OK, I’ll admit it: When I was 18, in 1980, after voting for John Anderson in the primary, I cast my first general election vote for Ronald Reagan. Call it a youthful indiscretion. Yes, Jimmy Carter’s been great out of office, but back then I couldn’t stand the whole weak, sweater-clad malaise thing he seemed […]

By Paul MillsBen Franklin didn’t quite have it right. When he once observed that there are only two things inevitable in life, death and taxes, he should have added a third, government debt.It’s a subject brought into focus just a few days back when a leading New York – as in that’s where the money […]

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Let the Iraqis go.This is the message I send from this sprawling, low, dusty, dun-colored, decrepit Iraqi capital; where the 105-degree heat can knock you out, the electricity works half the time, and the shells of government buildings looted after occupation still stand in mute testimony to occupation mistakes.The best thing the […]

He’s alienating Europe! He is too bellicose! He speaks in undiplomatic language! He is motivated by an unrealistic vision of international change!These charges have been hurled at: (a) Ronald Reagan, (b) George W. Bush or (c) both? The answer, of course, is “c.” That tells us something about both “cowboy” presidents and their critics, including […]

He lingered too long for his own good, but not long enough for his beloved Nancy and the many others who loved and admired him.He was hated for precisely the same reasons he was loved. He had convictions and made those without them look weak.Ronald Wilson Reagan was a colossus of the 20th century. Bobby […]

AUSTIN, Texas – As Lily Tomlin observed, “No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” But as Con Ed used to say, dig we must. Courtesy of David Sirota at the americanprogress.org Web site, we find the following matches between word and deed:Just before Memorial Day, Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said, […]

CIA Director George Tenet has resigned. Good. Can Congress and the media resign next?Tenet stacked up an impressive number of failures during his tenure, but pinning America’s atrophied intelligence capabilities on him is a little like blaming Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade for Denmark’s weak defense. The problem is the national material with which both […]

Democrats may not like it, and more radically conservative Republicans may wince, but Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early tenure is making a powerful case for mega-celebrity governance.By any political measure Gov. Schwarzenegger has been remarkably effective so far. He’s led a successful campaign to pass ballot measures to refinance California’s big debt. He’s reformed the disastrously costly […]

I’ve chosen not to see the video of Nicholas Berg’s beheading.I made the same decision two years ago when a clip of Islamic terrorists decapitating a reporter named Daniel Pearl surfaced online. My reasoning is the same now as it was then. There’s something obscene about watching from a desk chair as a man’s head […]

All summer movies want to create buzz, but rarely is the intended buzz “Support the McCain-Lieberman bill.” The movie is “The Day After Tomorrow,” the global-warming flick that aims to gin up support for the sort of greenhouse-emissions regulation sponsored by John McCain and Joe Lieberman.The premise of “The Day After Tomorrow” is as laughable […]