In the fall of 2002, week after week in debates televised on MSNBC I argued vigorously against invading Iraq. I used every possible argument that might sway mainstream viewers - no real threat, cost, instability. But as the war neared, my debates were terminated.

The oldest axiom in government is that it's always easier to kill something than it is to pass something. And that was proved true yet again last week when Senate President Emil Jones and Governor Rod Blagojevich teamed up to kill off the proposed constitutional amendment for recall of elected officials.

Thank you, Rahm Emanuel! Mr. Emanuel, a Democratic congressman from Illinois and former senior policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, recently published several election-year policy proposals on the opinion page of The Wall Street Journal.

The timing of Emanuel's article was magnificent. The Democratic nomination campaign had degenerated into neurotic angst over whether the eventual nominee would have different biological plumbing or more skin pigmentation than any previous nominee for the U.S. presidency. Most of us couldn't care less if the president is a purple neuter as long as the policies advocated are acceptable, so Emanuel performed a public service by focusing on substantive rather than symbolic issues.

March 2008 may go down as a major turning point in U.S. financial history. The Federal Reserve crossed a Rubicon of sorts, lending tens of billions of dollars not to a commercial bank, as has been its historical practice, but for the very first time to an investment bank.