Washington: Borking Olson.(Theodore Olson's appointment to Solicitor General)(Brief Article)(Column)

In the Year of Monica, one of the liberals' refrains was that it was "time to move on." Oddly, even though their side prevailed in the impeachment contest, it is they who have not moved on. They are still trying to hunt down members of the vast right-wing conspiracy they blame for causing Bill Clinton's woes. Their latest target is Theodore Olson, President Bush's nominee for solicitor general. Their campaign against him is entirely scurrilous.

The liberals accuse Olson of 1) participating in a shadowy conspiracy to bring down President Clinton called "the Arkansas Project" and 2) lying about his participation to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Because of this second accusation, Democrats delayed a vote on Olson's confirmation and made Republicans agree to a limited investigation.

The Arkansas Project was an attempt by the conservative magazine The American Spectator to look into Clinton's activities when he was governor. It was a flop, chaotically organized and unproductive. Olson told the Judiciary Committee that he learned about the project for the first time when he joined the Spectator's board, which did an audit of it and shut it down.

Olson's critics have been able to prove that Olson was more deeply involved than he claims only by defining involvement in the Arkansas Project extremely broadly. So, for example, Olson is said to have done project business by talking about Clinton scandals over dinners with the Spectator's editor. David Brock, a disgruntled former employee of the magazine with a grudge against Olson and his wife, accused Olson of lying because the two men had discussed an anti-Clinton article the magazine was considering publishing. But Brock had to admit that the ...