Printed in both The Washington Times and Hoover Digest

Based on accounts from the scene, things have clearly taken a turn for the worse in a hurry in
Darfur. At the U.N. summit in September 2005, countries included an affirmation of their “responsibility to protect” their populations and the necessity for collective action to protect people when a government fails in this basic responsibility—or worse, as in the case of the Sudan government, is actively complicit in war crimes against civilians. It would be tragic if, having declared this bold new principle, governments couldn’t bring themselves to act on it effectively in Darfur.

The problem is as it was: The Janjaweed militias—armed bands of killers, marauders, and rapists of Arab origin set up to fight a burgeoning armed resistance movement—have acted in conjunction with forces of the Khartoum government or at its behest to terrorize the black African population of Darfur, the Texas-sized western region of Sudan. The militias, often operating with assistance from helicopter gunships flown by the Sudanese military, have destroyed whole villages, driving millions of Darfuris into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps or across the border into refugee camps in Chad.

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The Washington Times

William Galston and Elaine Kamarck, two of the keenest observers of American politics and the fortunes of their Democratic Party in it, were co-authors of a 1989 analysis and strategy paper that in certain respects paved the way for Bill Clinton’s triumph in 1992 as a “New Democrat,” a candidate set apart from the left-liberalism that had come to dominate the party and to which Mr. Galston and Miss Kamarck rose in opposition. The two have just released a new study and strategy paper, “The Politics of Polarization,” that hopes to galvanize Democrats’ fortunes once again by directing the party back toward the electoral center.

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The Washington Times

I was busy into the early afternoon following President Bush’s announcement of his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court last Monday. So, it wasn’t until about 2:30 p.m. that I clicked into the blogosphere to see what the initial impressions of the nominee were on the right side of the political spectrum.

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The Washington Times

The in-laws were in town, in transit from New Jersey to Florida for the season, and we were bustling in our Cleveland Park kitchen Saturday night when we heard the basso rumble of explosions in the distance. “What’s that?” somebody asked. The levity that had suffused the room dissipated, leaving only still air.

“Sounds like fireworks,” I said. So it did. Well, either that or bombs going off.

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