What do you do in a novel? You take recognizable characters from your own life, and you fantasize about what they're really like.

Bush the Elder's stature as president grows with every passing year. He was the finest foreign policy president I've ever covered and a man who defied his party on tax increases while imposing budget restrictions on the Democrats.

The Democrats current crudeness is a function of their desperation, and the imminent ratification of Howard Dean, the least charming presidential candidate in recent memory, as their party chairman only serves to punctuate the problem.

Political courage requires clarity. The Obama Administration chose the tortured route of arguing the legality of the individual mandate via the interstate commerce clause for one simple reason: it did not want to take the political risk of allowing opponents to call it a tax increase. That was stupid. The Republicans were calling it a tax increase anyway.

Dictating to dictators doesn't work; they are congenitally delusional about their own indispensability.

I got into journalism because I came of age in the '60s. It just seemed one way for me to get things done.

I think that if you make a strong statement of principle, even if the folks disagree with you, people will respect you for it.