Unfinished Business

In his energetic first State of the Union address to Congress seven years ago, George W. Bush promised to bring us together, to govern collaboratively and to deal with a wide array of social and economic problems. Last night, Mr. Bush delivered a modest agenda for the closing months of his presidency with passion, but the details reflect how little he can accomplish and how much he has lost. Instead of new proposals aimed at saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from an anticipated financial crisis, he urged Congress to come up with its own ideas.

The good news for members of the General Assembly returning to Annapolis on Wednesday is that their most challenging work is largely behind them. November's deliberations, and particularly the tax increases they approved, went a long way toward addressing the state's projected $1.3 billion deficit. The bad news is that there's some unfinished business - and some difficult issues - still to be tackled in the coming 90-day session. Leading in the unfinished category are the budget cuts needed to ensure government spending does not outpace the state's economy.

During his first training camp practice with the Ravens, new running back Willis McGahee fumbled when he received a jarring hit from rookie linebacker Prescott Burgess. A fan greeted the former University of Miami star by yelling from the stands: "Hey, Willis, this is Ravenstown. It ain't South Beach." Judging by their fan base and their players, it's apparent that expectations are already running high. In front of a cheerful crowd announced as 3,008, the Ravens formally kicked off training camp yesterday at McDaniel College, but the players considered it a continuation of a larger mission.

The disbarment of Durham County, N.C., District Attorney Michael B. Nifong should be just the first step in remedying the gross and cynical fraud of last year's "rape" case against Duke University lacrosse players. Not only is Mr. Nifong still liable to civil lawsuits from the three young men whose lives he tried to ruin, and criminal prosecution for his obstruction of justice and making false statements to a judge, but there are also many other people who disgraced themselves in hyping a lynch mob atmosphere when this case first broke last year.

A team that Duke University administrators considered disbanding a year ago has a shot at its first NCAA title this weekend at M&T Bank Stadium. But men's lacrosse team members are playing for much more. A year after now-discredited rape charges against three players tarnished the program's image, some team members seem to be trying to prove to the world that it was wrong about them. They're playing not just for a championship, but also to settle a score. "This is more than a game to these kids," said Sally Fogarty of Chevy Chase, whose son, Gibbs, is a sophomore attackman.

People realize, along about middle age, that we have to pace ourselves for the long run and can't go around expressing moral outrage all the time. You just shouldn't get too worked up about too many things -- the 48 million Americans without health insurance, for instance, or the official foot-dragging on global warming, the ever-increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, or the failed war on drugs and how it has given the United States the...

A notable thing happened after a recent column on the bloody beginning of Baltimore's year, with 10 homicides in its first 15 days: Dozens of people called or wrote to say they wanted to do something about it. They can't stand it anymore. They believe it's time to drop the candlelight vigils, turn off the television and build a movement to end Baltimore's national shame. Some of them actually said it that way.

WASHINGTON -- In turning to former CIA Director Robert M. Gates to take the reins at the Pentagon, President Bush taps a low-key loyalist who is in many ways the opposite of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. While Rumsfeld often seemed bent on running roughshod over the Pentagon brass, Gates is described by longtime associates as collegial and a consensus-builder. If Rumsfeld had little regard for the elder Bush and for many of his pragmatic security advisers, including Brent Scowcroft, Gates was part of that Bush inner circle.