Senator Lindsey Graham died Saturday at 71. I take no joy in it — there's a family grieving, and I don't celebrate any man's death. But I also won't pretend a man's record disappears when he does. Grief and accountability are not opposites.

What licenses that honesty is scripture itself. The Bible doesn't airbrush anybody — David, a man after God's own heart, is recorded as an adulterer who had Uriah killed. Solomon's idolatry, Saul's descent, Peter's denial, all written down whole. The truth honors God more than flattery does. "A man reaps what he sows." (Galatians 6:7)

So: the ledger, both columns. The credit — Air Force Reserve colonel, McCain's protégé, a real maverick who crossed the aisle, and opponents like Schiff and Warner honoring him today. That's real and it stays in.

The other column is about effects, not personalit ...