Ed Koch: Bollinger Forgot to Stand Up for the U.S.

Bollinger Forgot to Stand Up for the U.S.
By Ed Koch

President Lee C. Bollinger of Columbia University and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met Monday on a field of rhetorical battle at Columbia.

Bollinger opened the proceedings, to which he had invited Ahmadinejad, by presenting a series of sharply-worded questions. Bollinger, normally a genial, soft spoken man who is always courteous and deferential to his guests, was in a totally different mode. His voice was hectoring and bullying. He included in his litany of questions provocative and insulting statements about his guest.

Bollinger's change of style was, I believe, to blunt the enormous criticism that ensued following Columbia's invitation to Ahmadinejad to speak there. In his defense, Bollinger's supporters constantly invoke the concepts of free speech and the First Amendment. But in this case they simply don't apply.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/ahmadinejad_1_bollinger_0.html