Bill, I've admired and enjoyed your slightly cynical humor since graduate school, when I stepped into the world of politics, where I cut my teeth in the Chicago Democratic Party Richy Dailey.

You are an authentic, moderate Republican. So was my very politically involved mother. She was a Rockefeller Delagate for the '68 Convention. In the end, under great pressure from her delegation, she held her nose and voted for Nixon, for so-called "party unity." My Mom liked bourbon and I'm sure that she and other Rockefelians passed round the bottle!