Many odes to Richard Clarke have been written. George Will and I have both written ours. Mine recalls the 1814 tornado that helped save Washington (come to think of it, perhaps not something to celebrate anymore). His recalls Lincoln and the book that he said “started the Civil War.” Of late, Will’s column is typically garbled and ill tempered. Maybe the big unreported news is that the next civil war — Washington pundits and neoconservative elites versus the whole rest of the country — has already started. In the prose battle and the historical accuracy battle, our side appears to be winning.

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