The current issue of the New Yorker has an interesting article by Jeffrey Goldberg about Bush speechwriter, Michael Gerson. Unfortunately, the article is flawed by a cheap shot in which Mr. Goldberg calls Calvin Coolidge "ineloquent."

'Fess up, Mr. Goldberg! How many of Calvin Coolidge's speeches have you actually read? Admittedly, eloquence can be a matter of personal taste, but I invite my readers to consider the following passage from President Coolidge's 1925 inaugural address, and to draw their own conclusions about "Silent Cal's" rhetorical ability:

"I favor the principle of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form."

Maybe it's not the Gettysburg Address, but it's hardly ineloquent. I wish Old Cal would come back and give that same message to the spendthrift Republicans of today.