Martin Peretz, a principal owner, chairman, and editor in chief of The New Republic (TNR) magazine, that Liberal bastion, is an authentic, even quintessential Liberal himself. For a number of months now, he has been fingering the worn, tattered fringes of his Liberal cloak and discovering what a threadbare garment it is. In February, Mr. Peretz published in TNR a quite remarkable essay declaring that Liberalism, his only intellectual/political home for all his adult life "... is now bookless and dying. ... Liberalism now needs to be liberated from many of its own illusions and delusions. Let's hope we still...