April 14, 2005
Another Cost of the Drug War
Is there anything more redundant and coals-to-Newcastleish than blogging Instapundit stories? Well, yes, blogging yesterday's Instapundit stories.
But I can't let this go by. Glenn linked to a The Volokh Conspiracy posting. If losing Bork wasn't bad enough, this country appears to have lost a good second choice.
Supreme Opportunity Cost: Sometimes we overly diminish the role of individuals when assessing historical developments. That Ronald Reagan was in a position to be President when he was probably changed the direction of the Republican party (and the US) for decades. Because of his distinctive personal characteristics, Bill Clinton was able to get elected when other Democrats of similar views are not. As President, he also signed on to a welfare reform bill—and brought along enough Democrats in Congress—that contains far more radical reform than anything President Bush has managed to achieve. In short, individuals matter.I have long bemoaned the opportunity cost of the aborted Supreme Court nomination of Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the D.C Circuit Court of Appeals. Nominated in the wake of Robert Bork's defeat, Ginsburg was pressured (rumor has it by then-Drug "Czar" Bill Bennett) to withdraw his name when it was disclosed by Nina Totenberg (whose speaker's agent brags about it here) that he had smoked marijuana in the presence of law students when he was a professor at Harvard Law School. Anthony Kennedy was nominated in his place.
What happened to Judge Ginsburg was a tragedy for liberty, and a terrible injustice to a very decent man. Without casting any aspersions on Justice Kennedy, I really wish that now-Chief Judge Ginsburg, the most libertarian Supreme Court nominee in the modern era, had been on the Court these past 15 years. At any rate Ex Post yesterday posted a nice talk by Judge Ginsburg.
But, hey, we got Souter, right!?
This is an uncounted cost of the drug war. Many have chosen not to seek elected office or decline an appointed permission because of past drug use.
Note that an update to the Insty post from John Podhoretz seems to exonerate Bill Bennet. That's almost a shame, because he is an iconic figure of the drug war in the GOP. I like and respect him, but he and I strain the seams of the big tent on drug policy.