The Rudy Giuliani for president campaign this afternoon unveiled its Justice Advisory Committee, which will be advising hizzoner’s campaign on issues of legal policy. It’s headed by former Solicitor General Ted (“no relation”) Olson, and boasts a really stellar array of practicing and academic law talent, including lawprofs Charles Fried, Steve Calabresi, George Priest, and Ronald Cass, former Southern District chief judge Michael Mukasey, and former Justice official Maureen Mahoney, among others. The full list is here (campaign site) or here (PowerLine).
And, yes, that’s my name on the list too. I try not to clutter the site overmuch with my personal candidate preferences, but I find the former NYC mayor to be the clear standout candidate in this year’s White House pack, despite my disagreements with a number of his stances in the past. Early interactions between the legal advisory committee and the candidate have further strengthened my confidence in the kind of leadership he’d provide in office.
That’s enough for the moment, but I just wanted to give readers fair warning and a chance to discount/make allowances in case I happen to mention the various candidates and their doings as the political season proceeds. (& welcome NRO “Bench Memos”, Andrew Sullivan, PowerLine, National Journal BlogoMeter readers. Also, here’s an op-ed by the candidate).
P.S. Newsday has a story interpreting the whole thing as a Supreme Court short-list (which would truly make me the odd man out) but doesn’t mention that most likely picks for the Court would be drawn from the ranks of sitting judges, whose names inevitably could not appear on a list like this.
4 Comments
It’s good to know Rudy’s solid on legal matters. Having lived in his NYC for 7 of his 8 years as mayor, I’m wary of letting him at the kind of executive power Bush has arrogated, but he does seem to be among the more palatable candidates even with that. So I’m glad to hear that there’s something I can support him positively on.
Rudy is a better candidate than Ron Paul? Good Lord, Walter!
Bernie Kerick was’t on the list?
Funny thing is, when I saw Ted Olson’s endorsement a while back, I was rather impressed until I realized that I had the wrong Olson. I am perhaps idiosyncratic in evaluating which of the two endorsements is more significant.
As an aide, we have Ted Frank and Walter Olson here. Would Ted Olson be the combination, Overlawyered.com made whole and incarnate in one flesh?