The Week

■ Yes, Richard Nixon will be invited to Jimmy Carter’s inauguration, though a Carter aide made it clear that the invitation represents a mere velleity, on the order of Macbeth’s expressed wish that Banquo had made it to the feast: “Protocol indicates that former Presidents are invited. We’re going to adhere closely to protocol.” If Nixon accepts, our sources tell us, he will be asked to wear formal dress, dark glasses, and a red wig.

■ Here’s what’s cheerful about the new Congress: In his post-election analysis, based on voting records rather than party labels, Warren Brookes of the Boston Herald American claims that the ideological shape of the Senate is just a bit more conservative this year, despite the solid victory of the Democrats. Here’s how it happened: Of the total of 15 Senate seats that changed hands, six moved to the left (liberal and moderate liberal), eight moved to the right (conservative and moderate conservative), and one moved nowhere (a conservative Democrat replaced a conservative Republican). The selection of Robert Byrd as Senate Majority leader and Howard Baker as Senate Minority leader, both of whom hold conservative voting records, supports this analysis of a rightward trend. Here’s what it means: If a few more of the Republicans now on the liberal side of the ledger would vote like Republicans, the conservative voice would carry more weight in Congress.

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

William F. Buckley Jr.

■ Yes, Richard Nixon will be invited to Jimmy Carter’s inauguration, though a Carter aide made it clear that the invitation represents a mere velleity, on the order of Macbeth’s expressed wish that Banquo had made it to the feast: “Protocol indicates that former Presidents are invited. We’re going to adhere closely to protocol.” If Nixon accepts, our sources tell us, he will be asked to wear formal dress, dark glasses, and a red wig.

■ Here’s what’s cheerful about the new Congress: In his post-election analysis, based on voting records rather than party labels, Warren Brookes of the Boston Herald American claims that the ideological shape of the Senate is just a bit more conservative this year, despite the solid victory of the Democrats. Here’s how it happened: Of the total of 15 Senate seats that changed hands, six moved to the left (liberal and moderate liberal), eight moved to the right (conservative and moderate conservative), and one moved nowhere (a conservative Democrat replaced a conservative Republican). The selection of Robert Byrd as Senate Majority leader and Howard Baker as Senate Minority leader, both of whom hold conservative voting records, supports this analysis of a rightward trend. Here’s what it means: If a few more of the Republicans now on the liberal side of the ledger would vote like Republicans, the conservative voice would carry more weight in Congress.