The weakest argument in favor of ratification of the CTBT was that failure to approve it would embarrass the President. Unlike the CTBT, the impossibility of embarassing Clinton is verifiable.

The Washington Post's Helen Dewar, in her "objective" news account of the Senate's rejection of the test-ban treaty: It "represented another collapse of bipartisanship in a Congress characterized by a high degree of strife and paralysis."

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D., N.Y.), in an interview with Civilization magazine: "I find that true antagonism of a partisan mode is rather less in evidence than it has been in the past. What has happened is a muddle, and a search for authority and legitimacy from outside groups that do not have any commitment to the political process or political parties."

Pat Buchanan originally promised to tell the world by tomorrow whether he would quit the Republicans and seek the Reform Party's presidential nomination. Now he's asked for a 10-day extension. The new deadline is October 25. This is starting to look less like conviction and more like calculation.

Looking for a corrective to Edmund Morris's bio-fictional account of Ronald Reagan? Try "Architects of Victory: Six Heroes of the Cold War," written by Joseph Shattan and published by the Heritage Foundation. His chapter on Reagan is a good summary of the man's life, career, and importance. "Ronald Reagan's convictions about freedom and tyranny were rooted in the bedrock of American experience, and his courage reflected the quiet self-confidence of the American heartland," writes Shattan.
Shattan's other five "heroes" are Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, Conrad Adenauer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Pope John Paul II. The book is available in hardcover ($19.95) and paperback ($11.95) by calling 1-800-544-4843 or sending an email to pubs@heritage.org.

Updated By:
Ramesh Ponnuru - Senior Editor
John J. Miller - National Political Reporter
Kate Dwyer - Editorial Associate