The Week

■ What’s the difference between a Massachusetts senator and a Massachusetts congressman? The senator chases women.

■ A lesson of the Reagan years is emerging, by instructive contrast, from the Bush Administration. The Democratic Congress is already pushing a dozen new spending initiatives—for housing, health care for the uninsured, Medicaid, child care, vocational education, rural development, etc.—that were confined, during the Reagan Presidency, to the recesses where wicked dreams must lurk. Ronald Reagan, than whom no man was kinder or gentler, nevertheless served early notice of 1) his own philosophy, 2) his own agenda, and 3) his willingness to fight. Result: There was no liberal agenda until late in his second term. Mr. Bush has made a strategic mistake by advertising conciliation rather than practicing deterrence, and it looks as if he’ll spend four years swatting down pestiferous legislation.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

National Review

■ What’s the difference between a Massachusetts senator and a Massachusetts congressman? The senator chases women.

■ A lesson of the Reagan years is emerging, by instructive contrast, from the Bush Administration. The Democratic Congress is already pushing a dozen new spending initiatives—for housing, health care for the uninsured, Medicaid, child care, vocational education, rural development, etc.—that were confined, during the Reagan Presidency, to the recesses where wicked dreams must lurk. Ronald Reagan, than whom no man was kinder or gentler, nevertheless served early notice of 1) his own philosophy, 2) his own agenda, and 3) his willingness to fight. Result: There was no liberal agenda until late in his second term. Mr. Bush has made a strategic mistake by advertising conciliation rather than practicing deterrence, and it looks as if he’ll spend four years swatting down pestiferous legislation.