An oral history just released shows that cryptologists working for the Army knew they were breaking the law when they conducted secret electronic surveillance.
The person most responsible for injecting that virulent strain of partisanship into the Republican party was another dethroned House Speaker -- Newt Gingrich. But Gingrich was always more subtle than the bomb throwers.
Boehner should best be seen as a figure whose Speakership came as a result of forces beyond his control, but who operated within this system to aggressively expand the institutional authority of the House.
The Sixties counterculture, its beliefs and practices, its odyssey into the Seventies, and its many legacies as it became integrated into mainstream culture help explain the United States today.
At a time when many are questioning what America stands for in a world consumed by sectarian strife, it is well to remember where freedom of conscience was first practiced.
