The Man Who Would be King Is our U.N. ambassador running for president of Afghanistan? In April 2005, when President Bush decided to transfer Zalmay Khalilzad from Afghanistan to Iraq, Afghan President Hamid Karzai complained. The Afghan-born Khalilzad had been serving as U.S. ambassador to his native country, and his relationship with Karzai–which dated back to the late 1990s, when both...
Angry White Man The bigoted past of Ron Paul. If you are a critic of the Bush administration, chances are that, at some point over the past six months, Ron Paul has said something that appealed to you. Paul describes himself as a libertarian, but, since his presidential campaign took off earlier this year, the Republican congressman has...
On Firm Ground During a heated exchange in the apartheid-era South African parliament, a senior government minister scolded Helen Suzman, then the lone member of the body that opposed the racially discriminatory system. As a parliamentarian, Mrs. Suzman was a perpetual thorn in the side of the regime, frequently asking questions that exposed the horrors of apartheid, and...
Buddy System A corrupt mayor’s kitschy comeback. Providence, Rhode Island — Hanging in the plaque-adorned hallway of WPRO-AM, the local talk-radio station, is a first-place local news award for a 2002 series called “Mayor Indicted.” The series delved into the exploits of Providence’s longest-serving mayor, Vincent Albert “Buddy” Cianci Jr., who was found guilty of conspiring to extort...
The Enterprising American A Bush policy guru’s dicey past March 9, 2006, was a bad day for the White House. Weeks before, Claude Allen, the president’s chief domestic policy adviser, had resigned, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Then, on March 9, Allen was charged with having stolen some $5,000 worth of merchandise from Washington-area...
