hinting based on the tired theory that “the cases involve certain selectively cho- that some of those who voted to do so appearance of a split decision runs the sen constitutional principles, which had serious misgivings. One impor- risk of undermining the public’s con- invariably call for the uninhibited tant reason they gave for their deci- fidence in the Court itself.” Justice expenditure of this carefully husband- sion was a fear that overruling Roe v. Breyer thought the risk not worth ed political capital. Wade would be perceived as a capitula- running because the majority’s deci- Some of the more conservative jus- tion to political pressure. sion does not “vindicate a fundamen- tices have bought into this excessive Bush v. Gore rejects this beguiling tal constitutional principle.” and asymmetrical concern with pro- logic. The majority, including two What would it mean to “vindicate tecting the Court’s reputa- a fundamental constitu- tion. The decision in Bush tional principle”? As it v. Gore, however, suggests happens, we know what that a majority are now Justice Breyer means. Just willing to enforce the law The majority recognized a few months ago, he more evenhandedly, even wrote the majority opin- when that very evenhand- that their decision ion in a 5-4 case that split edness will subject the the Court much more bit- Court to strident political would subject them to terly than this one. In that attacks. case, moreover, Justice The High Court’s deci- Breyer adopted a far- sion at first glance looks merciless, politically fetched interpretation of a important primarily for state statute that contra- its effect on this one presi- motivated attacks. dicted the state’s interpre- dential contest. The hold- tation of its own law. The ing is deliberately narrow, result was the invalidation and seems unlikely to of a state statute that had have significant effects on been drafted specifically to future elections. The broader signifi- justices who had joined the 1992 conform with Supreme Court prece- cance lies in a passage near the end of abortion opinion, recognized that dent. And what fundamental consti- the majority opinion, where the jus- their decision would subject them to tutional principle was vindicated? tices stress their sensitivity to the lim- merciless, politically motivated The right to what is euphemistically its of judicial authority and the wis- attacks. But rather than take the easy called “partial-birth abortion.” Now dom of leaving the selection of the way out, they courageously accepted there’s something worth fighting for. president to the political sphere. their “unsought responsibility” to If the Twelfth Amendment argu- Despite these considerations, they require that the Florida court comply ment is the best that the Bush v. Gore say, it sometimes “becomes our with the Constitution. dissenters had to offer, the worst was unsought responsibility to resolve the The significance of this act of Justice Stevens’s claim that Governor federal and constitutional issues the courage comes into focus when we Bush irresponsibly impugned the judicial system has been forced to consider the strongest argument impartiality of the Florida judges by confront.” offered by the dissenters. Justice appealing their ruling. Justice Stevens The Court could easily have avoid- Breyer, who admitted that the Florida also noted that the real loser in this court’s decision was arbitrary and year’s election will be the nation’s Nelson Lund is professor of law at George unconstitutional, suggested that the “confidence in the judge as an impar- Mason University in Arlington, . Twelfth Amendment assigns Con- tial guardian of the rule of law.” It is

DECEMBER 25, 2000 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 19 Iss15/Dec25 log 5/2/01 3:07 PM Page 10

certainly true that almost no one will believe that all the judges who ruled in the election cases were impartial, or From U.S. v. Nixon devoted to the rule of law. Justice Stevens, however, was entirely wrong to place the blame for that fact on his colleagues and on Governor Bush. to Bush v. Gore The blame rests squarely on Flori- da’s supreme court, which violated Political problems deserve political solutions. the Constitution, and on the High BY ROBERT F. N AGEL Court dissenters, who would have let the Florida judges get away with it. “Impartial guardians of the rule of OW THAT THE U.S. Supreme an orderly and timely fashion. In fact, law” are willing to enforce the law Court has effectively stopped of course, everything was thrown up even when they know they will be Nthe Florida recount, it is nat- in the air. Before the U.S. Supreme excoriated for doing so. Which is why ural to believe that the justices have Court stayed the recount, lawyers were the majority decision in Bush v. Gore once again saved us from political and arguing before a trial judge about the deserves a spirited defense. ♦ legal disaster. There is no doubt that procedures for conducting the the Florida Supreme Court’s stunning recounts. Those determinations might decision to order manual recounts have been appealed. The recounted across Florida created the specter, as vote itself might have been chal- Chief Justice Wells said in dissent, of lenged, and that determination might chaos. What the Florida decision did have been appealed. The Florida legis- was demonstrate how legal argumen- lature could have nullified the recount tation in America has metastasized. by statute, but that statute could have When even the plainest meaning is led to a lawsuit and an appeal. In subject to the relentless pressure exert- counting the electoral votes, Congress ed by all those urgent words streaming eventually would have resolved the from the mouths of lawyers, our insti- uncertainty, but if words do not hold, tutions are exposed to something close the congressional count could be ques- to intellectual anarchy. tioned in court and any decision To get a clear view of the nature of appealed, and so on until it is time for that chaos, recall one detail from the another presidential election. Florida court’s work. In its first deci- It is understandable, then, that sion, the court said that Florida secre- many now feel relief that the U.S. tary of state Katherine Harris had Supreme Court has reestablished abused her discretion by enforcing the order by permanently halting the seven-day statutory deadline for certi- recount. But there is irony, and even- fying the vote, and it instructed her to tually perhaps futility, in using the observe a twelve-day deadline. In its lawyers who sit on the Supreme Court second decision, a four-justice majori- to stabilize what lawyers and lower ty of the same court concluded that courts have destabilized. After all, in the secretary had subsequently abused recent decades the Court itself has her discretion by enforcing the court’s done much to establish the very judi- own twelve-day deadline. cial role that the four Florida justices If words like “seven” and “twelve” embraced so heedlessly. It announced cannot hold, nothing can hold, and a constitutional right to abortion uncertainty stretches away to the hori- when not a word can be found in the zon. Touchingly oblivious to the anar- Constitution on that subject. It con- chical implications of its own opinion, verted into an authorization for racial the Florida court simply assumed that preferences a federal statute whose the manual recount could proceed in plain words and ascertainable purpose prohibited racial discrimination. Robert F. Nagel is a professor of law at the Through “interpretation,” it grafted a University of Colorado and the author of The complicated sexual harassment code Collapse of American Federalism, forth- onto a federal law that was silent on coming from Oxford. that specific subject. Indeed, the mod-

20 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD DECEMBER 25, 2000