On "Face the Nation," Dick Cheney explained that Republicans "win elections when we have good solid conservative principles to run upon." So what happened to all the "good solid conservative principles" in 2006 and 2008? Did the candidates forget they existed? Has the supply of good solid conservative principles, seemingly so rich during the Reagan years, been dwindling? Did conservative politicians use up the last of their principles during the first half of the decade?

Dick Cheney is not the ideal spokesman for principles, conservative or otherwise. As practiced by Cheney, good solid conservative principles eroded our civil rights and our middle class, caused the needless deaths of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, destroyed our economy, divided our people, and violated our laws. It's surprising that the Republican leadership hasn't invited its least popular leader to a quail hunt for a little chat about retirement.

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Bishop John D'Arcy has every right not to attend this year's commencement ceremony at Notre Dame. He is free to ask the university to rescind its invitation to Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address, just as he is free to condemn Obama's "longstanding unwillingness to hold human life as sacred." The antiabortion groups that hired a pilot to fly over Notre Dame towing a "giant photograph of a fetus aborted at 10 weeks" are equally free to deliver their offensive message.

The student body overwhelmingly disagrees with Bishop D'Arcy: 85 percent support Obama's visit. Yet some graduating seniors will protest by wearing "an image of a golden cross between two baby feet on top of their mortarboards." Protesters were arrested Friday while "pushing strollers with dolls covered in fake blood" across campus. Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, wants to encircle Notre Dame with a "political mud pit" so deep that the president won't want to cross it. The First Amendment is alive and well in South Bend.

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Best read of the day so far is The Guantanamo Labrynth in the Chicago Tribune, in which lawyers for Guantanamo detainees describe the restrictions placed on them in defending their clients. Some snippets:

[U]nder the guise of national security, the Bush administration unilaterally revoked all semblance of attorney-client privilege and imposed a byzantine thicket of rules and procedural dead ends that would have impressed Franz Kafka.

The typical drill goes like this: After meeting with clients in Guantanamo, lawyers are obliged to immediately turn over all of their notes to the government for inspection. The inspection can take weeks, and when copies of the notes are finally returned to the lawyer, large sections often are blacked out. The unredacted originals are kept at a secret "secure facility" outside Washington where they can be viewed by defense counsel but not removed. Government lawyers' briefs are deposited at the secure facility, and defense attorneys have to travel to Washington to see them (lawyers are not allowed to reveal the precise location of the facility).

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There are no more members of the Symbionese Liberation Army in prison. The last one, James Kilgore, was released today. Kilgore was extradited from South Africa in 2002 after agreeing to a six year prison sentence.

Kilgore, now 61, served his sentence at the High Desert State Prison in California. He spent 27 years on the run before being extradited.

Via Grits for Breakfast, the ABA chose the independently produced documentary "Writ Writer" for its Silver Gavel Award.

Initially broadcast by the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens on PBS in June 2008, "Writ Writer" portrays the historic conflict that emerged in the 1960s when a cadre of Texas prisoners challenged the brutal conditions in state prisons. The film focuses on inmate Fred Cruz and attorney Frances Jalet, whose collaborative efforts led to the legal battle Ruiz v. Estelle, which led to the most comprehensive court-ordered state prison reform in U.S. history and landmark litigation for the right of Texas prisoners to assist one another with lawsuits.

Maybe President Obama's "post-partisan unity schtick" is paying off, or maybe growing numbers of Republican legislators have come realize that they will remain an endangered species if they reflexively oppose every bill that Democrats support. Maybe there's no real difference between the schtick and political reality. Theorize as you will, growing numbers of House Republicans are finding reasons to support legislation that their party leaders oppose.

Thirty-eight House Republicans voted for a broad public lands bill that set aside millions of acres, 70 supported a national service bill and 70 supported new Food and Drug Administration curbs on tobacco. In recent days, 105 of the 178 House Republicans backed the credit card bill, and 117 the financial fraud bill. The mortgage legislation drew 60 Republican votes despite opposition by the top three Republican leaders and the senior Republican on the banking committee, who said it would make it more difficult for qualified homebuyers to get loans.

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Happy Mothers Day.

After calling my mother, I turned on the TV and remembered why I do not watch Sunday Talk anymore. ABC had their roundtable of Stephanopolos, Will, Donaldson, Cokie Roberts with Robert Reich. Apart from Reich, the ignorance was stunning.

One particular passage -- Will said that "the bankruptcy law was altered" in the Chrysler matter to "save the union." Of course, in Will's mind, the bankruptcy law was designed to destroy unions and save the Masters of the Universe.

This is an Open Thread.

Arrivals are going on now at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. You can watch at C-Span or follow the tweets at #nerdprom and #WHCD.

Bon Jovi and Sting are there. From the screaming in the background, you'd think it's 1964 and the Beatles just arrived.

Still busy time for me. I have one post bubbling in my brain about the value of diversity. I do not care for the approach of some on the progressive side in describing it. They seem more focused on how it affects outcomes rather than diversity being an outcome of equality (particularly equal opportunity) itself. Thinking through how to write what I think about that issue.

What stories are you thinking about? This is an Open Thread.

When alleged criminal behavior is compared to an episode of Desperate Housewives, it must be worthy of a TalkLeft mention. Margery Tannenbaum of Haupage, New York was angered by an unspecified dispute between her daughter and her neighbor's daughter. Whether Tannenbaum is less mature or no more mature than her 9-year-old daughter is unclear. It is clear that her decision to take revenge upon the neighbor by posting an ad in the "casual encounters" section of Craiglist was childish. The ad said "Looking for a good time? w4m21" followed by her neighbor's telephone number. Why not just phone in a few prank pizza delivery orders and let it go at that?

After taking 22 calls from men looking for a good time, the neighbor may have been desperate for a new telephone number. Revenge begets revenge, as Tannenbaum learned when the police arrested her for aggravated harassment.

If Tannenbaum thought she was standing up for her daughter, her strategy backfired. At this point, Tannenbaum's daughter must be mortified by her mother's existence.

I'm going to watch Last Chance Harvey and Benjamin Button, both of which arrived via Netflix this week.

What's going on in your neck of the woods? Here's an open thread to discuss more important -- or less important -- matters.

All topics welcome.

Lawyers for former Ill. Governor Rod Blagojevich have been battling the Government over whether he can use his campaign fund, Friends of Blagojevich (“FOB”) to pay legal fees. The Government obtained a temporary restraining order against the funds, claiming they are forfeitable. Blagojevich says he needs the money in the fund to pay for lawyers.

It appears a solution has been agreed on. The funds will turned over to the Court and put into a special account, from which the Court will allow his lawyers to be paid at the Criminal Justice Act rate of $110.00 per hour.

The Government notes in a filing this week (Doc. 85, available on PACER)that no lawyer has yet entered an appearance yet for Blagojevich.

So, Blagojevich cannot afford to pay personally for his own defense. And the Government and Court are willing to allow his lawyers to be paid from his campaign fund so long as they work for the reduced rate of $110 per hour and the disbursments are administered by the Cout.

Still to be worked out: How many lawyers the court will authorize for Blagojevich: [More...]