Sid Vicious
Last night, Michael and Barbara Ledeen--the former Reagan official and conservative author and his wife, one of the founders of the conservative Independent Women's Forum (IWF)-answered a knock at their door. They were greeted with subpoenas in Sidney Blumenthal's defamation suit against Matt Drudge. Blumenthal wants any or all documents or evidence of communications the Ledeens or the Independent Women's Forum have had regarding Sid Blumenthal or his wife; Matt Drudge; the Drudge Report; John Fund; Richard Carlson; Tucker Carlson; and David Brock. The subpeonas also demand any and all documents related to "any projects referred to as the `Blumenthal Project.'"

Blumenthal--charged with, among other things, waging warfare on behalf of President Clinton's right to do as he pleases with White House interns-sued Drudge over a quickly-retracted, false report about Blumenthal allegedly beating his wife. The subpeonas are Blumenthal's way of lashing out at his enemies, his personal part of the White House smash-mouth campaign to beat back critics from Ken Starr to Kathleen Willey, by any means necessary. As Barbara Ledeen puts it, "He is operating in accord with the real `Blumenthal Project,' which is his fantasy of a `vast right-wing conspiracy.'"

In fact, IWF had no "Blumenthal Project" (Blumenthal flatters himself thinking there was). And Barbara Ledeen never talked to Drudge until {ital}after{unital} Blumenthal had filed his suit against the cyber-scribe.

Blumenthal is going after IWF in keeping with the zany conspiracy theories of the sort that regularly appear on the White House website, accessible at salonmagazine.com. The latest example is today's posting by Jonathan Broder on Judge Laurence Silberman, titled "The Attack Judge." Broder notes that Judge Silberman's wife is a founder of IWF, which has received funding from-that's right-Richard Scaife (Broder somehow fails to note that Scaife's middle name is Mellon, while Rep. Dan Burton reportedly shot a melon once in his backyard-an unlikely coincidence!) Broder then reports the oft-repeated but false assertion that IWF hired Ken Starr to write an amicus brief in Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against the President. Ah-hah!

For months, Blumenthal has been outraged that Ken Starr has sought information about his contacts with journalists concerning the Independent Counsel's staff, which could arguably be evidence of an attempt to interfere with a federal criminal investigation. Now, Blumenthal appears to be settling old scores (Michael Ledeen most recently criticized Blumenthal in NR, April 6) and trolling for information on conservative journalists. The Ledeens must now decide whether to cooperate with this "out-of-control" partisan, bent on trampling the First Amendment.

Lee-Peat
The Hill newspaper reported on Wednesday that Senate Republicans "may be having second thoughts about their move" blocking Bill Lann Lee from heading the Justice Department's civil rights division last fall.

Not true, says Jeanne Lopatto, a Senate Judiciary Committee spokeswoman. "Nothing has changed. We're going to have oversight hearings on Lee after the August recess," she said, adding that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) still opposes Lee for the Justice Department post. (The White House renominated him last January, shortly after making him a recess appointee, and Hatch has refused to consider the matter.)

In case anybody is getting cold feet, however, it's useful to note that Lee already has developed a troubling record at the helm of the civil rights division. Most problematic is his aggressive support of disparate impact theory, which says public policies resulting in anything other than racially proportional outcomes are immediately suspect. For example, Lee has challenged use of paper and pencil tests for hiring cops in Torrence, Calif., and firefighters in Garland, Texas--showing a striking disregard for whether these tests have bearing on the jobs for which the test-takers are applying. He defended these actions only last Friday during testimony before the House Constitution Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Charles Canady (R., Fla.).

"Lee is as bad as anyone else in this administration on the issue of racial preferences, and that's saying something," says Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity. "There's nothing in Lee's record to date that should cause anyone to question the reservations Senate Republicans voiced last year."