For the ineffably cocksure Don Rumsfeld, it might have been as close as he's come to a full-fledged mea culpa moment. Sure, he brushed off the actual question, which had to do with whether he could identify any mistakes he had made pre-9/11 (a period now revealed as having encompassed a colossal intelligence and law-enforcement blunder-fest).

There's no big mystery as to where America's political lightning will flash most furiously this week: around Condoleezza Rice, called to explain why President Bush's team shouldn't be adjudged as having dogged it on terrorism prior to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Dogged it? Just the opposite, Rice will contend, painting what doubtless will be a picture of steely resolve to root out the al-Qaeda menace so inconveniently left on the prowl by feckless Clintonites.

Americans are in the midst of a crescendo of commemoration, with the climax arriving on May 17 -- golden anniversary of one of our proudest moments. For it was on that date in 1954 that the Supreme Court finally laid aside the insidious theory that requiring white and black children to attend separate public schools was consistent with our Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. With that single ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, it scarcely exaggerates to say that the country turned away from the blighted Jim Crow era of racial oppression, and accepted the challenge of ensuring a full measure of civil rights for all.

President Bush, out of the blocks in his run for re-election, will have to avoid a banana peel that could cause a pratfall -- the nation's fragile economy. It may finally be picking up steam, yet it's in no hurry to generate jobs and rescue millions of Americans from the fangs of unemployment. The president's real dilemma, though, is that the banana peel lies atop a patch of black ice.

The use of indiscriminate, savage violence to achieve political ends has become, tragically, one of the hallmarks of our world. We deplore it, resist it, seek to prevent it and to catch -- or kill -- the perpetrators. They are terrorists, beneath contempt. Because of their vicious methods they forfeit any claim to have their grievances and hatreds weighed for justification or moral standing. Who cares if the 9/11 hijackers believed they were doing the right thing by the lights of their fanatical brand of Islam? Who cares what motivated the Madrid train-bombers? It could not possibly have justified their hideous crimes.

Surely no one need feel sorry for Phil Kirk as he leads the charge of North Carolina's boardroom brigade. The amiable president of N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry has the connections and wit to fend for himself amid the pushing and shoving that goes with being a high-profile business advocate. And you have to figure he's just about seen it all during a succession of tough gigs, including chief of staff to Republican Gov. Jim Martin and head of the State Board of Education, appointed by Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt. (Tough gigs? Don't forget that he started out as a school teacher.)

It's a quip not meant to be taken altogether seriously, but for the basketball team that thrives on comebacks, it's often said -- when trailing by a dozen points with five minutes to go -- "They've got 'em right where they want 'em." Which brings up the subject of the only White House aspirant who knows his way around the Wake County courthouse.

Our state capital has generated some high-voltage news stories lately, such as the wildly candid e-mail from the Board of Transportation member, suddenly an ex-member, regarding his fund-raising obligations to Governor Easley, and the slithering in connection with a new prison in Greene County and associated business ties. But in terms of the overall impact and stakes, it's hard to top the molten controversy over the U.S. Navy's plans to build a practice landing field in the countryside south of Plymouth in Washington County.

If John Kerry should continue with the wind at his back and gain the right to challenge President Bush, the nation will be presented with something of a two-fer -- two war debates for the price of one. The entire formidable issue of the war in Iraq -- its rationale, its conduct, its results; whether the expense and loss of life have helped make the United States safer; how, or indeed whether, our efforts there dovetail with the overall war (if one wants to call it that) against terrorism -- all of this will be and must be grist for the campaign mill.

My father and my father-in-law, living 10 minutes apart up in Northern Virginia, were very different characters -- personality, habits, likes and dislikes. Suitably cordial towards one another, sure, but palsy-walsy they weren't. Now, perhaps that's the norm when a couple of strong-willed fellows suddenly find themselves lashed together in an extended family through no choice of their own. But I always had a hunch that their underlying coolness reflected as much as anything their career paths.

Lisa Oakley is a glassblower. Her father, the extraordinary potter and crafts entrepreneur Sid Oakley, inspired her and helped launch her career. So as Lisa works through her grief following Sid's death two weeks ago, she finds herself turning to her art. "I went today and blew the two biggest pieces of glass I have ever blown," she told me when I reached her Thursday evening. "I'm not exactly sure why I did that, but I fired up the big glory hole, which I don't do that often. I woke up this morning and knew I had to blow glass."