The Washington Times

The Bush administration’s decision no longer to submit names of judicial nominees to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary for advance evaluation of their qualifications represents a certain coming-of-age for conservatives in the GOP. The move reflects a new clarity of thinking about where conservatives fit in the scheme of things. Here’s the problem: The American Bar Association, as any conservative will tell you, is a left-leaning organization through and through. On any number of issues if not, indeed, on all issues on which it takes positions, from abortion rights to tort reform, the ABA is closer to the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.

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The Washington Times

There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the commitment of Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold to the cause of campaign-finance reform, nor their belief that the current system is corrupting. But at the same time, the issue of campaign finance is obviously a great one for political posturing. I think that eventually some kind of reform legislation will indeed pass out of Congress and be signed into law by the president, if not this time around, then later. And each time the issue comes up and gets closer to passage, more of the interests underlying the principled rhetoric get exposed, thereby revealing more of the posturing for what it is.

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The Washington Times

Bill Clinton is off the front pages at last, so perhaps now would be a good time to take stock of the controversy surrounding his eleventh-hour pardons. What with the criminal investigation by a U.S. attorney in New York and Democrats’ fundamentally unresolved view of the former president, the controversy and the political fallout can hardly be said to be over. But it doesn’t look like there’s a lot more left to come out. Even some of the hard-core Republicans in Congress are losing their enthusiasm for the issue.

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The Washington Times

Tax cut watchers should keep an eye on this coming July. Sometime that month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will release the six-month update of its Budget and Economic Outlook. That will include a revised 10-year projection for federal surpluses. And that could make for some pretty interesting politics.

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