George H.W. Bush: “I transmit also, for the information of the Senate, the report of the Department of State with respect to this treaty.”

Strength is not empty rhetoric. It's not bluster. And in my experience, the strongest person usually isn't the loudest one in the room.

We've seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty.

More than 220 years later, Washington's warning feels strikingly relevant.

But he hasn't heard my latest proposal. The bottom 99 percent will do well when they get to split Dick Cheney's stock options.