What's Your Legacy?

It was 'Morning in America' twenty-five years ago as Ronald Reagan was inaugurated the 40th President of the United States. Within minutes, the mad mullahs of Iran simultaneously soiled their sacred sheets and had 52 American hostages in a plane eating peanuts and guzzling Cokes on their way home after 14 months of captivity in Tehran. Why? The mullahs understood a new day had dawned in Washington D.C. and they wouldn't be wrangling with the likes of Jimmy Carter anymore. For the next eight years and beyond, America only got better every day. Taxes went down; government became less intrusive. And as people kept more of what was theirs, federal revenues went up. Inflation went away. The government got a little smaller and the military got a lot bigger and stronger. Democracy flourished around the world, communism died and (despite the best efforts of the American Left) the good guys won The Cold War. Over his two terms, liberal pundits assailed Reagan alternately as "a dumb actor," a "senile old fool," and a "maniac" whose lack of nuance would lead to economic and/or nuclear catastrophe. They claimed spiraling budget deficits from military spending would bankrupt the country. Undeterred, President Reagan led America and the world with optimism, good humor, vision and unshakeable faith in the goodness of our people and our system. He communicated with the American people and he connected, advancing his agenda and winning two landslide elections. History has proven Reagan was right and the pundits were wrong as the world became more peaceful and the economic policies of his presidency set the stage for decades of prosperity and growth. He left the greatest legacy of any president of the 20th century not because he sought one, but because he had the courage to do difficult things that were fundamentally good. We still miss him today... It's late afternoon for the Bush legacy as Dubya delivers his State of the Union speech this week. The early betting is that, despite empty threats of a filibuster, new Associate Justice Sam Alito will don his best black dress for a primetime front row seat at the speech where he will be recognized as the newest justice. Any way you look at it, two SCOTUS appointments within one year... in the current political environment... is an extraordinary achievement. While Ronald Reagan was blessed with a loyal opposition party he could work with (Remember the likes of O'Neill and Moynihan?), George Bush has been blessed with one so rabidly partisan, shrill and intellectually dishonest that he pulls out the occasional win in spite of himself (Remember Harriet Miers?). The early indications are that Alito will help tilt the court to the right. Roberts, too. We'll see. Proving he was human, Reagan thought the same thing about the now-departing O'Connor. Unless we can win the War on Terror, kill Osama on live TV, close the borders, indict and convict a Senator or two for treason or slash runaway spending within the next thirty months, Bush's legacy is likely to be the future performance of his high court picks. We'll just have to wait and see... My, oh my...that's a nasty cough, Justice Ginsburg. Sounds like it could be something serious. At your age, that's nothing to trifle with. You don't look good. You should take better care of yourself. You're working too hard. Get some rest. Perhaps it's time for you to consider retirement... write a couple of books... give a few speeches at Columbia... move to France. We appreciate your many years of service. You've taught us America can endure decades of the worst kind of wrong-headed liberal thinking on our highest court. You've given us faith in the resilience of our system of government. And don't worry about us. We've got a wonderful judge who can take your seat on the bench. Her name is Janice Rogers Brown. She's young, healthy and experienced. She'll be around for a generation or so! Just like Roberts and Alito. Except she writes and speaks more like Scalia. And that's nothing to sneeze at. Oh, gesundheit. You really should get that checked out. Now, go... please, Ruth. And take that incontinent commie Stevens with you....