On Saturday, March 15, I attended the funeral of my friend, Milton Copulos, a top energy expert who worked with my colleague, Andy Messing, as President of the National Defense Council Foundation.

It was ludicrous to watch Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama sparring about the issue of NAFTA in their debate at Cleveland State University on Tuesday evening, February 26.

Neither was willing to flatly say that he would extricate the United States from NAFTA, and Hillary denied the easily proven fact that she was one of its strong advocates during her husband’s Presidency.

Neither the moderators nor the debaters mentioned the fact that, under the U.S. Constitution, Congress shall "regulate commerce with foreign nations". The founders intended that Congress not be able to delegate its trade responsibilities to a tri-national bureaucracy such as NAFTA.

Nor was it mentioned in the debate that NAFTA was not made subject to Constitutional requirements that treaties be ratified by a two-thirds vote of members of the U.S. Senate.

NAFTA was the precursor to the problems we now face with the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), other NAFTA Superhighway proposals, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and the North American Union (NAU).

Perhaps someday, individuals who understand and believe in the Constitution of the United States will get to ask the questions.

In 1961, I headed a campaign against the left-wing, CIA-funded National Student Association. Its annual "Congress" was being held in Madison, Wisconsin.

My activities went forward under the auspices of an entity called "CRNSO", the Committee for a Responsible National Student Organization.

With the help of Kansas conservative Willard Garvey and my friend, Scott Stanley, I was able to raise enough money to facilitate the travel and lodging of several dozen young conservatives, who traveled to Madison from places throughout the United States to assist in our effort.

In order to make sure that there was no question about the care and integrity with which the money we had raised was handled, I placed the funds under the control of Victor Milione, who was then the head of ISI (now called "Intercollegiate Studies Institute", then having the name "Intercollegiate Society of Individualists").

Sadly, William Rusher, then the publisher of National Review, got control of the money and threatened me, saying that, if I did not vote with his faction at the next Board meeting of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), I would never see the outside of the motel room at the Madison Inn in Wisconsin. All the bills at the hotel were my responsibility.

Faced with this threat, I reluctantly contacted William F. Buckley, Jr., (at his fifth anniversary dinner in 1960 I had been a principal speaker). I told Mr. Buckley that, unless the money was wired to me within two hours, I would hold a press conference disclosing how a superannuated conservative personage was trying to blackmail me into supporting his side in an internal dispute which was roiling the Board of Directors of Young Americans for Freedom, an entity on whose board I had served since YAF was founded in 1960.

Bill Buckley, with grace and alacrity, responded to my phone call. The money arrived almost instantly. I paid the bill at the Madison Inn and a few days later had the opportunity to vote against Mr. Rusher at the YAF Board meeting on September 3, 1961.

The death of Victor Milione a few days ago recalled these events to my mind.

My friend, Evan Mecham, was never very popular with the liberals, and, in death, they continue to do all they can to besmirch him and the good reputation he enjoyed with conservatives in Arizona and throughout the United States. He passed away ay 83 years of age on February 21.