News
John Hughes 1950-2009
Director-writer-producer John Hughes died on 6 August while taking a walk in New York City. He was 59. Ben Stein calls John Hughes "the poet of human exaltation, the poet of human happiness" --- and it's impossible to imagine a more infectiously joyous cinematic...
Rick Perlstein On The Town Hall Demonstrators
A little over a year ago, when Rick Perlstein published his mammoth study of "the American berserk" - the original subtitle of Nixonland - in the years between 1965 and 1972, he concluded his 748-page saga of heated hardhats and howling hippies (or was it the other...
Setting The Record Straight On Social Security
In this morning's Washington Post, Paul Begala, one of the architects of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign and later a major White House advisor, contributes an op-ed. In it he argues that, although supporters of an expansive health-care policy (single-payer or otherwise)...
RN Revisited And Rethought
An article by Richard J. Cross III in yesterday's Baltimore Sun deserves quotation in full. Mr. Cross IDs himself somewhat in the piece; more recently he was press secretary and speechwriter for former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich. In February, America celebrated the...
EN On RN
Ed Nixon, was on CSPAN yesterday to discuss the 35th anniversary of his older brother's resignation: In another CSPAN interview dated two months ago, Mr. Nixon discussed his new book The Nixons: A Family Portrait. Click here to order The Nixons from the Richard Nixon...
More Coverage Of The Resignation’s 35th
Today marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of President Nixon's resignation, and since I wrote about coverage of this last night, some more articles and op-eds of note have appeared. Apart from the memorable discussion of RN's achievements on this morning's Chris...
One Finest Hour
While the title of this essay might make one blanch; the concluding days of Watergate should be considered as one of Richard Nixon’s finest hours. Along with the successes of the opening to China, arms control with the Soviet Union, and all of his domestic...
8.9.74
We think that when someone dear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election, we think that when we suffer a defeat, that all is ended. We think, as T.R. said, that the light had left his life forever. Not true. It's only a beginning -- always. The young must...
“May-or,” “My-or,” Whatever, “Welcome To The Court”
There is a new addition to the national Pronunciation Wars. Nuclear (nuculer), Taliban (talleyban), and Pakistan (pockistan)* are now joined by Sotomayor. She says "Soto-my-or"; many say "Soto-may-or." Among the many is Chief Justice John Roberts. During Associate...
Worth A Thousand Words (Or 1053, Anyway)
On July 29 of last year Vanity Fair's website put up a portrait of President George W. Bush by that eminent visual satirist Drew Friedman. In it, the President was made up to look like that latterday icon of villainy, the late Heath Ledger in his Oscar-winning role...