Epstein Secrets

since 2007, Carl Levin leads Senate oversight of the Pentagon and is at the forefront of the raging debate over the defense budget. Levin and Sen. John McCain, the committee's ranking member, agree that the $600 billion in military cuts set to take effect next year unless a new budget passes would be, in

passes would be, in Levin's words, "a train wreck." (Defense Secretary Panetta has preferred the more apocalyptic "doomsday mechanism.") But while McCain has proposed protecting the defense budget by reducing federal spending elsewhere, Levin has argued, "We should do something intelligent, which mea

s rarely easy. According to "The Presidents Club," by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, Lyndon Johnson sometimes drafted the popular former President Dwight D. Eisenhower into his publicity schemes, which frustrated Ike, who complained to aides about being used. After Johnson left office, Richard Nixon cultivated him

t that wasn't their approach—to put it mildly." He insisted that the G.O.P. had moved too far to the right to make bipartisanship possible. He and John McCain had agreed on issues like immigration, climate change, and campaign finance. "The center of gravity for their party has shifted." But maybe, Obama

de and welfare reform. In 2000, Bush ran on a more progressive education platform than E FTA_R1_02204187 EFTA02720658 his Republican colleagues. McCain once supported a cap-and- trade system and a version of immigration reform now condemned by almost all Republicans. There would be no such "zones o

office. It was an unusual moment in the history of the Presidency, and the experience of recent incumbents offered no guidance. No President since Dwight D. Eisenhower had served two full terms. John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Lyndon Johnson, overwhelmed by the war in Vietnam, had declined to run for reelection

cause job losses back at home. Is there a single foreign policy area on which Republicans largely agree? Not the Arab Spring. Calls from Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham to arm Syria's rebels and impose a no-fly zone have largely fallen on deaf ears, including Mr. Romney's. Conservatives like Newt

rhetoric but only vague hints at alternatives. Ms. Rice (whose rhetorical jab at Mr. Obama's "leading from behind" was a big applause line) and Mr. McCain (whose calls for aiding the Syrian opposition drew muted applause) echoed that theme at the convention. On the few matters in which Mr. Romney has

visions over foreign policy were typically between a realist wing and a more fervent nationalist wing; realism usually won. In the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, an internationalist, prevailed over Senator Robert A. Taft and his isolationist followers. Later, President Richard M. Nixon's engagement with Chi