A GOP Contract with America for 2010
Republicans need a platform this year modeled on Newt Gingrich's 1994 plan, emphasizing jobs, cutting debt and repairing the president's health care law. Eight weeks to Election Day, and still no sign of an updated "Contract with America," the famous Republican campaign manifesto of 1994. Party …A Sex Scandal Without Any Sex
British Foreign Secretary William Hague is at the center of a media firestorm over rumors he got up to something naughty with a handsome young male staffer. Imagine you are a newspaper editor. Your reporters whisper to you that a certain important politician is gay. The man's married, which makes …Reading the Worried Mind of Tim Geithner
If you could read Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's mind, you might find that he's praying for more time. William Safire used to write a column in which he'd try to read the mind of some world leader and imagine what Mikhail Gorbachev or Anwar Sadat really thought, as opposed to the diplomatic …Iraq in Hindsight
The last U.S. combat forces exit Iraq this week. The argument over Iraq is still nowhere near finished. The last U.S. combat forces exit Iraq this week. The argument over Iraq is still nowhere near finished. The costs of the Iraq war are evident to all. Now consider an alternative universe, …Poland Makes Peace with Its Jews
Outside of Israel, I've never seen Jewish history commemorated the way it is in Poland. The last time I saw Krakow was the summer of 1990. Communist power had ended in Poland, but old ways continued. The police still barked orders. The buildings moldered. The air still choked with brown …Will Republicans Learn from Cameron Conservatives?
Tory leader David Cameron has promised not to deliver more conservatism than the electorate will bear. The GOP would do well to study his method. The new Conservative-Liberal coalition government in the United Kingdom marks its 100th day in office this week: How’s it doing? It could be said …U.S. Role in Poland Shrinking
Although inevitable and gradual, the dwindling of American importance, not only in Poland but in other liberated countries in central Europe as well, is a real and large fact of life. I first visited Poland in 1990, just after the end of communist rule. Back then, the United States meant …As the Newt Turns
Newt Gingrich’s campaign for president took a hard, hard punch this week, after Esquire published a profile of Gingrich spiced up by quotations from his second wife. Newt Gingrich’s campaign for the U.S. presidency just took a hard, hard punch. This week, Esquire magazine published a …Recovering Europe's Past
As the disfigurement of the Cold War recedes, Europe is reclaiming a brighter, better history. I last visited Berlin 20 years ago, in the summer of 1990. My wife and I traveled through newly ex-communist Poland, Hungary, both halves of the soon to be disunited Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. I …Bristol Palin and the Future of Marriage
Last week, a federal judge declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right. Meanwhile, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston again broke up their on-again, off-again romance. Last week, a federal judge declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right. Meanwhile, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston again …Time for a North American Carbon Policy
A Canada-U.S. agreement on greenhouse gasses could provide a blueprint for addressing climate change across the globe. A loophole Canada once demanded in the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement now threatens to bite the Canadian energy industry. The loophole allows either country to impose tariffs …Obamacare's Stealth Assault on Small Business
An obscure provision in the new health-care law will require entrepreneurs to spend a great deal more time filling out tax forms. It’s not the sort of change that should have been sneaked through. Small-business owners face a world of troubles these days: a weak economy, impending health-care …Time for U.S. Government Yard Sale
Some say that the United States is incurring too much debt. Others that the worst recession since World War II is no time to cut spending or raise taxes. They're both right. Some say that the United States is incurring too much debt, more than $1 trillion in the past fiscal year. Others say …Lord Conrad Black of Canada
Conrad Black has contributed enormously to Canada's public life. It is time for him to be allowed back home. Now that Conrad Black is released from prison, where does he go? He’d like to go home, to the house his parents built and that he lovingly enlarged. That is out of the question …Shirley Sherrod and the Shame of Conservative Media
When Andrew Breitbart unveils a selectively edited tape to defame a federal employee, conservatives blame Barack Obama. You want to see media bias in action? Okay — look at the conservative media reaction to the firing of Shirley Sherrod. Sherrod is the former U.S. Department of Agriculture …What's Wrong with the Obama White House?
Full employment is the best political strategy. And when a president fails to deliver, there's not much his spin doctors can do to save him. A friend of mine used to be an investor in a football team. Among the reasons he eventually sold out: He was tired of hearing everybody he met, from his …Where is the Outrage?
With 4 million long-term unemployed, and no new jobs, we're still waiting for the protests to start. I take seriously — and normally accept — the argument that overly generous unemployment benefits will prolong unemployment and invite dependency. But if I were a Republican senator, I’d vote …