Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:33:28 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss David M. Shribman :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/David+M.+Shribman istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/voters-come-home/86700/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST There's a lot of talk, most of it silly, about the dynamics at play as we head toward October in the presidential campaign. Maybe there's virtue in cutting away a lot of the chaff by describing the state of play in a sentence: Voters are coming home, because events are nudging them there. It's about time. This is an important election, this is a symbolic election, this is a high-intensity election, this is a high-interest election. Until now it was also an odd election: The Republican base... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/let-the-debates-begin/86224/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST They helped affirm the importance of television in American politics, making John F. Kennedy a star. They showed the political passion of Ronald Reagan, making the question of whether you are better off than you were four years ago one of the standard measures of American life. They demonstrated the importance of body language in the body politic, assuring that no exasperated presidential candidate ever would follow George H.W. Bush's example and look at his watch in the middle of an exchange... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/will-palin-be-a-knockout/85755/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST They're off. The sprint to the general election has begun, and so have the calculations, interrogations, interpretations, and exaggerations. The last two elections were nearly dead heats. This one begins the September stretch with John McCain and Barack Obama very close in the polls — and with more than half the states already ruled out of contention by one side or the other. Right now Senator McCain is enjoying an unusually large convention bump — the second biggest in modern history, as... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/heres-my-biden-story/84915/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Senator Biden has been around so long — he was elected to the Senate in 1972, when Senator Obama was 11 — that just about anyone involved in politics has a Biden story. Here's mine. It was the second week of September in 1987. Presidential contenders from both parties were converging on Chapel Hill, N.C., for one of those phony events that politicians hold and reporters love, and in those pre-Web days all the political correspondents and all the candidates could fit in one hotel. After dinner I... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/case-for-a-bipartisan-cabinet/83938/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Recent political polls have shown that the slice of Americans who consider themselves independents is about the same size or bigger than those who consider themselves Republicans or Democrats. If that's the case, then why should the candidate who wins the November election surround himself exclusively with members of his own party? There's only one answer: tradition. That's not a good answer for anything in the first decade of a new century, and if it were, all your daughters would be spending... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/autumn-battle-for-the-granite-state/83463/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST FRANCONIA NOTCH, N.H. — This year's New Hampshire primary was a dud. The presidential candidates roared out of Iowa, spent a mere five days in New Hampshire, then careered down to South Carolina. The vaunted first-in-the-nation primary was reduced to a drive-by. But in a nation with no second acts — the line belongs to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who spent a memorably boozy Winter Carnival at Dartmouth while working on an execrable screenplay with Budd Schulberg in 1939 — New Hampshire is being... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/the-durability-of-nixon/83031/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST YORBA LINDA, Calif. — The house was built from a kit, like so many in that time and in this place, and Frank Nixon, who was handy and ambitious, added a fireplace to the plan. There was a piano in the parlor — Frank's son would tickle the keys as a child and later into adulthood — and all around the house stood lemon and orange trees, watered from the Santa Ana River. These were humble enough beginnings — most of our Republican presidents, apart from Theodore Roosevelt and the Bushes, grew up... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/one-more-day-of-summer/82617/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST HART'S LOCATION, N.H. — There are only a few days left. When it started, this year's vacation — like last year, and the year before — looked like the White Mountains themselves, an expanse of peaks that seemed endless, a horizon that seemed to have no end. And now it is almost over, like last year, and the year before. As we arrived in these New Hampshire hills, my favorite place on Earth, there was world enough, and time — time to visit all of my haunts, time to explore the paths I know so... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/nelson-and-lyndon/81694/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Both Nelson Rockefeller and Lyndon Johnson were born 100 years ago this summer. Their legacies speak to us still. One was born in the family summer cottage in Bar Harbor, Maine. The other was born in a house without electricity near Stonewall, Texas. One was reared amid the greatest riches in the world at the time. The other was reared in struggle and poverty. One grew up with the glitter and lights of New York City. The other grew up in the hardscrabble of Texas hill country. Nelson... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/boulevard-of-the-allies/80818/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST PITTSBURGH — In all of the sunshine fun and seaspray of summer, the small celebration being conducted along the eastern spine of Pittsburgh on Sunday will attract scant attention. Highway rededications are small, fleeting events. There will be speeches that soon will be forgotten, and commemorative coins, and a military jet fly-over. Then there will be a bicycle race. But in some ways, what is to happen on the street where this column is being typed has a larger meaning, one worth pondering as... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/leaking-the-vp-list/80393/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST With the nomination fights over but the conventions not yet called to order, political attention naturally falls on a post that, in most administrations, gets no attention whatsoever. That is the vice presidency, "the most insignificant office," John Adams, its first occupant, said, "that ever the invention of man contrived." So insignificant that Daniel Webster refused the nomination in 1828, saying that he did not "propose to be buried until I am dead." Precisely a century and a half later... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/its-going-to-be-quite-a-battle/80017/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST This is shaping up as quite a presidential election: a close campaign taking on the trappings of what generals call "total war." If you find the phrase discomfiting, recall that the word "campaign" comes from the military world, and remember that Ulysses S. Grant fought the Wilderness Campaign of 1864 four years before he engaged in his first presidential campaign. (He won both.) This is, to keep the martial metaphor, a war with several fronts. Some are obvious: issues such as abortion... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/curing-our-politics-the-mcgovern-goldwater-plan/76568/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST George McGovern and Barry Goldwater disagreed about the Vietnam War, Social Security, military spending, and tax policy. But they have two things in common: They both lost election landslides that shaped their parties more than most election victories do. They also share a very good idea about how Americans should conduct their campaigns. Goldwater died 10 years ago this month, and Mr. McGovern is 85 years old. Goldwater was born when Theodore Roosevelt was president, Mr. McGovern when Warren... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/democrats-see-no-winner/75294/ Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST PITTSBURGH — It seems so quiet around here, and a bit lonely, too. They're gone. Vanished. No signs in the streets, no ads on television. No irritating automatic phone calls. The whole political road show has moved on, to Indiana and North Carolina and parts beyond. To places where nobody knows your bowling score. But before we here in Pennsylvania move on — the forsythia are in bloom, and we hardly noticed until Wednesday morning — it would be well to pause for just a moment to reflect on what... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/portraits-of-candidates-beliefs/74944/ Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST PITTSBURGH — The White House is often transformed along with its occupant. The Oval Office rug has been changed 10 times since the years before the Great Depression, from the green of Herbert Hoover to the pale gold of George W. Bush. The dark green drapes of the Franklin Roosevelt years have been replaced eight times and now are antique gold. The rugs and drapes reflect changing fashions, and so do the wall appointments. Ronald Reagan hung a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office and... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/inspiration-vs-experience/74514/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST PITTSBURGH — Here's a news flash from the front lines of political Pennsylvania: It is becoming increasingly clear that the central elements of both Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's campaign pitches are deeply flawed. One is arguing that experience will lead to excellence in the presidency. The other is arguing that hope and eloquence are the elixir of democracy. For two highly educated, sophisticated, and nuanced political figures, they have learned their handlers' lessons not wisely but... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/greatest-primary-of-all/72100/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST HANOVER, N.H. — For many of them it was the time of their lives. It certainly was the cause of their lives. It may still be the center of their lives. And though it happened 40 years ago this month, it remains one of the pivot points of our politics. There have been monumental political contests before and since, but it is possible that no single presidential primary has ever had the passion, the impact and the historical significance of what 55,000 voters and several hundred volunteers did in... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/keep-your-distance/71702/ Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST The thing about the presidency is that it's usually nontransferable. You can clip a coupon from the newspaper and pass it on to a friend. If you get a ticket to a ball game, you can pass that on, too. But if you have the presidency — or if you have it listed on your resume — you can't pass it on. There are exceptions, of course. James Madison wanted James Monroe, his secretary of state — and his secretary of war — to ascend to the White House. Thomas Jefferson supported Monroe as well... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/glorious-mess/70977/ Fri, 8 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST We have a Republican front-runner who is weak in the states the Republicans need to carry in the general election. We have a Democratic insurgent who wins states no Democrat can hope to carry in November. We have a Republican leader who is strong in states that have been resiliently Democratic for a generation. We have a Democratic establishment figure who has struggled with capturing the minority votes that have been the bedrock of the Democratic base for half a century. We have a mess. We... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/coveted-electorate/69883/ Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Memo to presidential candidates: Spare your allusions to the Great Depression, the New Deal and World War II. Lose the references to the uprising in Hungary and to Sputnik. Drop those John F. Kennedy quotes — and the ones from Bobby, too. While you're at it, you may as well can the comparisons to the Vietnam War. The median-age voter in 2008 wasn't even born when it started. This election year brings a major adjustment in the vision of the electorate, from a group of voters who had vivid... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/rolling-the-dice-after-abe/68455/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Not since Dwight Eisenhower asked for a week to think about the contributions Vice President Nixon made to his administration has a former American president so prominently entered a campaign for the White House. But Bill Clinton neatly framed much of last week's campaign debate when he suggested that supporters of Senator Obama were willing to "roll the dice" on the presidency. Mr. Clinton's intention was clear: to suggest that, unlike Senator Clinton of New York, the Illinois Democrat doesn't... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/better-than-reality-television/67321/ Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — We are heading into uncharted territory. We have the first important test of the presidential season on a Thursday night. We have the second important test five days later. We have candidates preparing to campaign through the holiday week between Christmas and New Year's Day. We have a woman heading the Democratic field. We have a Mormon making a strong play in the Republican field. We have a minister-governor from the last president's tiny hometown coming up fast in the... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/websters-wisdom/61841/ Tue, 4 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST HANOVER, N.H. — For the next several months New Hampshire will wrestle with what makes a good president. The state's presence at the top of the presidential primaries gives it special prominence, maybe even special perspective. And so, while it ponders the qualities that make for greatness in the chief executive, perhaps it is useful to examine what New Hampshire's greatest native son had to say about the subject. Daniel Webster spent much of his adult life thinking about the presidency... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/prisoner-of-a-narrative/60860/ Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST Hillary Clinton is rigid, cautious, and steely. Barack Obama is dangerously inexperienced. John Edwards is a narcissistic hypocrite. Joseph Biden can't express a thought in less than 25 minutes. Christopher Dodd is making sense but nobody's paying attention. But, then again, Rudolph Giuliani is hot-tempered and not particularly solicitous of civil liberties. Mitt Romney is a flip-flopping opportunist. John McCain is a doomed defender of the Iraq war. Sam Brownback is a hopeless religious... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/youre-still-the-same/58927/ Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST The discomfiting question now being confronted by Democrats, who desperately want change in Washington, is whether the thirst for change in the party might imperil its front-runner, not help her. We all know the advantages that former President Clinton confers on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He has the star power, the easy elegance, the great smile, plus he carries a reminder that the financial markets can roar even if the big-government, high-tax, pro-regulation, vaguely... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/twilight-of-a-presidency/58052/ Mon, 9 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST You know it's the twilight of a presidency when the chief executive starts worrying about the past instead of the future. That's what President Bush, who is not exactly the biggest reader in the country, has been doing. He's been reading like mad. About the Algerian War between 1954 and 1962. About the run up to World War II. About the Colonial period and the Revolutionary War. Some of it, no doubt, is in his environment . He lives in the most historic dwelling in the nation. Pictures of his... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/into-the-sawtooth-mountains/57614/ Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Why is it that the days that are the longest are the days we wish were even longer? We always go into the mountains this time of year, knowing that the long days at the midpoint of the calendar assure that we get more than our money's worth of summer. And that's without taking into account the way snowy Decker Peak looks this time of year — think of it as a craggy old man at day's end, wearing an antique white nightcap — or the American bald eagle we saw banking into the mountains, dipping down... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/right-about-nothing/55207/ Fri, 25 May 2007 00:00:00 EST The whole mess began when Jimmy Carter, who entered the national consciousness by saying he'd never lie to the American people, said that the Bush administration's foreign policy was "the worst in history," adding that President Bush's invasion of Iraq was "a radical departure from all previous administration policies" and suggesting that Mr. Bush was the lone American president who didn't honor the separation of powers. Then he said he didn't quite mean it the way it came out. The polls... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/ideological-iconography/50153/ Fri, 9 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST One of the ways to gain insight into politics is to track the creation or exploitation of icons. In this respect, politics is a bit like religion, for there is real power in making new imagery or motivating others through old imagery. Right now — admittedly, very early in the presidential election cycle — the Republicans are bereft of imagery, while the Democrats are swimming in it. Last week, for example, Senators Clinton and Obama walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Mrs. Clinton's husband... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/vanishing-campaigners/49655/ Fri, 2 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST My guess is that the withdrawal of the former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, from the presidential race made no impression whatsoever on you. It may be that the abbreviated presidential campaign of Mr. Vilsack made no impression whatsoever on the 2008 race. But this much you can count on: The fact that Mr. Vilsack no longer is a candidate for president is one of the most significant things to happen in American domestic politics in a decade. On any level, Mr. Vilsack was a plausible candidate... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/offensive-charge/46561/ Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST Supporters and detractors agree: He's not your off-the-rack president. He doesn't conform to expectations. He doesn't do things the way his predecessors did. He may not be exceptional — let's postpone for the moment a discussion of how he'll rank in history — but President Bush may be the presidential exception that proves the rule. Until last week, no one ever thought of this rule, but among modern presidents, Mr. Bush may be the first to break it: Chief executives don't undertake major... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/president-without-pretense/45911/ Fri, 29 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST He was a president without pretense, a man without illusion. He didn't think he was a visionary, he didn't think he was a big thinker, and he knew that he, alone among America's chief executives, had never been elected. He was, he liked to say, a Ford, not a Lincoln. But now that he is gone — now that Gerald Ford of Grand Rapids has died — it is clear that while Richard Nixon's successor and pardoner was wrong about a lot of little things, he was right about a few big things. He pardoned... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/minting-all-the-presidents/45643/ Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST There is no more revered spot in America, from its founding as a mercantile nation, than on the country's coins. Here reside George Washington, who won the colonies their freedom, Thomas Jefferson, who put the new nation's philosophy into poetry, Abraham Lincoln, who saved America in its greatest hour of peril, and Franklin Roosevelt, who preserved capitalism and then democracy. In grief we put John Kennedy's image on a half-dollar, and in respect we put Susan Anthony and Sacagawea on the... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/one-each-of-everything-in-new-hampshire/44873/ Fri, 8 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — Just how many presidential candidates can you shove into one tiny state? New Hampshire crowded in eight candidates in 1972 (nine, if you count the comedian Pat Paulsen, who got 1,211 votes). There were 10 in 1976 (when President Ford defeated Governor Reagan by 1,587 votes). Last time around, in 2004, seven Democrats campaigned in New Hampshire (President Bush had no significant opposition in his drive to renomination that year). So how many candidates can the 1.4 million... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/new-hampshire-is-middle-america/44166/ Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST LEBANON, N.H. — There is a frosty undertow to the winds right now. Earlier in the afternoon, walking around the pond, I felt winter's chill breath on the back of my neck. Right now, at dusk, the temperature at the peak of Mount Washington is 18 degrees, and it won't be long before snow drapes the evergreens here on the lower elevations. But what is also being transformed, even faster than the atmosphere, is the landscape. It is changing, day by day, girding for what will come on the wintry... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/lincoln-at-200/43742/ Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST He was a man of faint faith, and yet he is remembered as the greatest believer in American history. He was a man of jokes and gags, and yet he harbored more hurt, more sadness, more loss, than any public man of his time or of any other. He was an uncertain man, and yet he is remembered for articulating the great certainties in our national life. He was a humble man, and yet he is acclaimed as the greatest American of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born 197 years ago, which is about the least... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/democratic-challenge/43412/ Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST That was the easy part. Taking over Congress, that is. Let's face the truth here: Scoring a triumph over Republicans who themselves were impatient with the Republican record during an unpopular war was no great achievement, despite the great deal of celebrating that it prompted among Democratic partisans. Indeed, the startling thing would have been if, under these circumstances, the Democrats hadn't prevailed. But they did, and though only a few days have passed since the big moment, a sobering... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/not-tet-again/42175/ Tue, 24 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST We're fighting the Vietnam War again. It may have been a mistake to fight it the first time. It certainly is a mistake to fight it now. But here we have even President Bush, in a stunning betrayal of his own war narrative, acknowledging commentators' thesis that the vicious upsurge in violence in Iraq this month could produce a 21st-century replay of the Tet Offensive. Try that notion out in a freshman history seminar and watch your grade-point plummet. Historians even now can't agree whether... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/changing-congress/41531/ Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Since you're wondering — wondering how likely a Democratic takeover of the House is right now — I'll provide you the answer one of the shrewdest political analysts around might give. "Momentum," Jim Leyland said, "is as good as your next day's pitcher." Mr. Leyland, of course, is the manager of the Detroit Tigers, and momentum is what the Democrats have in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal and the apparent remarkable Republican crackup of autumn 2006. So the smart people are saying the... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hints-emerge-about-2008/41088/ Fri, 6 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Elections are stories. They have beginnings, middles, and ends, and like stories, they have narratives. In the middle of the story it's often hard to know how the tale is going to conclude. But a good storyteller seeds his tales with hints, and the discerning reader or listener picks them up along the way. So we're in the middle of a story right now. We know it began with a controversial war, with an unpredictable economy, with bitter social issues swirling in the background, with control of... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/know-nothings/40599/ Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Here's something you might not know if you haven't had a five-minute conversation with an 18-year-old in the past 12 months: America's young know almost nothing about what happened before they were born, or even before last year. This is not a stunning find about a group that thinks the first step of research is to type a few key words into a search engine and see what pops up, and that thinks that "oldies" are songs that were performed sometime in the 1990s. Of course young people know almost... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/kittys-life-saver/40227/ Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST You haven't heard from Kitty Dukakis for a long time. Not that she's disappeared. The wife of the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee has been toiling quietly, doing good works, helping to resettle refugees and to rekindle the American conscience. But Mrs. Dukakis is being quiet no longer, and she has something to tell us all. It's not that she suffers from depression. A lot of people already knew that, were aware of it for decades, and Mrs. Dukakis herself long has admitted to resorting to... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/saving-starr-king/39743/ Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST It's not quite fair to accuse the California legislature of tinkering with history, but what the lawmakers did earlier this month came awfully close. They wiped one of the giants of the state's past out of history, or at least out of Statuary Hall. Since 1931 a statue of Thomas Starr King, a Unitarian and Universalist minister who was an ardent advocate of the Union during the Civil War, has stood in the U.S. Capitol, amid a collection that includes such other figures as Henry Clay, Samuel... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/watchmen-on-freedoms-wall/39356/ Fri, 8 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Four planes were hijacked, three of them were rammed into signature American buildings, and the terrorist threat came home for the first time. This changed everything, the commentators chanted, and no one disagreed. But it wasn't the great historical change that so many people expected, and it's worth understanding why. All this happened five years ago Monday, one of those days (it was a Tuesday, as unforgettable a part of the narrative as the fact that Pearl Harbor was a Sunday) that seems to... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/looming-contest/38954/ Fri, 1 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST It's Labor Day Weekend, and that means more than parades, barbecues, ball games, and the last swims of the season. It is also the traditional beginning of the political season, and this year — with a war in Iraq and uncertainty in the economy — the stakes are higher than usual: nothing less than control of the Congress in the last two years of President Bush's administration. Often midterm congressional and gubernatorial elections have no theme. Political professionals are fond of regarding... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/independent-lieberman/38567/ Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Joseph Lieberman was clocked in his Democratic primary fight against Ned Lamont this month but has vowed to fight on, as an Independent, to retain one of Connecticut's two seats in the Senate. He may win, and if he does, he says he'll then declare himself a Democrat and go on as if nothing happened. But something did happen, and Mr. Lieberman is kidding himself if he thinks it didn't. Though a Democratic primary in a northeastern state in the middle of a sizzling summer doesn't exactly bring... DAVID SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/like-father-like-son/38178/ Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST The sons are rising, or at least are trying to. Three of them are trying to redeem their fathers for their losses in the 1980 election — and using the political brands their fathers created to win high office in a world completely transformed in the past quarter-century. Three of the Democratic victims of the 1980 Republican earthquake have sons running hard now — Jimmy Carter (Jack Carter is a candidate for Senate in Nevada), Sen. Birch Bayh (Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is a likely Democratic... DAVID M. SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/from-the-stern/37747/ Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Township of Muskoka Lanes, Ontario — It is that special time of day, in that special time of year, when the air is quiet, the water is cool, the lake is still and the conditions are perfect, in this perfect place, for reflection. That's what lakes, and vacations, and canoes, are for. Just a moment ago I was out on the lake, alone but for my paddle and my thoughts, looking at my reflection in the mirror that the water forms at this hour, in this season, on this lake in a tranquil corner of... DAVID M. SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/elders-are-watching/37331/ Fri, 4 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST The party elders are watching. They're watching television, and they're watching the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, and there had better not be a disparaging word about any of them. In the long war against negative advertisements in politics, there never has been anything quite like the board of elders the Democrats have set up as they work to win back the governor's office on Beacon Hill for the first time since Michael Dukakis held it, an eon ago in 1991. This is how it will work: If... DAVID M. SHRIBMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/full-of-grace/36923/ Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST As national anniversaries go, the 25th anniversary being celebrated tomorrow is not one to shake the rafters. It is in no almanacs, it spawns no parades, it prompts the wearing of no national costumes. But the 25th anniversary of the last time Jim Ramstad had a drink still is worth noting. Now unless you're a faithful reader of the Congressional Record or a resident of the southern suburbs of Minnesota's Twin Cities, you may never have heard of Mr. Ramstad. No matter. The important thing is...