By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
It is disappointing that Calvin Coolidge is consistently relegated to the hinterlands of America's presidential landscape. There are several reasons for this. First, he is a victim of what Lincoln called the "silent artillery of time" -- the way the memory of any earthly thing fades with the years.
When Ronald Reagan chose to hang a portrait of Calvin Coolidge in the White House Cabinet room, he was making a policy statement: Coolidge was a seriously underrated president, and the 30th president had a view of taxation in sync with his own. Six decades earlier, Coolidge had branded taxation that was "not absolutely required" as "only a species of legalized larceny."
I am indebted to Amity Shlaes for gently correcting a joke of mine that dates back to July 8, 1972. On that day in the New York Times, I joshed that President Calvin Coolidge "probably spent more time napping than any President in the nation's history" and therefore was a successful president.
Who is the only president buried in Washington, D.C.? How many presidents served in the military? Here's the answers and more about America's commander in chief.
Paul Dickson, a noted author, commentator and lexicographer, warms up the audience by opening this entertaining and informative book with a list of 44 presidential firsts, in no real way related to the subject of presidential neologisms or phrases, but guaranteed to grab our attention.
Thousands of holiday revelers bundled against a brisk Thursday evening joined President Obama in welcoming the start to the D.C. Christmas season with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree.
President George H.W. Bush had a problem so important he sent a memo to White House staff asking them to take a pledge. His dog, Ranger, was packing on the pounds.
President Obama gave a speech in Iowa recently in which he told one of the biggest whoppers of his 2012 re-election campaign.
Presidents are identified in the history books by their accomplishments, if they have any.
In 2008, Michelle Obama said her husband believed that Americans were "going to have to change our traditions, our history." Who knew she meant it literally?
"The smarter you are, the less noise you make in every facet of life." This sentence, uttered by Adam Carolla, a man who talks into a microphone for a living, should be enshrined on statues and added to the Book of Proverbs. It is a rebuke to the cultural consensus, which prizes go-getters and noisemakers who go to hellish places and say nothing worth hearing (e.g., "Jersey Shore").
In the age of the Internet, when everybody wants to get his two cents into the debate and anybody can invent his own facts and rant in a blog or sometimes even a newspaper column, endorsements don't mean much. They particularly don't mean much coming from a congressman.
The new National Christmas Tree will soon be illuminated for the first time.
The Black Eyed Peas and Kermit the Frog are joining the lineup of performers who will help light the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse.
Here's a thought: The GOP presidential primaries may well prove to be inconclusive, with the nominee actually being chosen at the convention in Tampa, Fla., in the fourth week of August next year.
Coolidge favored a progressive code, but insisted that every dollar uncollected by the federal government was a dollar that was best spent by the American who earned it.
"If people can't support themselves," Coolidge said simply, "we'll have to give up self-government."
