Ed Whelan
National Review Online
3/2/2011
On Huffington Post, law professor (and former Bush White House ethics adviser) Richard Painter offers an extensive, but badly flawed, defense of Goodwin Liu that falsely accuses me of “invent[ing] a series of myths about Liu with no basis in reality.” The opening part of Painter’s essay consists of regurgitating ill-informed or utterly conclusory endorsements of Liu from various folks, including some conservatives who ought to know better. See, for example, my critique of the letter that Ken Starr submitted (jointly with Akhil Amar).
Given that Liu’s hearing starts soon, I’m going to race through Painter’s supposed myths in this post and the next (in the same order as he lists them):
1. According to Painter, I have propagated the “myth” that “Liu believes judges ‘may legitimately invent constitutional rights to a broad range of social ‘welfare’ goods, including education, shelter, subsistence, and health care.’” My actual quote states that Liu argues in a law-review article that “judges (usually in an ‘interstitial’ role) may legitimately invent constitutional rights to a broad range of social ‘welfare’ goods, including education, shelter, subsistence, and health care.” It’s telling that Painter has to excise the italicized parenthetical in order to falsely accuse me of misstating Liu’s views. Nor does he address (much less take issue with) my detailed posts on the matter.
2. According to Painter, it is a “myth” that Liu “believes in a ‘freewheeling constitutional approach’ that allows people ‘to redefine the Constitution to mean whatever they want it to mean.’” Painter cherry-picks the most innocent-sounding of Liu’s statements and ignores the controversial ones. (See, for example, the material in this post of mine.)
3. According to Painter, it is a “myth” that Liu “is a supporter of racial quotas in the schools, and he supports school choice only insofar as it furthers that goal.” That is no myth, as I have documented. Painter doesn’t even address my arguments.
4. According to Painter, it is a myth that Liu “supports racial quotas forever.” Painter doesn’t address my argument, and he hides behind a ridiculously narrow definition of quotas.
5. According to Painter, it is a “myth” that Liu supports “reparations for slavery” and a “grandiose reparations project.” Painter pretends to provide a full account of Liu’s discussion of “solutions for racial equality” but somehow completely omits the remarks of Liu’s that I’ve highlighted…
Read the rest of the article at NRO.
H/T Verum Serum:
Goodwin Liu is once again in hearings before the Senate. Meanwhile the liberals attempt to downplay or excuse his prior far left statements has geared up again…
There is a video of Liu at the site.
