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Lest we forget: today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that cost the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, the second American in space, Ed White, the first American to walk in space, and Roger Chaffee.

It is said that the accident set back the Apollo program by more than a year. A thorough review of the accident put the flight schedule on hold, and revealed carelessness, sloppiness and design defects throughout the spacecraft and throughout the entire Apollo program. NASA had developed “go fever.”

It never flew, but Apollo 1 may have been the most important Apollo mission of all. Without the review and the corrective measures that followed the accident, I’m convinced that Project Apollo would never have reached the moon. After the accident, NASA faced the facts, worked to fix defects, and learned from its mistakes.

Let’s never forget that lesson, or the men who died for us to learn it.

George W. Bush on Friday:

One of the things I’ve found in Congress is that most people recognize that failure would be a disaster for the United States. And in that I’m the decision maker, I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster.

You’re resigning?

On Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall cites some GOP spin, and links to an illuminating chart of the U.S. budget deficit or surplus since 1961:

[F]ormer RNC Chair Ed Gillespie … waxing poetic about President Bush’s plan to balance the budget by 2012 and claiming that the last time the budget was balanced was in 1998.

… Back on planet earth we know that the budget became balanced during the Clinton presidency and remained in balance until he left office in 2001.

You’ve got to give Bush credit for turning this country around.

In 1972, I cast my very first presidential ballot for Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota.

I was proud of that vote then, and I’m proud of it still.

Eleanor McGovern, the senator’s wife, has died at the age of 85.

“I still carry a trace of bitterness about poverty,” she wrote in [her 1974 memoir] “Uphill.” “It was not ennobling for my father and grandfather to scratch out a living on land rendered barren. The poor have few choices in life. About all they can do is persevere.”

My condolences to Sen. McGovern and his family in this time of their loss. This is a loss for all of us.