It's on the front page

The suggestion that SMU accept the Bush presidential library only on the condition that the president rescind his own Executive Order 13233 has made the front page of The Dallas Morning News. In other words, it's moved beyond the editorial pages of The New York Times and has brought back the legal issue of Bush's nullifying the Presidential Records Act.

I still hold out little hope for the proposal: It would require President Bush, in effect, to admit to a mistake, something his administration hasn't done. And the principle of open scholarship goes directly against his basic, secretive inclinations as well as his belief that l'etat, c'est l'executif. It would also require SMU to put at risk a half-billion dollar bequest and a shot at national scholarly stardom, i.e., notoriety -- something that that ambitious little university wouldn't do.

Alas, still no discussion about what the library will do to the neighborhood.