Jonathan Alter, a senior writer for Newsweek, is an unusually selective reader. First, he apparently has the rare ability to read minds, or at least President Bush’s mind.
We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
…. I learned this week that on Dec. 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president’s desperation.
…. Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story—which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker.
…. the president knew publication would cause him great embarrassment and trouble for the rest of his presidency. It was for that reason—and less out of genuine concern about national security—that George W. Bush tried so hard to kill the New York Times story.
Alter is so confident that he can read the President’s mind (the cad! He knew he was breaking the law and violating the Constitution!) that he knows Bush thinks of himself as a dictator.
Unfortunately, while he can read minds, Alter does not have the ability, or the inclination, to read crucially relevant Constitutional texts or Supreme Court opinions, as Hugh Hewitt devastatingly revealed on his radio show.
HH: So do you think he is acting as a dictator acts?
JA: I think he’s acting dictatorially, yes.
….
HH: …. Have you read In re sealed case, and the Keith case, also known as United States V. United States district court, Eastern district of Michigan?
JA: Are you talking about the Hamdi case?
HH: No. I’m talking about the two cases interpreting the national security [exception] to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
JA: First of all, no, I haven’t read those cases….
What? Jonathan Alter actually read Supreme Court cases? You must be joking! He’s an important writer for an important magazine and a regular talking head on TV. His opinions are much in demand. You can’t really expect him to interrupt all that important opining to actually read something, can you? Especially something that might interfere with his opinion — so welcome and expected by his loyal and faithful audience — that President Bush was acting “dictatorily,” and knew it.
