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from: Amity Shlaes

Public Citizen Comes Full Circle

Posted Monday, Feb. 1, 1999, at 4:29 PM ET

Dear EJ,

Well I'm a true nerd. Always have been.

Regarding impeachment: Every week our house gets its share of ideologue-direct mail. Because I'm a free marketeer, I confuse the direct mail experts. So I get both "liberal" and "conservative" mail. This month a memo came from David Vladeck, director of the litigation group at Public Citizen, which Ralph Nader founded. The envelope cover read: "How to Prevent Another Ken Starr." Inside was material noting that the "dire consequences of the overly broad authority conveyed by the Independent Counsel Act are now clear."

But precisely! When I got this mail I knew we'd come full circle. Act I of this whole drama was Watergate. Watergate begat the independent counsel law. It also did a lot to inspire crusading citizen-statesmen like Ralph Nader.

Whitewater and the President's impeachment trial are really Acts III and V. Now the independent counsel law is the law of the land. And it is being used, legally, against the very people who assailed the executive in the first place. In Mrs. Clinton's case this is quite literally so, since she worked with Bernard Nussbaum on the House Committee to Impeach (Nixon). I phoned Public Citizen last week to find out how many people got this bit of direct mail. The answer is, 800,000. It would be too neat if Ralph Nader and other such types ended this era of legal hyperactivity. Too perfect to hope for.

More on taxes tomorrow.

Cheers,

Amity

P.S. Hope your kids are well, too. You and I are among the few journalists I know who have three kids. Most people in our field are appalled. Why? Why are triplets intriguing and three, seriatim, faintly excessive?

the breakfast table
entries
1234567891011
from: Amity Shlaes

Public Citizen Comes Full Circle

Posted Monday, Feb. 1, 1999, at 4:29 PM ET
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E.J. Dionne is a columnist at the Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Amity Shlaes, the author of The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What To Do About It, is a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board.
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