Too Personal for Comfort

This will be a week of maximum discomfort in Washington. First comes the Martin Luther King holiday and the promise of spectacular ranting on the civil rights issue of the moment: affirmative action. Then comes the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade abortion decision and the annual, always excessive pro-life vigil on the Mall, which will be countered this year by an abortion-rights banquet featuring every one of the Democrats running for President. Politicians, except for a tiny clutch of true believers, hate these issues: too hot, too personal, too easily demagogued. Republicans flatter themselves with the appearance of simple...

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