"If you want to watch someone squirm, take a look at the two-minute videotape of Attorney General Eric Holder dodging Republican representative Lamar Smith’s question of whether 'radical Islam' motivated the Times Square bomber.

"Holder, who last year called America 'a nation of cowards' for refusing to talk frankly about race, plainly didn’t want to say what is plain to everyone else, that Faisal Shahzad, back from five months in Waziristan, launched his terror attack because of his Islamist beliefs."

"Wouldn’t it be grand if the Obama administration cared more about policing our borders than about policing our refrigerators? How about fixing our deportation system instead of fixing our junk-food diets?

"First lady Michelle Obama argued this week that obesity is a 'national security' issue. But her husband allows far greater threats to go unabated. The FBI’s arrests of two Boston-area men tied to the Times Square bombing attempt — both held on immigration violations — underscore the continuing homeland-security lapses...

"There are currently more than 2 million illegal-alien visa overstayers in the country, along with an estimated 500,000 illegal-alien absconders who have ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country. Voluntary departure policies — granting illegal aliens the privilege of deporting themselves on an honor system — have allowed countless lawbreakers to remain in the country. There are federal laws mandating up to 20 years in jail for those who re-enter the U.S. illegally after being deported, but the provisions are enforced sporadically."

"In the face of financial ruin of the nation, it was unconscionable to pass a new health entitlement that almost all Americans know will add trillions to the debt. Next year, as Mr. Obama almost certainly will call for a new value-added tax to do the 'responsible thing' to reduce the deficits he and Congress have created, it will be equally unconscionable to support such a tax. The only solution to the debt and deficit that will not kill economic growth is to cut spending, not raise taxes. We cannot afford to elect Republicans or Democrats who would be 'responsible,' and raise taxes."

"Never mind Rep. Alan Mollohan's (D-WV) primary defeat Tuesday. Avert your gaze from Sen. Bob Bennett's (R-Utah) loss last Saturday. The biggest and most consequential elections don't take place until next week, May 18, a date that ranks as the most important of the election calendar so far.

"Just four states — Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania — will go to the polls that day, but the ballot will be packed with marquee elections that will provide the broadest and most detailed data to date about the toxicity of the political environment and the intensity of anti-establishment fury."

"She's more likely than not to win confirmation to the Supreme Court. Thus, the really big question about Elena Kagan is blunter: How and when does the United States as a whole get out from under the sway of an alien enterprise such as her university, Harvard?

"That the Kagan nomination positions one more Harvard graduate to tighten the Harvard-Yale vise on the court no more than reintroduces the consideration that Harvard isn't notably fond of the American Main Street. Out of Harvard, on a nonstop basis, pour some of America's worst ideas, such as that government has all the answers, old moralities have to go, and racism and sexism infest America -- though not Harvard, you better believe it! -- from top to bottom."

"What we're seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state. This isn't Greece's problem alone, and that's why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens economic recovery. Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven't fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.

"Americans dislike the term 'welfare state' and substitute the bland word 'entitlements.' The vocabulary doesn't alter the reality. Countries cannot overspend and overborrow forever. By delaying hard decisions about spending and taxes, governments maneuver themselves into a cul de sac..."

"So Greece has cultural problems that contributed to its economic implosion. But there are similarities to the U.S. as well — and because we have elected Democrats, they are growing. By the end of 2011, Greece’s debt will be 150 percent of its GDP. According to a March report by the Congressional Budget Office, President Obama’s 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next ten years — $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected — which will increase our debt-to-GDP ratio to 90 percent by 2020...

"Greece is in flames, but if you look around, you can smell the smoke here as well."

"Last Saturday, Americans were again instructed on their political manners by their Moralizer in Chief... 

"'We cannot expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down,' Mr. Obama said. He spoke against 'demonizing' political opponents or 'questioning their motives or their patriotism.'... 

"A lot is right with those words. But there's a lot wrong with them coming from Mr. Obama, who is contributing to the 'slash and burn politics' he preaches against...

"If Mr. Obama wants his Ann Arbor words to be taken seriously, then he needs to rein in his party, his staff and himself. Presidential leadership matters as much as presidential words, perhaps more. Mr. Obama should back up his inspiring call to civility with action."

"The Washington think tank industry has launched a thousand blue-ribbon commissions and furrowed-brow panels to brood over the public’s loss of trust in government and its leaders. Why are people so cynical?

"Last week, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist raised his hand with the answer.

"It turns out that one big reason people assume that politicians are slippery opportunists whose words can’t be trusted is that many of them are slippery opportunists whose words can’t be trusted."

"President Reagan had a sign on his desk that said, 'It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.' If President Obama had a sign, it would say, 'It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you don't care what the public thinks.'

"Washington has never been held in lower esteem by Americans than it is today. Yet those in control of Washington -- President Obama and congressional Democrats -- are bent on enacting a series of sweeping domestic policy changes this year that have one thing in common: They are unpopular, in whole or in part.

"This is unprecedented and a bit weird too. A revival of civility and an end to the ugly political polarization in Washington -- goals stressed by Mr. Obama in his presidential campaign and again last Saturday in a speech at the University of Michigan -- won't be furthered by passage of an unpopular agenda. A more likely result is years of partisan resentment and bitter fighting over efforts by Republicans to repeal the unwanted policies."