In Berkeley, Yoo feels at home as a stranger in a strange land

Los Angeles Times / latimes.com ^ | March 29, 2010 | By Carol J. Williams

[thecodont]

Reporting from Berkeley - In his slate-blue suit and Republican-red tie, John Yoo stands out as discordantly formal among the denim- and turtleneck-clad faculty at Boalt Hall School of Law. Never mind how his politics play in what he derides as "the People's Republic of Berkeley."

The former Bush administration lawyer who drafted what his critics call the "torture memos" is reviled by many in this liberal East Bay academic enclave, a feeling that is mutual though not, Yoo insists, wholly unpleasant.

"I think of myself as being West Berlin during the Cold War, a shining beacon of capitalism and democracy surrounded by a sea of Marxism," Yoo observes, sipping iced tea in the faculty club lounge, a wan smile registering the discomfort of colleagues walking by en route to the bar.

[thecodont]

"The Bush administration lawyer who gave legal cover to enhanced interrogation methods says he's happy teaching at Boalt Hall School of Law, despite calls for his ouster and protests by liberal groups."

[max americana]

I still remember Yoo showing up at liberal muppet John Stewart’s show and explain the Bush “torture” methods, made Stewart look like the ignorant moron that he really is. It was like Einstein explaining E=MC2 to a neanderthal..

[YHAOS]

Berkeley is indeed a strange land.

[ocr1]

Maybe feels a bit like Buckley at Yale?

[thecodont]

Makes sense, in a way. Berkeley was founded (in part) by a Yalie named Henry Durant, so one could say that Berkeley is Yale's daughter.

[BuckyKat]

Sounds like a great guy to take a class from. I love the bit below.

He sees his neighbors as the human figures of "a natural history museum of the 1960s," the Telegraph Avenue tableau of a graying, long-haired, pot-smoking counterculture stuck in the ideology's half-century-old heyday. "It's like looking at the panoramic displays of troglodytes sitting around the campfire with their clubs. Here, it's tie-dye and marijuana. It's just like the 1960s, with the Vietnam War still to protest."

[TChad]

Interesting piece. I did not know that he married Peter Arnett's daughter.

It doesn't surprise me that he enjoys living in Berkeley. It can be quite an entertaining place to live for a conservative who enjoys defending his viewpoints.

Yoo does very, very well in front of cameras. I hope there is some way to keep him in the public eye.

[Del Rapier]

God willing,we will have the communist out of Berkeley before the hippie infestation kills it.

[I still care]

I really like this guy. He doesn’t back down from a fight, and uses incisive logic to tear the daylights out of illogical libs.

I hope to see him on Fox and such - the alphabet networks heads would probably explode within five minutes.

I’ve always said the problem with liberalism is it doesn’t make any sense. And I’m reminded of that everytime I see this guy - he makes pretzels out of libs.