CHARLES MCC. MATHIAS JR.

People seem to want to follow the beaten path. The difficulty is that the beaten path doesn't seem to be leading anywhere.

The national interest is not simply the sum of our special interests and attachments.

That's what the American system is all about: to keep power divided.

The more a President sits surrounded only by his own views and those of his personal advisors, the more he lives in a house of mirrors in which all views and ideas tend to reflect and reinforce his own.

Most of us [members of Congress] are honest at all times, and all of us are honest most of the time.

Most of us [members of Congress] are honest at all times, and all of us are honest most of the time.

People seem to want to follow the beaten path. The difficulty is that the beaten path doesn't seem to be leading anywhere.

That's what the American system is all about: to keep power divided.

The more a President sits surrounded only by his own views and those of his personal advisors, the more he lives in a house of mirrors in which all views and ideas tend to reflect and reinforce his own.

The national interest is not simply the sum of our special interests and attachments.