The Presidency: The Speaker's Itch for Power

The Speaker's Itch for Power

There is nothing wrong with House Speaker Jim Wright that being President of the United States would not cure.

He has an understandable power itch, which provoked him to jump into the Nicaraguan peace negotiations, where he should not have been. Then last week he stepped out in front of his own colleagues a bit in his eagerness to announce that Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev would appear before a joint session of Congress in December. A Communist leader, by pedigree a determined foe of democracy, has never appeared in the sacred well of the House, and a goodly number of members...

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