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March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review Oct. 31, 2005 / 28 Tishrei, 5766

Miers II, Rove and Libby

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | My pick for the next Bush nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court: California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George.

No one can say he is not qualified. He leaves a vast paper trail.

George would have little problem winning confirmation in the Senate. Even far-left Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer thinks George would be a good pick — although it would be wrong for the Bushies to hold that against him.

George's record for being tough on crime gives him conservative appeal. In 1981, when George was a trial judge, he played a pivotal role in prosecuting one of California's most notorious crimes. Fearing that he would lose the case, the Los Angeles district attorney wanted to drop murder charges against Angelo Buono, of Hillside Strangler fame, and instead, charge him with pandering. George, the trial judge in the case, would not allow prosecutors to drop the murder charges. The legal community expected George to do as he was asked.

"Everyone underestimated this judge," Darcy O'Brien wrote in his book "Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers." "From the moment he heard (the motion to dismiss), Judge George had no doubt what he must do. He adjourned court for a week, he said, to take the matter 'under submission,' to make up his mind; but, in truth, he needed the time to construct a ruling that was legally watertight." George ruled that someone had to prosecute Buono. In 1983, a jury found him guilty of nine murders.


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Despite that record, many conservatives would bristle at a George nomination because George wrote the 1997 California Supreme Court decision that overturned a state law to require that minors obtain the consent of a parent or judge before having an abortion. A George pick would anger Bush's far-right base.

Which is why the type of operative who ends up in the Bush White House would never pick George. To the Bushies, appeasing the base is a tenet of faith. No doubt they'll suggest that Bush make a show of having learned his lesson by consulting base biggies — while telling reporters that Bush isn't really caving in to them.

Big mistake. It will only make the Miers-bashers more demanding. Instead, Bush should punish them — not for rejecting her, as was their right, but for torpedoing the nomination before Miers even had an opportunity to testify before the Senate. Let him pick a conservative who will rub them the wrong way. They've weakened Dubya's hand. Payback is in order.

That is, of course, unless Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicts Bush guru Karl Rove. Then Bush will be in no position to alienate his supporters.

I know as little as everyone else about what Fitzgerald and the grand jury will do. But as it bears on the Bush pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, I'll throw in my two cents. It still is not clear that the leak of Valerie Plame's identity was a crime. Recent reports that FBI agents have been interviewing Plame's neighbors suggest that even prosecutors are trying to sort out the legal niceties.

If there are no indictments, Bush-haters will have to swallow all those headlines about how Fitzgerald is, as The Chronicle put it, "said to be immune to political pressure."

If, as I strongly suspect, the leak was not a crime, that leaves perjury or obstruction of justice as the only likely charges that Fitzgerald can bring against Rove or vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

If either man is guilty, he should cut a deal and plead guilty.

Personally, I have trouble believing a man as smart as Rove — I don't know Libby — would commit perjury. But if either man did lie under oath — if his testimony was purposefully inaccurate — he must atone. Of course, if either aide is not guilty, he can resign(as Libby did) and fight.

Here's a sentence you won't read in my column: Everyone lies about leaks. (Most in Washington do lie about leaks, but that's no excuse for perjury.)

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© 2005, Creators Syndicate

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