For all its faults, it is partisanship - based on core principles- that clarifies our debates, that prevents one party from straying too far from the mainstream and that constantly refreshes our politics with new ideas and new leaders.

Does life have any meaningful purpose?

That's pretty tough talk from a guy who has fewer days at work this year than he has houses.

Without any coherent international blueprint the White House has bombed its way around the globe, while dropping troops far and wide for ill-defined peacemaking duties. This policy has gutted the American military which now must be rebuilt.

My friends, there is no Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is only the global war on terrorism.

It's the arrogance of man to think that man can change the climate of the world. Only nature can change the climate. A volcano, for instance.

It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.