Lee -- that is very wise. There is no doubt that the blame the program
chair approach is undoubtedly the best and has always worked in the
past! My one  chance to select had me choose a former politician of a
political persuasion diametrically opposed to my own, but who turned out
to be a superb speaker -- Kim Campbell. Fortunately I went with the
advice of a friend and ignored by own biases.

Sally

Lee Reed wrote:

> Perhaps, you will let this nominal Democrat have one of the
> last words on the Ashcroft matter. For all practical
> purposes, the program chair for the annual meeting has
> carte blanche to invite whomever to speak to the annual
> banquet, or breakfast. I may decry the choice after the
> fact (and have when the speech did not interest me) but
> cannot imagine some kind of prior restraint on the chair's
> judgment. Our group shares a common interest in law and
> business school teaching, not in literary, philosophical,
> social, and political matters. In fact we would halve our
> already small size by trying to impose  standards for
> speakers, whatever their views. I prefer stare decisis:
> blame the program chair, rue your decision for putting her
> in office, but don't even think of creating an a priori
> litmus test for her speakers!