Mickey Edwards

Observers have had a great deal to work with recently in assailing the nut cases and nastiness on the political right. Like many others who have long considered themselves conservatives, I have often found myself compelled to attack the craziness and vitriol emananating from the right side of the political spectrum. But civility and decency require that all participants in the political conversation exercise restraint and limit their broadsides to remarks that…… More »

These remarks were delivered at Princeton on December 1 as part of a lecture series sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Center for the Study of Religion. Religion, of course, is not my field of study and finding a proper place to draw a line between those beliefs that guide one's public decisions and those inculcated by religious training is a terribly difficult undertaking. The lecture series, to which people far…… More »

On Thanksgiving morning I drove to a small convenience store near my home south of Boston and bought a copy of that morning's Boston Globe. I also bought a small bag of carrots. Meanwhile, some 440 miles to the South, President Obama had just thrown a lavish White House party honoring Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India. "Cheers," Mr. Obama said. Mr. Singh wished us all a happy Thanksgiving. The Globe and the small bag of carrots cost me $2.49. In…… More »

There have always been reasons why some things -- desirable things, important things - don't happen. It is a question, always, of limits. Not limits in desirability but limits in capacity.Over the past year we have determined that some companies - auto companies, investment companies - are "too big to fail". The depths of their malfeasance have apparently given them protection against the workings of the market. While wise and careful stewards of smaller…… More »

Sarah Palin is not going away; she may or may not run for office -- for the Senate or the presidency -- but in any case she's going to be a part of the political conversation and, like Ross Perot, may play a major role in shaping candidacies and voter preferences. So what exactly is the nature of the Palin phenomenon? What are the issues she puts on the table? Let me suggest that there are two. The first is Palin herself: her skills, her persona, her knowledge,…… More »

By deciding to try an admitted terrorist in federal court, Eric Holder is putting American democracy -- and us -- to the test. Democracy -- the kind people know in too many other places -- simply means letting the people go to the polls to choose their leaders. But the United States is not just "a democracy"; it's a liberal democracy (that is, one that specifically protects people from government, rather than the other way around) and a constitutional democracy…… More »

When one plays for high stakes, the palms get sweaty, the mouth goes dry, the heart pumps faster. The brain may become foggy or focused but the risk of choking, making a wrong move, grows as the tension mounts. But of course that depends on one's recognizing that it's a high-stake game. In ordinary circumstances, a legislative showdown like last weekend's House vote on changes in the nation's health care system would have set many a legislator's nerves tingling in…… More »

As a guest on an NPR talk show, discussing the election results in New York's 23d Congressional District, I was asked to offer my perspective on the likely impact of the challenge mounted by "tea party" conservatives against the woman selected by local party leaders to run as the official Republican nominee. A theme ran through the conversation and through the calls from listeners: the Republican nominee was "a moderate"; the Republicans who opposed her were part…… More »

To some, the election contest in New York's 23rd Congressional District is a thing of high drama, with the advocates of competing political perspectives engaged in a mighty struggle to shape the outlines of a resurgent Republican Party. It is a battle, we are told, for the very soul of the GOP. The truth is, it's more like a battle for the party's sole, a low-minded race to the political bottom. The part of that race that has captured the greatest attention is…… More »

In "Fool," his absurdist Shakespearean knock-off, Christopher Moore begins with a who's who: there are Lear and Cornwall, Kent and Regan, Goneril and the Witches Three. And a ghost. As Moore puts it, "there's always a bloody ghost. There is always, it seems, a ghost: a ghost who hovers, spooks, warns, and wraps its spectral arms around the unfolding action, foiling the players' plans and driving the story straight toward a cliff.In America, that ghost is the…… More »

For more than 200 years, America's policy makers have wrestled with the complexities of dealing with the world. George Washington, for example, thought America's best interests were served by keeping the rest of the world at arm's length (a view later amended more than slightly by James Monroe, who reversed the emphasis by insisting that other countries butt out of our business, the definition of "our business" being extended both north and south to include the…… More »

For weeks, as the Senate Finance Committee moved toward a final vote on a health care reform bill, public attention focused sharply on a single member of that committee, Olympia Snowe of Maine. That focus told us a lot about her: how she came to conclusions, what values motivated her, what life experiences had shaped her. But now the question is not about Olympia Snowe but about her Republican colleagues. We know a lot about Olympia; how other Republican…… More »