The American Spectator

Oh, Phil, I do plead guilty to being a lawyer. I, perhaps more than the average voter, do care about these issues. Race and how we think about equality-- individual or group rights-- remains a central issue of our day. Ward Connerly, who I have written regularly on, is planning initiatives in 5 states to build upon the success of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and seek to strike a death blow against racial preferences. I do consider the Seattle and Louisville school cases this term (which repudiated use of race in assigning children to schools) to be a major "get" for conservatives who wish to return to a color blind society. As for tort reform, you are right that economic conservatives --indeed any economist interested in productivity and global competitiveness -- would have a problem with his position. On McCain Feingold I just don't know where he is at this point and what if anything in the last 4 years awakened him to the First Amendment implications of this horrid bill.