What struck me was the power and conviction of his 2013 inaugural statements.
Spicer started the gig having to defend a ridiculous claim by Donald Trump about the size of his inaugural crowd; his statements on the Republican healthcare plan were denounced by the left and the right; last month he had to back up his boss's bizarre (and still unproven) claim about being wiretapped by Barack Obama.
Stevens did not agree, and the congressman was "undoubtedly pleased" by Lincoln's statement in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861 that he would "hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the Government".
In its inaugural issue he drafted another statement, "A Secular Humanist Declaration," in which he warned that "the reappearance of dogmatic authoritarian religions" had become a threat to intellectual freedom, human rights and scientific progress.
It extended back to William F. Buckley, Jr.,'s mission statement, in the inaugural issue of National Review, in 1955, that the new magazine "stands athwart history, yelling Stop"; and to Goldwater's seminal 1960 book, "The Conscience of a Conservative," in which he wrote, "I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size.
The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, essentially a repudiation of Jackson and Van Buren's policies.
Last January, the committee said in a statement that "the inaugural is a civic event and our guidelines aren't just consistent with the law -- they are consistent with the president's commitment to transparency and to reducing the influence of PACs and lobbyists in Washington".
Evan Wolfson, executive director of the gay rights group Freedom to Marry, said the choice of Bishop Robinson to deliver the invocation at an inaugural event was "a very powerful statement".
For his inaugural program Mr. Levine wanted to make a big statement, and statements don't come any bigger than Mahler's Symphony No.8.
