The Party Begins For Kentucky's Favorite Republican Son

Afficionados of President Abraham Lincoln will turn their attention to Kentucky beginning this week as events kick off the bicentennial of his birth. On Monday, Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, will speak in Louisville. First Lady Laura Bush will visit Lincoln's birthplace near Hodgenville, Tuesday at 10:30 (open to the public on a first come basis). It is gratifying that Lincoln finally is getting his due in a State where for too long the wounds from the Civil War fostered reluctance by the Democratic political establishment to honor the man. Today Kentuckians of all ideological persuasions should be proud that the Bluegrass was the birthplace of the greatest Republican of all.