alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

May 14, 2008

In Which I Meet James Risen

by @ 10:49 am. Filed under Life in D.C.

One of the few perks in my small role in the vast left-wing conspiracy in Our Fair City, that of co-hosting DCDL, is that I get to meet the various authors, bloggers, etc., that I read, list to, or surf at.

So, last night at Drinking Liberally we hosted author Eric Lichtblau, discussing his new book, Bush’s Law. I explained in the introduction to the discussion that I had not yet finished “Bush’s Law.” In fact, I’m still on the first chapter. “But,” I added, “the prologue is excellent, and the table of contents is one of the best ever.”

I got a laugh, which was the whole point.

Prior to the talk, Eric introduced his fellow NYT author, James Risen. I pointed out to him (James Risen) that I had his book “State of War” on my ipod, and that the audiobook was a favorite to listen to on long walks. That should tell you what degree of political geek that I am. The point is that he seemed genuinely surprised to see how immersed that this issue had become in the popular culture. How deeply felt his work was and still is.

Indeed, when I was having dinner with my mother last Sunday, I had mentioned that KCinDC and I had put together this event (along with many others, including Jane Hamsher and The Seminal crew, Josh, Jason, and Alex.) She didn’t recognize Eric’s name at first, but when I mentioned that he had written the NYT articles on warrantless wiretapping along with James Risen, her first reaction was to point out that publication had been delayed until after the 2004 election. This did not sit well with any of us.

I noticed in the discussion of the book last night that Eric Lichtblau was careful to delimit the discussion at the NYT to whether or not publication would harm national security. Of course, it did not as it was typically assumed that Al Queda knew they were being wiretapped, anyway. I just thought it interesting that the issue was framed strictly along those lines.

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