The Week

■ For eight years we heard about “Reagan Democrats.” Four years of George Bush, and we’ve got Clinton Republicans.

■ When a skilled Washington high-wire act like Environmental Protection Agency chief William K. Reilly thinks he can get away with leaning into your airspace, watch out—maybe you’re in the wrong seat. Reilly, a Rockefeller Republican who was a longtime environmental lobbyist before being tapped for the EPA post, circulated a memo to 12,000 agency employees criticizing his President for not getting even more swept up by eco-hysteria at the Rio “Earth Summit.” The Administration response: Reilly was invited to address the Convention in Houston. To put this in context, remember that the EPA staff has grown by more than 20 per cent under Mr. Bush, and that the Agency itself estimated that in 1990 it cost every American about $450 in higher prices and taxes. Sounds like there’s an endangered species in here somewhere. But we can’t tell who.

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Presidential Election

Milton Friedman

■ For eight years we heard about “Reagan Democrats.” Four years of George Bush, and we’ve got Clinton Republicans.

■ When a skilled Washington high-wire act like Environmental Protection Agency chief William K. Reilly thinks he can get away with leaning into your airspace, watch out—maybe you’re in the wrong seat. Reilly, a Rockefeller Republican who was a longtime environmental lobbyist before being tapped for the EPA post, circulated a memo to 12,000 agency employees criticizing his President for not getting even more swept up by eco-hysteria at the Rio “Earth Summit.” The Administration response: Reilly was invited to address the Convention in Houston. To put this in context, remember that the EPA staff has grown by more than 20 per cent under Mr. Bush, and that the Agency itself estimated that in 1990 it cost every American about $450 in higher prices and taxes. Sounds like there’s an endangered species in here somewhere. But we can’t tell who.