March 23rd 2008 - Today's Columns:

George Will : Americans Get The Judiciary We Pay For - Will takes up an important issue and places it in historical perspective. "The denial of annual increases, (Chief Justice John) Roberts wrote, 'has left federal trial judges -- the backbone of our system of justice -- earning about the same as (and in some cases less than) first-year lawyers at firms in major cities, where many of the judges are located.'" Along this line of argument I've been advocating for years that we pay Congress criters $5 million a year each. The total cost would be $2.675 billion or less than 1% of the 2008 federal budget. But it would surely invite much greater competition for the jobs and bring talent of a much higher caliber.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann : Heavy Hitter? Not Hillary - Hillary's appointment schedule from the time of her husband's administration has been released and it turns out that she may have stretched the truth just a bit in her claims of being an administration mover and shaker. I for one am shocked. Shocked!

Robert D. Novak : McCain's Mistake -

• McCain made a mistake by going to Iraq, not just his widely publicized mistake of al Qaida being trained in Iran.
• The Clinton campaign says that Obama is unvetted and unable to stand up to the "Republican Attack Machine." Presumably that's an arm of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy."
• McCain thumbs his nose at conservatives by selecting Bobbie Greene Kilberg to run the convention in Minneapolis.
• Conservative activists are pushing Bobby Jindal for VP. I think we all know what McCain thinks of conservative activists. I suspect he'll pick Susan Collins, or better yet, I think Tom Daschle is available.
• In an odd bit of reporting Novak points to poll results to suggest that the voting public does not support pork spending. "40 percent of a national sample of swing voters are opposed to higher taxes and prefer 'fewer earmarks and no more bridges to nowhere.' " I'm no mathematician but I do believe 40% is less than a majority.

Jonah Goldberg : Mamet vs. the Greek Chorus - An interesting piece on the "open-minded" left. Playwright David Mamet has reconsidered his liberal ideology and begun to accept conservative notions of free markets. As a result, theater critics are beginning to question his work.

Michael Barone : Will Wright Damage Obama's Millennial Support? - No one knows more about electoral politics than Barone, and his observations are worth noting. His analysis is spot-on with respect to Millennials (the generation born after 1980) and their news consumption habits.