"The Constitution is the rules; politics is the game."

"The alternatives to organized political contention are anarchy or sheep-like passivity."

Richard Brookhiser speaks in one aphorism after another in this dialogue with Kathryn Jean Lopez about his new book about James Madison, "James Madison." (Buy it here. I just did.)

The headline on the interview is "Politics Is Madison," and I was delighted to see, that it wasn't about my crazy little city in the Midwest.

More from the interview:

LOPEZ: What accounts for Madison’s scorn for John Adams and his love for Thomas Jefferson? Does either man’s relationship with Madison provide essential insight into Adams or Jefferson?

BROOKHISER: Madison never spent much time with John Adams, and could not see beyond his obnoxious qualities to the good ones. Thomas Jefferson was the cool older brother Madison never had — brilliant, eloquent, quirky — but at the same time a fellow Virginian and an ideological soul mate....

LOPEZ: What might Madison think about Barack Obama?

BROOKHISER: Jefferson’s vices, without the charm.

Hey, Glenn's back.

He says we guestbloggers did our "usual topflight job," but he reveals that he got "a few grumpy emails" from readers who don't like him to be away, and he's got to know that Richard Brookhiser was all:

Instapundit - Glenn Reynolds = 0
Nothing is harder than simple.

It's irksome the way Brookhiser assumes that the assignment was to imitate Glenn. But that is a problem with guestblogging. It gives the impression that you are trying to be the same as the person you're filling in for, and you know a lot of readers will judge you by your failure to do what you may or may not be trying to do. So maybe you do sort of try not to disappoint them, but you're also trying to use the opportunity to show them what you are. But then you are Hybrid You. You don't want to be Hybrid You, you want to be You You, and you want Richard Brookhiser to love you, right? You know, I'm just kicking myself. I forgot to ask WWRBLTR.

ADDED: And it goes without saying -- though it's not nice to leave it unsaid -- that I'm really happy to get to read Glenn again, and I feel honored to have been asked to guestblog again.