Jimmy Carter.

• Position: THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW - Interview

I recently got to observe Jimmy Carter in action. I attended a global conference on the public's right to information at the Carter Center in Atlanta at the end of February. I was there for the full three days, and saw Carter intimately participate in the conference. Looking much older than the President I remembered from my childhood, Carter still attended to the details, and was involved in a number of sessions. He even suggested a few amendments for the final declaration to emerge from the conference.

His work through the Carter Center has cemented his reputation for having perhaps the best post-Presidency ever in U.S. history. From conflict resolution and election monitoring to fighting disease and defending human rights, the Carter Center has done substantial work on a number of fronts in its twenty-five years of existence. Carter's latest book, Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope , is a chronicle of the various efforts that Carter has spearheaded since leaving office. And at the age of eighty-three, he still maintains a hectic schedule. Whether it's traveling to the Middle East as part of a peace mission with Kofi Annan and Mary Robinson or heading to Nepal to monitor elections in that country, he stays involved.

Such post-Presidential endeavors helped Carter get the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, even as the Nobel Committee acknowledged his Presidential accomplishments such as the Camp David Accords and the Panama Canal Treaty.

Carter has refused to observe the self-imposed code of silence that has prevented other ex-Presidents from criticizing the policies of the incumbent. He has been particularly critical of the Iraq War, opposing it from before its start and calling it "a war based on lies."

But Carter hasn't stopped there. On subjects ranging from North Korea and Cuba to Israel/Palestine and global warming, he has taken public positions that are very much at variance with Bush's, describing the Bush Administration's foreign policy as "the worst in history."

Carter has faced the most intense criticism in recent years for his penultimate book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid . Fourteen members of the Carter Center's advisory board resigned in protest. Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman said Carter "was engaging in anti-Semitism." Democratic Party leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, and John Conyers distanced themselves from the book.

But Carter's reputation remains intact...