Richard Brookhiser is often infuriating, and parts of his current New York Observer column are no exception: He declares that what Saint Rudy Giuliani did in a 99.9% intact New York City after 9/11 shames Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, and he says, obnoxiously, "Politics, Tip O'Neill said, is local; it is propelled by the greed and grievances of minorities, who are empowered by the indifference of everyone else" (by "minorities" he clearly means "interest groups," but he also, obviously means "minorities").

But then he surprises you with this, so much of which is breathtakingly right:

...The federal government exists to be the savior of last resort, and maybe of first resort. We must not be mesmerized by the language of the law. Federalism is not meant to be a suicide pact. There is a fundamental law centuries older than the Constitution, or any of our statutes: Salus populi suprema lex -- the safety of the people is the supreme law (Cicero). In some situations, leaders must invoke it, then submit themselves to the lawmakers afterwards for justification or reproof. But we don't have to be so sweeping; our written Constitution has enough strength and flexibility to it. One of the goals listed in the Preamble is ensuring domestic tranquility. When a below-sea-level state in the path of an expected Category 5 storm freezes up, or when thugs are preying on the survivors and the rescuers, the President, in whom "the executive power" is vested, may act....

We are left with President Bush's leadership style, which we have seen before. In the first days of Katrina, he did what he did in the first days after 9/11, which was not much, and he did it in the same way, which was badly. George W. Bush has a fatal suspicion of rhetoric. I think the sources may be as early as his early life, when brother Jeb was the glib, favored one. The suspicion no doubt grew at Yale in the 60's, when the son of a G.O.P. pol was surrounded by the spoutings of tenured radicals.... Mr. Bush’s natural disposition is to dismiss rhetoric as bullshit.

... Successful leaders understand the media of their time. That's why Madison and Hamilton toiled at Federalist papers, why Lincoln sat for Mathew Brady, why Churchill and Roosevelt spoke over the radio. If you deeply dislike that fact, you must ask yourself why you left Crawford in the first place....

I've loathed a lot of what Brookhiser has written, and I'll loathe more, but this is surprisingly good.