by Alan Wolfe

In his Thursday statement on the Foley affair, Speaker Hastert pointed out that "someone" once said "The buck stops here." That phrase, of course, is associated with a sign on the desk of Harry Truman, a man who belonged to what Republicans like to call the "Democrat" Party. Hastert is either historically illiterate or a man whose partisanship colors everything he says and does. (Readers can choose.) I'll begin to believe Hastert when he has sufficient integrity to recognize that there are two parties in the United States, not one, and that the opposition party is one that has a pretty decent history behind it, especially compared to the buck-passing Republicans in power these days.