by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 29, 1998

The riddle perplexing conservatives today can be summed up in a single question: “How does he get away with it?!”

Why is public support for Bill Clinton soaring, though he lied under oath, while the popularity of the Republican Congress trying to hold him to account is plummeting? Is this conclusive proof that America is now a decadent society? Not necessarily, friends.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 25, 1998

1998 has been marked by a conservative spat between what might be called the Alfred E. Neuman (”What, me worry!”) Club and the Chicken Little (”The Sky is Falling!”) Caucus. By Christmas, it was game, set, match — the Neuman Club.

Unemployment was at a 30-year low, inflation was in check, the economy had grown by nearly 4 percent. Wall Street had run the bears back into their caves. The “New Paradigm” conservatives — those “ranting evangelists of Global Capitalism,” in British author John Gray’s mocking phrase — were toasting the Goldilocks economy.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 21, 1998

As H.M.S. Victory cleared its decks for action at Trafalgar, Nelson directed his flag messenger to signal to the fleet: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” And so they did.

And so, too, did those House Republicans who bravely defied our political, academic, media and cultural elites to impeach William Jefferson Clinton. The Senate should now show the same kidney.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 18, 1998

It is a tradition among Americans that when the guns fire, we rally behind our fighting men and commander in chief. Yet even this tradition seems to have fallen victim to this president.

Three days after his disastrous grand jury testimony and speech to the nation on Aug. 17, Bill Clinton launched an attack on a “poison gas” factory in Sudan, a factory oddly unguarded, since it was said to be a site that produced the most awful of outlawed weapons.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 15, 1998

Tom DeLay is acting like a statesman! said an astounded Carl Bernstein. Bernstein, of Watergate fame, had just watched the majority whip shrug off Tim Russert’s observation that he and his colleagues may be risking a backlash that could lose them the House in 2000.

Bernstein is right, but it is not only DeLay — the emerging leader of the 105th Congress in its closing days — who is playing the statesman. Henry Hyde and his troops have exhibited a grace under pressure and a political courage many have been looking for from this Congress for four long years.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 12, 1998

In her latest essay on NATO’s future, Madeleine Albright begins to sound like a parent frantic that her only child has decided to go away to college and leave her alone in the house.

Albright’s article in the Financial Times Dec. 7 was clearly propelled by the historic British-French decision that the European Union must have its own defense role. Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking Britain deeper into Europe and away from the United States.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 8, 1998

All who live by the sword perish by the sword. The warning of Matthew’s Gospel is our lesson for today.

No White House has ever been more devoted to, or adept at, attack politics than this one. When allegations were made about Bill Clinton’s private life in 1992, Gennifer Flowers and her sorority were savaged and silenced. When the Republican convention raised the cultural and character issues, the Clintonites instantly counterattacked, and the irresolute Republicans broke ranks and ran away.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 4, 1998

Richard Nixon is condemned for many things, but one achievement can never be taken away. Nixon was the architect and builder of the greatest political coalition since FDR.

Taking command of his party after the Goldwater defeat of 1964, in which the GOP won only 39 percent of the vote, Nixon built a 49-state, 61 percent New Majority by 1972. Ronald Reagan’s triumphs were won by reuniting, not creating, the great Nixon coalition.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 1, 1998

Great Britain may be winning rapturous applause in leftist circles for the house arrest of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, but that applause is coming at the price of England’s reputation for square dealing. This snatch and grab is unworthy of a great nation.

The 83-year-old ex-president of Chile had come to England for surgery under a diplomatic passport. He had been visiting London for years, often to discuss weapons buys. But this time, the British buckled to an extradition order from a Spanish judge who wants Pinochet sent to Madrid to be tried for genocide, torture and murder.