The Presidency: Dead Soldiers Along the Potomac

Chasing women kind of comes with the territory in the male-chauvinist Senate, like the springy black leather couches. Making millions from inside contacts after Government service is not all that grave a sin either, else an army of former lawmakers now behind the polished doors of august law firms would be in irons. It was the booze that got John Tower in real trouble.

Heavy drinkers have been a continuing specter in American public life. Luckily, there are no episodes in which the Republic's fate was threatened by drunkenness. Our standards have gone up, slowly the first 180 years, dramatically the...