Unlikely praise

Interview | Liberal author Michael Kazin on fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan as a hero for the left | Marvin Olasky

Here's an early nominee for 2006 oxymoron sentence of the year: Michael Kazin, liberal Georgetown professor and frequent contributor to The Nation and other Bush-despising publications, writes an appreciative biography of William Jennings Bryan, often portrayed by the left as the dumbest major American politician until . . . George W. Bush.

What's going on? Smart Democrats know that when Republicans grab four out of five white evangelical votes, liberal candidates are running not only uphill but up Mount Rushmore. Dems need to change this in 2008, and Everyone Must Do His/Her/Its Part: Some must hit the pews, others the phone banks, and Mr. Kazin has already done his brilliantly by writing a readable history of the three-time presidential candidate who embodied liberalism from 1896 through 1924.