Remembering two very fine American politicians

Recently, we suffered the loss of two very fine American politicians: Hugh Carey, a former U.S. congressman and governor of New York, and former U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon.

First, Gov. Carey. He was elected in 1975, and, like our current President Barrack Obama, inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. Carey's predecessors in both the state and New York City — both Republicans — had so mismanaged the New York economy that New York went bankrupt. Gov. Carey, an unabashed liberal, righted the economic ship, and interestingly, did it through careful, strategic borrowing. Tha...