By The Editors 4/24/12 8:14pm

opinion

Charles Colson

We all know what Scott Fitzgerald said about second acts in American lives. And most of us can cite examples that belie the great writer’s grand assertion.

One of those lives, one of those second acts, passed from the scene the other day. Charles Colson once said that he feared what he might have become had he not gone to prison. But because he did, he transformed his life. He became a tireless minister to incarcerated men and women around the world, and the group he founded, Prison Fellowship Ministries, has offered solace and inspiration to hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Read More

By Reid Pillifant 4/12/11 11:59pm

The Transom

The Way We Were: Redford Talks Tricky Dick, KSM

On Thursday evening, after a screening of his new Civil War film, The Conspirator, Robert Redford was describing his personal political evolution, which began at age 13 with an award from his U.S. senator, Richard Nixon.

“I didn’t know anything at that point,” Mr. Redford, who grew up in Los Angeles, told Time editor Rick Read More

By Joe Conason 8/17/10 10:26pm

Op-EdGround Zero Mosque

Courage and Lower Manhattan

Nothing tests a president like standing up against a wave of fear and prejudice, even at potentially great cost to his own party and prospects. That is what Lyndon Baines Johnson did when he signed the civil rights acts he knew would forfeit the South to the Republicans for a generation or more.

And Read More

By Max Abelson 2/03/10 12:39am

Hank Paulson’s Dry Heave

It’s October 2008, the middle of the global financial apocalypse, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has kayaked to a private island. The most expensive government spending act in American history passed a day earlier, but now he’s hunting redfish. “I felt like myself for the first time in a long while,” he sighs in On Read More

By Felix Gillette 7/28/09 10:30pm

Why Has Obama Become Boring TV?

Decades ago, when Pat Buchanan was working as an adviser to President Richard Nixon, he looked forward to the administration’s televised press conferences, which were held infrequently and with caution. At the time, Mr. Nixon’s relationship with the Washington press corps was fraught with tension. For Mr. Buchanan, the high potential for acrimony turned every Read More