POLITICS: The Right Wing v. Nixon

Disowning Richard Nixon, his right-wing former supporters carefully point out, is a decision reluctantly reached. After all, one does not toss off an old ally and champion without shedding tears for what once had been. But the moderate tone of Richard Nixon's presidency—while not liberal enough to satisfy critics in the center or on the left —has so disturbed many of his conservative backers that he appears to be in some danger of alienating a constituency he has counted as his for 25 years. Welfare reform, cutbacks in defense spending, advocacy of...