I’ve been working in the conservative movement for over fifteen years and I’ve learned that there are doers and then there are the people who go on TV to take credit for the doers’ work. Hans von Spakovsky is a doer (and I’ve seen many lawyers and “political strategists” go on TV and take credit for his work).
Von Spakovsky is a lawyer who was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice in 2005 and later nominated to the Federal Election Commission, serving from 2006-2007. The nomination was ultimately withdrawn after accusations from Senate Democrats that von Spakovsky politicized his role at the DOJ and would do the same at the FEC. Given that we now know the Obama Administration has not only used the DOJ, FEC, and IRS as political arms of his Administrations, the false accusations against von Spakovsky are particularly laughable.
Along with National Review's John Fund, von Spakovsky has coauthored the new book, Obama's Enforcer: Eric Holder's Justice Department. Senator Ted Cruz said, "Obama’s Enforcer catalogues the abuses of power at the Department of Justice under Attorney General Holder: rather than honoring its long history of bipartisan fidelity to the law, the DOJ has become an unapologetically partisan institution that aides and abets this Administration’s lawlessness and contempt for the Constitution.”
All Americans, reporters in particular, who care about the rule of law, should read the explosive and infuriating Obama's Enforcer. As Ann Coulter said, "The truth cannot be delivered with Novocain."
The De Pasquale's Dozen asks political figures and free market-minded writers and entertainers to take a break from politics and talk about their pop culture obsessions.
1. What's your favorite movie line and who would you like to say it to?
In the 1948 John Ford movie "Fort Apache," Henry Fonda tells a dishonest Indian trader "You're a blackguard, a liar, a hypocrite and a stench in the nostrils of honest men." There has been more than one occasion when I have been testifying in front of a congressional committee that I have wanted to use that line in response to a particular senator or member of the House.
2. Tell me about your favorite teacher and how he or she influenced your life.
In the sixth grade in Alabama, I had a teacher who was a former nun who had immigrated from Ireland and gave us her version of a classical education, including reciting poetry in class and staging two Shakespeare plays. She gave me a taste for classical literature that has consumed me ever since.
3. If you could be paid to do anything besides your current job, what would it be?
A White House reporter for a major news outlet who gets to question the president and his public affairs flack about all of the stupid things the administration does.
4. What one thing would you do as President "just because you could"?
Order an immediate freeze on all hiring in the federal government, a moratorium on the issuance of any new regulations, and a 20 percent budget cutback in every federal agency.
5. What's your current "guilty pleasure" non-news television show?
I like NCIS, the original version, which was a spinoff of JAG, a great show about military lawyers.
6. What's the best present you ever received as a child?
My father's wedding ring, which I now wear as mine.
7. What's the best present you ever gave?
An engagement ring to my wife.
8. What advice do you remember your mother or father giving you? Did you take it?
Always stand up for what you believe in and be willing to fight for what is right - I have followed that advice ever since.
9. Who would be on the perfect "Red Eye" panel?
Me, John Fund, J.Christian Adams, and Katie Pavlich.
10. What books are on your summer reading list?
"Obama's Enforcer," of course, as well as Andy McCarthy's "Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment," along with any new science fiction book I can read at the beach.
11. What would you like tomorrow's headline to say?
"In Huge Surprise, Congress Balances Budget, Repeals Obamacare, and Imposes Major Sanctions on Russia."
12. Tell me about the moment you decided to enter the political arena.
Many years ago, I was watching the evening news and as usual complaining to my wife about something particularly aggravating some local politicians were doing. My wife looked at me and said: "Why don't you stop complaining about it and try to do something about it?"