"The Nation pages could have been better used"

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The below letter to the editor was published in the March 5, 2007 edition of The Nation. Stephen F. Rohde is a constitutional lawyer and former President of the ACLU of Southern California.

Los Angeles

What angers me about the attacks on Anthony Romero and the ACLU is that those pages in The Nation or those stories in the New York Times could have been devoted to alerting the public to how the Bush Administration is violating civil liberties at home and human rights abroad. Those precious column inches could have reported on all the things the ACLU is doing in the courts, through public education and in grassroots organizing to protect the Constitution. And think of the thousands of hours spent by national and local ACLU board members dealing with the critics that could have been spent defending civil liberties.

Has Anthony Romero made mistakes? Of course he has. Should his actions be reviewed by those to whom he reports? Sure they should. Has he learned to consult sooner and more broadly with ACLU leadership when dealing with tough decisions? I bet he has. Has he been an effective, visionary and dynamic executive director at one of the most critical times in ACLU history? You bet he has.

When President Lincoln's advisers complained about General Grant's drinking, Lincoln reportedly replied, "Find out what he's drinking and send a case of it to all my generals." Despite Romero's past mistakes (and drinking isn't one of them), he's doing a superb job and deserves the support of everyone who cares about the future of our constitutional democracy.

STEPHEN F. ROHDE
 

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