The Week

□ Seen in a Spanish-language newspaper: a sketch of Teddy and Tip, gazing at a map of Central America and the Caribbean, on which a second Cuba was wedged between Honduras and Costa Rica. Tip (meditatively): “That’s right. Another Vietnam.”

□ Lewis Lehrman is that very rare thing in today’s politics, a genuine intellectual—defined, roughly, as a man who takes ideas seriously and acts upon them. In this he resembles such earlier Americans as Jefferson and Madison. His conversion from Judaism to Catholicism must therefore be understood as the conclusion of a process of intense reflection, Mr. Lehrman becoming a Catholic because he came to believe that Catholicism is true, or more fully true than other religious formulations. He is a man of thought, principle, and courage, and in his public aspect as a political figure he is a national resource.

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□ Seen in a Spanish-language newspaper: a sketch of Teddy and Tip, gazing at a map of Central America and the Caribbean, on which a second Cuba was wedged between Honduras and Costa Rica. Tip (meditatively): “That’s right. Another Vietnam.”

□ Lewis Lehrman is that very rare thing in today’s politics, a genuine intellectual—defined, roughly, as a man who takes ideas seriously and acts upon them. In this he resembles such earlier Americans as Jefferson and Madison. His conversion from Judaism to Catholicism must therefore be understood as the conclusion of a process of intense reflection, Mr. Lehrman becoming a Catholic because he came to believe that Catholicism is true, or more fully true than other religious formulations. He is a man of thought, principle, and courage, and in his public aspect as a political figure he is a national resource.