Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.

Most presidents come to Washington bright as freshly minted dimes and leave much diminished.

Arizonans should not be judged disdainfully and from a distance by people whose closest contacts with Hispanics are with fine men and women who trim their lawns and put plates in front of them at restaurants, not with illegal immigrants passing through their backyards at 3 A.M.

The 1935 Social Security Act established 65 as the age of eligibility for payouts. But welfare state politics quickly becomes a bidding war, enriching the menu of benefits, so in 1956 Congress entitled women to collect benefits at 62, extending the entitlement to men in 1961.

The strongest continuous thread in America's political tradition is skepticism about government.

Well, you know, the definition of second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.