Emmy and Tony award-winning comic and social commentator Jackie Mason died this weekend at 93. Though Wisconsin-born, Mason became a quintessential New York character, and his career witnessed extreme ups and downs across 60 years of making people laugh. His laugh-out-loud political commentary was a staple of his act, but it often caused him trouble, as many of his worst moments stemmed from politically related incidents.

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One of Joe Biden's first actions as president was to begin to fulfill his promise to be "the most pro-union president you've ever seen" and fire Peter Robb, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. This was an unusual act for a new president, but Robb's sacking was of great symbolic importance. Forty years ago next week, Peter Robb played a leading role in one of Ronald Reagan's most important domestic victories: firing the striking air traffic controllers. Reagan's lesson is one that Biden wouldn't dare heed, and that is a lesson we can learn about the new president himself.

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Donald Rumsfeld, a skilled bureaucratic infighter who was both the youngest and oldest secretary of defense, died Wednesday at the age of 88. Throughout his life, he attracted enemies and acolytes, both of whom attached to him for decades. He also was never afraid to speak his mind, and while hardworking, was willing to have some fun along the way.

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The Biden administration took what seemed like an important step forward for the freedom of the press. "Going forward," spokesman Anthony Coley said on June 5, "this Department of Justice—in a change to its longstanding practice—will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs."

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THREE THINGS ARE CERTAIN AFTER A presidential-election defeat: infighting, second-guessing, and efforts to create a new think tank.

In 1989, Democrats had just lost a third presidential election by being cast as too far left. In response, party moderates formed the Progressive Policy Institute to come up with more palatable policies. PPI ideas such as reinventing government welfare reform helped Bill Clinton establish centrist credentials and win two terms in the White House.

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