I learned in an article the other week that Ehud Barak is a pianist. Who knew? (Maybe everybody, but not me.) I mention this in Impromptus today, and I also list some other pianists we have known in politics — including Paderewski, of course. One I left out was Helmut Schmidt. A reader has reminded me of this. I had meant to include Schmidt, but I forgot, in the stress of hurricanes, Medicare deception, and so on. Schmidt actually made some recordings — but because he was chancellor, I think. Should we begrudge a man a leg up?

Some will argue that the list ought to include Truman and Nixon. But you have to draw the line somewhere. And incidentally, David Bar-Illan was a real pianist. There came a time when I kept seeing the name “David Bar-Illan” in print, as a writer and editor — ultimately as a politico, of a sort: He was communications director to Bibi. I thought, “Could it be the pianist? How many David Bar-Illans can be there?” It was the pianist.

(He contributed to National Review, by the way — and he made international news in a piece for us. He wrote that the Clinton administration worked to defeat the incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu, and elect the challenger — Ehud Barak. I have just Googled up a news article, here. Today, of course, Bibi and Barak are working hand-in-glove. You think the Obama administration wants to defeat them? The problem for Obama is that there is no alternative in Israel now — the national-security Left has shrunk to nothing. Wonder why.)