Michael Massing has an article in the Nation complaining about the Washington Post’s hawkishness. Ross Douthat skewers it on NRO. One more point: Massing describes Robert Novak as a “staunch supporter[] of the Administration’s position” on Iraq. Huh? Novak opposes war with Iraq, as he opposed the first Gulf war.

On the road. Mercifully, looks like the casualties and trailors are packages. Cab, even, looks as if driver could have been protected.

“Minnesota has election-day voter registration: Show up at the polls with some documents establishing who you are and where you live, and you can vote. . . .


“Minnesota law [also] allows a registered voter to bring six unregistered ones with him or her to the polls — and allows those six each to bring one more — the potential for swelling student turnout, and the Wellstone vote, is considerable.”
–from “Politics with People, Reinvented” By Harold Meyerson
The American Prospect 9/23/02

Jim Boulet Jr. is executive director of English First and an NRO contributor.

Byron is right, and as I read the Minnesota statutes, you can expect challenges not only to the absentee ballots, but to the paper ballots at the polls as well. Harkening back to Palm Beach, the claim will be that they are “confusing.” Under Minnesota law, supplemental ballots will be distributed with “official” ballots. The official ballots will have the senator race blacked out, while the supplemental ballots will have the Senate race. But this gives the voter more than one piece of paper. How can they possibly keep it all straight? Get ready for a parade of voters who really intended to vote for Hubert Humphrey–I mean–Fritz Mondale, if only the ballot were more clear.

Robert Alt is a fellow in the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Claremont Institute and an adjunct fellow for the John M. Ashbrook Center. Mr. Alt specializes in constitutional and election law, and has served as a consultant to local, state, and national campaigns. He is a regular contributor to the No Left Turns Blog, and was a familiar election 2000 contributor on NRO.

In my account today of the controversial speeches on jihad and dhimmitude given last week at Georgetown, I note that some of the students found historians Bat Ye’or and David Littman “rude” in their treatment of questioners. This brought an illuminating response from Jim Jatras, a Washington attorney who until recently worked in the Senate on issues related to religious freedom and terrorism. Jatras was at the Ye’or-Littman event, and his description of events gives credence to the view that the Jewish and Christian students were intimidated by Islamic students’ pique: “From what I saw, many of the student critics prefaced their ‘questions’ (rhetorical in nature) with hostile observations (A parapharase: ‘I will not address your misrepresentation of the facts now, but I would like to ask you . . . ‘) at which point Littman (I did not hear any particularly sharp exchanges involving Bat Ye’or, but maybe they happened earlier) would cut them off and demand: ‘Hold on now, where have I distorted the facts? Give me one fact I have misrepresented.’ At which point the ‘questioner’ would say Littman was being rude, and Littman would insist (correctly in my view) to be told on what basis the ‘questioner’ was impugning his honesty. Now, I understand there is a matter of style involved here. Some speakers in Littman’s position, would allow the skewed ‘question’ to be asked without interruption and then addressed as a whole. Littman chose not to do that, but instead to stop the ‘questioner’ as soon as he heard himself in effect being called a liar and demand at that point that the ‘questioner’ support his charge. I think he was entirely entitled to do so. While a speaker MAY choose to let the accusation go while his critic poses his ‘question,’ he is not OBLIGATED to allow himself to be called a liar. Perhaps the university culture is so intimidated by youthful ‘wisdom’ nowadays, that it is considered bad form to nip such rudeness in the bud — and it is now considered ‘rude’ to do so. Note too that the one supportive letter in The Hoya said it was the students who were rude, not the speakers.”

NARAL just called! In a recorded message NARAL warned me about John Faso, the Republican running for NY State Comptroller (and a rising star to keep your eye out for). Just in time for Halloween, I was warned what he wants to do to New York women: “John Faso would make abortion a crime.” (Um, yes, and the state comptroller is going to do that. If so, I’d take a sabbatical and work for him for the next week!) The brief, but scary message instructed, “Tell John Faso that you’re pro-choice!” (Well, isn’t everyone?)

One week and counting before the election lawsuits begin (see Byron today). For the next week–and after–if necessary, expect to see some new faces in The Corner (well, not completely new, you’ll know many of the names and faces from NRO and elsewhere) with updates on various races and other scoop and news. If you’re visiting quickly and need to scan the election news first, election news will be highlighted with this “ELECTION ’02 FLASH” designation.

In Jersey City…

Beware the cyber war.

Simply shocking. That the sniper suspects would shoot up a synogogue of all places.

The National Post is reporting the “strongest Canadian connection to the Sept. 11 attacks yet” here.

The vice president (and president of the Senate!) was reportedly asked by Wellstone’s family not to attend the funeral today because he criticized Mondale over the weekend. Of course, I hate to play this game, but the Dems started it. Norm Colman halted his campaign. The Democrats started talking replacement this weekend. I’m not criticizing that, but the media war against Cheney seems unfair.

Jonah is in London? That’s bad.

…yes, Jonah is in London. I’m told there’s no Internet service there (ok, so guess who told me that), but a homing pigeon is dropping off a Goldberg File shortly.

There’s an argument to be made that we are living WWIII right now, isn’t there?

According to an ABC News poll, Americans are feeling increasingly uneasy about Islam. This news analysis quotes frustrated American University professor Akbar Ahmed, to wit: “For the first time in history, Muslim civilization is on a direct collision course with all the world religions. …After Sept. 11, there was this mantra, ‘We are peaceful, we are peaceful.’ After Muslims killed 3,000 people, it makes no sense to me. …I feel a sense of sorrow and embarrassment [because] we are at the bottom of the pile.”

Both on CNN yesterday and on NRO today, I wrote that Walter Mondale had supported private accounts for Social Security and an increase in the retirement age. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Mondale served on a commission that supported both policies, but he himself signed a vigorous dissent from the report, which you can read at the bottom of this link. I was working off a misleading AP story (as cited in my NRO article) and a too-cursory glance at the commission’s report (using a link that neither mentioned nor included the dissent). I should have known it was too good to be true.

I learned about my mistake by reading the American Prospect’s weblog. I thank TAP for the correction, although not for the accusation that I have “lied, pure and simple.” TAP, in fact, knows that I was not lying in the sense of intentionally spreading a falsehood, since in the very next sentence it suggests that I should have done more research instead of “reading the RNC talking points.” Which means that their characteristically overheated rhetoric is more dishonest than anything I wrote.

Gov. Ventura says he expects the election results will be challenged in the Minnesota Senate race, whatever happens.