Barry Goldwater, R.I.P.
Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for president and a hero of the conservative movement, died on Friday at the age of 89 in his Arizona home. "He was truly an American original," said President Clinton in a set of impromptu remarks at a previously-scheduled White House ceremony. "He was a great patriot and a truly fine human being." Former Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R., Wyo.), speaking on MSNBC, added: "He was the founding father of American conservative politics." Goldwater biographer Lee Edwards, also on MSNBC: "All of the things he said in 1964 that seemed extreme are now mainstream. ... It wasn't really the Reagan revolution, it was the Goldwater-Reagan revolution."

Another Clinton First
Reporters seem annoyed by the contradiction between the Clinton White House's public insistence that the various scandals that swirl about it have not distracted the President and its courtroom insistence that they have. We have all gotten used to the Clinton spin team telling us that day is night. Now they're telling us it's both day and night simultaneously.

There is No Judicial Vacancy Crisis
-From Tom Jipping's Legal Notebook commentary:

"The Republican Senate is confirming Clinton judges at almost record pace. Last year, the Senate confirmed five judges by the end of May. This year, the GOP has already shoved 24 through the pipeline. That's 60 percent faster than the average pace since 1980. Even though the Senate GOP last pledged more roll call votes, 11 of the last 12 judges have been approved by unanimous consent without recorded vote or a minute of floor debate."

More Jipping:

"But isn't there a vacancy crisis? You be the judge. Today 74 of the 830 positions on the federal bench are vacant. It is, of course, impossible simply to pull a single number out of the air and know its significance. Instead, you need a reference point or measuring stick. Congress last created new judicial positions in 1990. In the 89 months that the judiciary has been its current size, vacancies have been higher in 64 of them. That's right, vacancies have been higher than today 72 percent of the last seven and a half years. Is that a crisis? When the Democrats ran the Senate in the early 1990s, vacancies were in triple digits for 40 straight months, three and a half years, and no one called it a crisis."