Gore Vidal, the enrage essayist who wears the drag of a historian, talked to the L.A. Weekly about W. and the Patriot Act

National Review, Dec 8, 2003

* Gore Vidal, the enrage essayist who wears the drag of a historian, talked to the L.A. Weekly about W. and the Patriot Act. "The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Hanged." Well, the Federalists among the Founding Fathers crushed the Whiskey Rebellion and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, while the Republicans (ancestors of today's Democrats) tried to hang Aaron Burr for treason. Better zip that lip, Mr. Vidal. If W. doesn't get you, GW, JA, and TJ will.