Regicide Made Easy

Practice makes perfect: Conservative M.P.s in Britain last week dumped their third leader since forcing out Margaret Thatcher in 1990. The mutiny was smooth and quick. After the hapless Iain Duncan Smith — who had failed utterly to exploit Prime Minister Tony Blair's Iraq problem — was shown the door, the normally intrigue-prone Tory M.P.s quickly rallied behind one man: shadow chancellor Michael Howard, 62, who seems likely to become leader this week unopposed. But can this football-loving lawyer do any better than Duncan Smith?

Howard, the son of Jewish immigrants, has sharp elbows and broad experience in...