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Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, gave losing presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry a warm welcome back Tuesday at the confirmation hearings for Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Lugar said he was “proud that a member of our committee was a candidate for president of the United States,” the New York Times reports.

The Massachusetts Democrat replied, “I wish we could have translated your pride into some votes.”

The comment prompted laughter.

“But thank you anyway,” said Mr. Kerry, who was attending his first Foreign Relations Committee hearing since September 2003.

History of failure

“Presidential second terms usually end in failure. Since 1900, only Teddy Roosevelt could boast of a second term that was as good or better than his first,” New York Post columnist Dick Morris writes.

“Woodrow Wilson lost Congress, then couldn’t bring America into the League of Nations. FDR, whose third term was a success, failed to pass anything in his second after he alienated Congress by trying to pack the Supreme Court and purge recalcitrant Democrats. Harry Truman’s popularity plunged over Korea, as Lyndon Johnson’s did over Vietnam. Ike had two recessions and a hospitalization. Richard Nixon resigned. Ronald Reagan had Iran-Contra, and Bill Clinton was impeached,” Mr. Morris said.

“The reasons for second-term failure are pretty much the same: Presidents generally do what they are good at in their first four years, then spend their second term responding to the agendas imposed upon them by events. Plus, re-election itself tends to encourage a spirit of hubris — even as top staff typically depart in search of lucrative jobs, leaving second stringers in charge.

“But President Bush has gotten off to a very good start in the weeks since Election Day. Palestine is lurching toward peace. North Korea seems likely to return to six-power talks. Iraq will hold an election, with turnout likely exceeding our own. Ukraine has opted for democracy.”

Tax on wealthy

Indiana’s new Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who served as President Bush’s first budget director, has proposed a one-year, 1 percent surtax on residents with incomes of more than $100,000 to cut the state’s deficit.

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