Dispatches

No one can accuse the defense industry of lacking audacity. Despite receiving vast sums of money from the Pentagon each year, and having much of Congress in their back pocket, arms manufacturers have been holding conference after conference of late complaining that big government is keeping them down. At a Heritage Foundation event in mid-October, […]

If you’re a senior citizen or just happen to know one, you’re probably familiar with the flaws in the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) — the legislative monstrosity that Congress enacted, after one very long night in 2003 when Tom DeLay held the vote open for three full hours to intimidate a majority of unwilling members […]

For all the hype over the Democrats retaking Congress, you’d think the reemergence of that body’s liberal lions would, in short order, bring about universal health care and a host of other panaceas. Winning universal health care, alas, remains unlikely, at least in the near term. Instead, repairing the cracked foundations of Medicare and Medicaid […]

This August, the United Nations Security Council authorized a major force — more than 22,000 strong — to deploy to Darfur. Under the Security Council’s mandate, the U.N. troops would take over Darfur’s defense from the undersized and ill-equipped African Union force, which has been unable to prevent attacks on civilian enclaves. Eventually, the United […]

Just a few years ago, liberals were cowering before Karl Rove’s plans to permanently marginalize the Democratic Party and construct an enduring Republican majority. With Rove’s reputation at an apex and the hapless Democrats still reeling from their unexpected defeat in the 2002 midterms, his vision appeared eerily achievable. Reporting on Rove’s efforts in The […]

It took about three years of helping to turn Afghanistan into a failed state before Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Republican from Tennessee, experienced his first moment of clarity. “A political solution is how it’s all going to be solved,” Frist told reporters at a U.S. military installation in the country on a visit […]

After the economist Nicholas Lardy visited China in the mid-1980s, he came away distinctly skeptical. While Chinese leaders were gearing up for a huge export drive, Lardy predicted “a marked slowing in China’s trade expansion in the years ahead.” In particular he questioned Beijing’s reported plan to boost total Chinese trade (imports plus exports) to […]

The House of Representatives of our era doesn’t lack for camp spectacle. There’s Indiana’s Dan Burton, who shot at melons in his backyard to “prove” that the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered. Tom Tancredo of Colorado once advocated that America “take out” Muslim holy sites. The list goes on. But that list, lengthy as it […]

Somewhere, Samuel J. Tilden may be smiling. The 1876 Democratic presidential nominee — who won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes — would surely approve of the movement afoot to entrust the American people with the direct election of their president. Though the outcome is far from certain, increasingly energized […]