The Red Menace

DURING his 1984 presidential campaign, Jesse Jackson relied for foreign-policy advice on a man who had a history of activism in Communist Party affairs. This fact was of some importance, given Jackson’s fulsome praise for Fidel Castro, the Sandinistas, and Third World radicalism generally. The advisor’s Communist ties, however, were almost completely ignored.

Nor did the press delve into the political affiliations of Ewart Guinier, during the controversy over the appointment of his daughter, Lani Guinier, to the Justice Department. Guinier senior was, in fact, an active supporter of Henry Wallace in 1948 and, for a time at least, sympathetic to Communism, if not a party member. This was a detail of at least some minor relevance given Lani Guinier’s testimony about the great influence her father had on her political views.

AP

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Arch Puddington

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DURING his 1984 presidential campaign, Jesse Jackson relied for foreign-policy advice on a man who had a history of activism in Communist Party affairs. This fact was of some importance, given Jackson’s fulsome praise for Fidel Castro, the Sandinistas, and Third World radicalism generally. The advisor’s Communist ties, however, were almost completely ignored.

Nor did the press delve into the political affiliations of Ewart Guinier, during the controversy over the appointment of his daughter, Lani Guinier, to the Justice Department. Guinier senior was, in fact, an active supporter of Henry Wallace in 1948 and, for a time at least, sympathetic to Communism, if not a party member. This was a detail of at least some minor relevance given Lani Guinier’s testimony about the great influence her father had on her political views.