Free Republic

A sliver of John G. Roberts's voluminous files from his years as a junior White House lawyer reveals a young man with a facile mind and a sharp and sometimes smart-alecky tongue. Mr. Roberts, who joined the staff of the Reagan White House while in his late 20's, worked from 1982 to 1986 in the counsel's office there dealing with virtually every major issue that came before the administration, including civil rights, the invasion of Grenada, immigration and the separation of powers. About 4,000 pages of his files from the White House years are available at the Ronald Reagan Presidential...

Lyn Nofziger, a White House aide under Ronald Reagan, is a Washington political consultant. Four years ago, when Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush selected Richard Cheney as his running mate, the word among political pundits was Cheney brought much-needed gravitas to the ticket. From the dictionary, where most people had to go because they'd never heard the word, the world learned gravitas means seriousness of purpose. A person with real gravitas is a mental heavyweight. Bush was seen by his critics to lack gravitas and Cheney assertedly balanced the Republican ticket by bringing gravitas to it. Yesterday Massachusetts Sen....

Political pundits today hailed the selection of North Carolina Senator John Edwards as the running mate for Senator John Kerry as adding much needed levitas to the Democratic Party ticket.Dan Rather opined that, even though Mr. Edwards was adequately unpopular in his own state that he dared not run for reelection there, his "youthful, telegenic appearance will bring a certain levitas to the Democratic ticket."Katie Couric, exuding the perky yet cute analytical ability for which she is so justly acclaimed, said "Edwards' levitas will more than balance what otherwise is a tedious, pontificating, and patronizing ticket. When asked to define...

Did any of you watch the entire Washington Journal show on C-SPAN yesterday? There was a leftist author named Daniel Levitas, who was promoting a book titled: "The Terrorist Next Door". Was the author discussing the terrorism of middle-eastern immigrants like Mohammed Atta, or the animal rights fanatics at ELF? No. That did not concern him. His book focuses exclusively on so-called "right-wing" extremists, of the sorts found in so-called "right-wing militias". Included in that group of right-wing terrorists, are anti-tax protesters, gun owners, those who thought Randy Weaver got a raw deal from the government, critics of Janet Reno's...