Free Republic

Make no mistake. Summer is over for America -- and George Bush. That unifying image of Bush atop the pile of debris in Lower Manhattan days after Sept. 11 has been displaced by ugly accusations and recriminations over who lost New Orleans. Katrina has exposed the limits of federal power and the absence of a serious set of national priorities.In New Orleans, those who relied on government -- the New Orleans police, the mayor, Gov. Blanco, FEMA -- suffered most. Those who relied on themselves for food, water and safety from marauding mobs of rapists and looters, with guns in...

As the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg was being whistled through the Senate, a morose friend called, "Can you believe it? The vote was 96-3!" "Who were the other two?" I asked. We laughed. For we did not need to be told where Jesse Helms stood on elevating to the Supreme Court an ACLU activist like Judge Ginsburg. If one were to name the two elected leaders of the last third of the 20th century who best represented the conservative creed in national politics, they would be Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms. It is a defining difference between a traditional...