Recalling a famous victory

When the nomination of Robert Bork was rejected by the senate the London Economist wrote one of their brilliant snarky articles which included the phrase "but it was a famous victory." The point of the article was that Democrats had expended much effort on character assassination for nothing, since Reagan would just appoint another conservative justice. The criticism of the Democrats arguments was actually pretty mild (and some attacks on Bork were unfair). The point was that there is no point in rejecting a nomination, since any economist who knows game theory knows that the player who proposes has all the bargaining power.

The reference to the famous victory shows that the economist's correspondent remembers history better than I. Some pointless battle was a famous victory, but not quite famous enough for me to know exactly which pointless battle or who said (ironically I hope) "but it was a famous victory).

As I said I found the article brilliant. It reminded me why Brad DeLong proposed enlarging a quote of a book review by Rudiger Dornbush which began "Fans of the snotty style of the economist" and tacking it to the bulliten board above the desk we shared at the NBER.(I shared a desk with Brad DeLong I shared a desk with Brad DeLong)

It also reminded me of something Michael Kinsley wrote which I will attempt to quote from memory "I love the snappy way in which the Economist writes 'There are three things that the governement should do about this problem, even though I am not always sure that they have always decided exactly which three things before writing that "there are three things that the governement should do about this problem". In fact, I am not sure they have always decided exactly which problem." The Economist immediately recognised a kindred spirit (and you thought that newspapers didn't have spirits) and invited Kinsley over as a visiting columnist.

I think often of that brilliant article in the Economist. It came to mind when I learned that Americans have the right to commit sodomy because of William Kennedy
(O'Conner was in the majority on Lawrence vs Texas but she argued on the basis of discrimmination which would not imply that gender neutral anti sodomy statutes are unconstitutional).

I thought of it again when I read this
""Absolutely. We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio."

Ah yes, there is this problem with boldness. Sometimes one makes a total fool of oneself. I also recall the time that the economist confidently predicted that Japanese firms would take over the production of microprocessors as they had taken over memories after some Japanese firm made a not quite patent infringing copy of the intel 8088 (this was after the introduction of the 80386).

In fact, while I wouldn't say that the Economist is totally utterly and humliatingly wrong more often than other journals of news and opinion, I would say that it is, from time to ttime, able to be absurdly self assured and self satisfied when it is inexplicably wrong and the truth is obvious. Often I think this is sincere ignorance not fake ignorance as in the conflation of a flat tax and a simple tax.

Yes the pattern of this post is deliberate following this outline.

p.s. The post is about the non-confirmation of Robert Bork and in no way implies any sort of prediction about the possible confirmation of anyone else whose last name begins with a B, nor is it a prediction about the survival of a government of anyone else whose name begins with a B. Such predictions would portare scalogna (invite misfortune) and expose this humble blogger to the risk of exemplifying that which he humbly mocks.

p.p.s. nor is it a prediction about the outcome of a vote of confidence on anyone else named B. I am not making any predictions here.