It’s quite amazing how many people oppose high-speed rail for the carefully-thought-out opinion that “it’s just another big gummint boondoggle!” There’s a brief pause, then comes the clincher: “And nobody’s...

It was fashionable during the Bush years to denigrate the French, their unforgivable offense being to disagree with Dubya’s foreign policy. Congressional Republicans weren’t about to stand for that, of...