“What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?” Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” Abraham Lincoln’s First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

I can quote from Lincoln too, Mr. Roskam, but that doesn’t make me look like him any more than it does you.

On December 28th, Peter Roskam published a glowing self-assessment of his first year in Congress, complete with liberal quotations from Abraham Lincoln to try and make himself appear a statesman.

By Roskam’s account he spent the year battling against partisanship but in the end triumphed by squeaking out a temporary fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax and an Energy Bill. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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