There has never been an American moment quite like Project Mercury.It was one of the great undertakings of American power, one of the great expressions of American ingenuity, one of the great successes of American engineering, one of the great statements of American daring -- and one of the great dividing lines in modern American culture.If you know what Project Mercury was, the passion it prompted … More »AMERICA SLIPS ITS BONDS
One was the first black person elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. One was a groundbreaking voice for civil rights, another for the environment. One attached his name to a signature tax-cutting measure. One has his picture on the 50-cent piece, another on the $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond, and three are pictured on postage stamps. Eighteen ran for president, and three served in the White House.They … More »AS THE WORLD WAR II VETERANS DEPART
This is how strange contemporary Washington has become: In the Senate -- the less combative branch of congressional Republicanism -- John McCain, the self-proclaimed maverick who once nearly was invited to join a Democratic national ticket, and Susan Collins, the Maine moderate who often sides with Democrats -- are regarded, and sometimes disparaged, as the Republican Old Guard.Of course, this does … More »LONGING FOR SENATES PAST
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Don't be spooked by the dateline. Nothing going on here. Presidential race hasn't started. No cause for worry about debates, delegate counts, stump speeches. Not for a long time, maybe a very long time. Read on without peril.Because this is a column about why the Democratic campaign, and thus maybe the Republican campaign, too, may be delayed indefinitely, why the person at the … More »PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE, AND A POLITICAL STRATEGY
You don't have to be a member of the tea party to be outraged over the Internal Revenue Service's special and unwarranted scrutiny of conservative groups. I'm not, and I am.For four decades liberals have nursed hurts over the Nixon administration's use of the IRS to intimidate if not punish its political opponents. The very first item in Article II of the House Judiciary Committee resolution impeaching … More »CROSSING SACRED LINES
Is the specter haunting today's Republicans ... Ronald Reagan?The 40th president has been dead for nine years. He hasn't been president for a quarter-century. The world he inhabited -- with the Soviets ruling the Kremlin, interest rates hovering in double digits, Michael Jackson performing on glittery stages and Ivan Boesky symbolizing Wall Street -- is gone, every shred of it, and now is studied in … More »HELD HOSTAGE BY REAGAN
You can hear the huffing from here. It began with the budget battle, reached a cruel crescendo with the gun vote and culminated in the question the president had to field at his press conference last week about whether he'd run out of "juice" to pass his agenda: Barack Obama isn't strong like Richard Nixon. He can't strong-arm like Franklin Roosevelt. He's afraid to pressure like Bill Clinton. No one's … More »THE LIMITED POWER OF PRESIDENTS
We needed this past week, with its moments of introspection, its reflections on national purpose, its symbols of national concord. Many of them, of course, occurred in Boston, site of terrorism in 2013. One of them occurred in Dallas, site of tragedy in 1963.The images of what happened in Boston already have been seared into the national psyche. The image of what happened in Dallas Thursday is fresher, … More »A GATHERING OF PRESIDENTS
Can it be that the Democrats are succumbing to the same sorts of intra-party tensions that have bedeviled the Republicans since the November election?Ordinarily it's the party that loses an election that dissolves into factions, with party members hurling intemperate charges against their putative allies, calling into question their colleagues' integrity and questioning their loyalty to long-standing … More »SOCIAL SECURITY, 21ST-CENTURY STYLE
DALLAS -- Tuesday is a day that will be marked by no one, and yet it is freighted with history.April 16 ties our era with the two landmark assassinations of the modern age, the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 and the murder of John F. Kennedy here in Dallas in 1963. Tuesday is an anchor that helps explain our time, giving meaning to our memories, providing perspective for the … More »FORTY-NINE YEARS, FOUR MONTHS, 25 DAYS
WASHINGTON -- What if they had a Senate race and nobody ran?Not as fanciful as you think. It's only April and already seven lawmakers have announced they won't run again in elections still 18 months away. Almost certainly more will join them. Last year, 10 senators shied away from running.Hardly anyone wants to be in the world's most exclusive club -- it's actually called that, though many describe … More »THE SENATE THAT WAS
In olden times, when people wrote on paper and employed postage stamps, letters created unlikely connections.The most remarkable set of correspondence in American history was surely the letters between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson after the two men left the White House.In England, there were the letters, written sometimes during Cabinet meetings, sometimes three times a day, between H.H. Asquith, … More »ON CONNECTIONS, PERHAPS COINCIDENCE?
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In this 150th anniversary season you can explore the Civil War by reading narratives, memoirs and letters. You can examine historians' visions and scholars' revisions. You can delve into the great speeches of the era, especially those of Abraham Lincoln. But perhaps the best, and most unexpected, thing you can do is to walk into the National Portrait Gallery and be stirred by the … More »WHERE PORTRAITS TELL THE STORY
He was getting older, he worried about losing his balance fishing on the end rocks, and his hearing was failing him. So was his short-term memory. He could recall, surprisingly vividly, how the bottom of his mother's feet looked, but he forgot the names of some of his houseguests. He was going to bed earlier, and waking up earlier, too. Three times people told him his zipper was undone.So George H.W. … More »ON LOSS, AND THE LOST ART OF LETTER-WRITING
WASHINGTON -- Nobody is going to win the Battle of Sequester Gulch. The Republicans are going to lose, the Democrats are going to lose, President Barack Obama is going to lose, the economy is going to lose, the nation's image is going to lose, and the entire political class is going to lose. It's not every day that Washington pulls such an arresting inside straight."Only Congress could find a way to … More »SALVAGED BY STUPIDITY