Meghan Clyne

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Meghan Clyne, an American conservative journalist, is managing editor of National Affairs, a quarterly journal of political and social essays that succeeded the National Interest. Previously, she was a special assistant and speechwriter to President George W. Bush, and speechwriter to First Lady Laura Bush. Before working at the White House, she was a reporter in New York and Washington for the New York Sun, and an associate editor at National Review.

As a senior at Yale University in 2003, she summarized her experience as a campus conservative, and the sinking level of political discourse,

Over the past year, however, it has become evident that common sense isn't highly valued on this campus. Nor is civil debate. Nor are ideas that fall outside widely accepted liberal doctrine. Between hostile e-mails, vitriolic comments posted anonymously on the Yale Daily News online forum, and nasty pranks played before the entire college, many readers have demonstrated their inability to disagree respectfully. I fear for the state of political and intellectual discourse at Yale when thoughtful argument is replied to with slander and personal attack. If Yale is, as I firmly believe, supposed to be a training ground for America's leaders, what does this say about the future of national debate and dialogue?[1]

Harold Koh nomination

In a New York Post article, whe opposed the nomination of Harold Koh as Legal Advisor to the U.S. State Department. Her first concern was stated that Koh, at a 2007 dinner of the Greenwich Yale Club, according to lawyer Steven Stein, said, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."[2]. Clyne also wrote, "Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He's on many liberals' short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it's certainly a useful trial run."

The organizer of the event at which he was alleged to have made this statement wrote

I was the organizer of the Yale Club of Greenwich event on March 13, which Meghan Clyne references.

The account given by Steve Stein of Dean Koh's comments is totally fictitious and inaccurate. I was in the room with my husband and several fellow alumni, and we are all adamant that Koh never said or suggested that sharia law could be used to govern cases in US courts.

The subject of his talk was Globalization and Yale Law School, so, of course, other forms of law were mentioned. But never did Koh state or suggest that other forms of law should govern or dictate the American legal system. [3]

Call for UN Action

Writing in the The Guardian, she called for United Nations action to free Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Commenting that the UN had not been aggressive enough,

The most egregious case of this naïveté belongs to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who seems to think a half-hearted effort to chat with the generals will rescue Suu Kyi. The best Ban could do yesterday was proclaim: "I'm going to visit Myanmar as soon as possible", at which point he plans to urge Than Shwe – again – to release Suu Kyi...The UN's dawdling is also unfortunate because tough security council sanctions are one of the few diplomatic measures that might actually improve the junta's behaviour. [4]

Concern about Census

She scoffed at the "civil liberties crowd" for not protesting the American Community Survey of the Census, putting it in terms of "So, we shouldn't listen in on terrorists to save American lives -- but intrusions into your privacy to support causes the left likes are just fine." [5]

References

  1. Meghan Clyne (30 April 2003), "Senior Perspective: Meghan Clyne", Yale Daily News
  2. Meghan Clyne (30 March 2009), "Obama's Most Perilous Legal Pick", New York Post
  3. Robin Reeves Zorthian (1 April 2009), "Caught Offguard by Koh: Another Odd Obama Pick", New York Post
  4. "Suu Kyi needs the UN to act, not talk", The Guardian, 22 May 2009
  5. Meghan Clyne (26 May 2009), "Uncle Sam's Way-too-nosy survey", New York Post