Reductio ad absurdum

No, Hillary Clinton doesn’t have to “explain” why Bill Clinton wrote a routine congratulatory letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy is a mostly ladies-who-lunch bunch with, as might be expected, some neo-Confederate tinge. UDC publications have praised the Klan.

As President, Bill Clinton wrote a routine congrats-on-your-hundredth-anniversary letter to the UDC.

This does not, of course, imply that “Hillary Clinton Must Explain the Praising of a Group of KKK Supporters.”

Except under ABC rules, that is.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com