The conservative campaign to brand Barack Obama "Race-Baiter in Chief" over his remarks on the Trayvon Martin tragedy continued uninterrupted over the weekend. Joining ranks with Sean Hannity, who said the young Obama resembled Martin because "he smoked pot and he did a little blow," were former Bush press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino. […]

Last week, former Bush Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt offered a very instructive look back at the rollout of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. In what the Washington Post's health care reporter Sarah Kliff praised as a "great piece," Leavitt recounted the technical troubles, process pitfalls, rapid responses and lessons learned […]

As the carnage and chaos grow in Cairo, there are no easy answers for the United States in Egypt. But once upon a time, Republican leaders and their allies in the conservative commentariat had a simple answer indeed for the Middle East. Waiving their purple fingers in early 2005, the likes of David Brooks, Charles […]

In the wake of the twin revelations about the National Security Agency's dragnet of phone calls and online activity, polling suggests that a majority of Americans apparently remain comfortable with their civil liberties being compromised in the cause of preventing terror attacks. Probably just as predictable, a survey from Pew Research showed a fair amount […]

Throughout the tenure of George W. Bush, many of us to the left of center warned that unchecked presidential power was putting Americans' civil liberties in jeopardy. Now with the revelations that the Obama Justice Department seized AP phone records in one leak case and monitored a reporter's communications in another, some on the right […]

With Washington engulfed in scandals real and imagined over the Benghazi tragedy, the IRS' handling of applications by political groups for tax exempt status and the Justice Department's seizure of AP phone records, California Congressman Darrell Issa is enjoying his moment in the sun. For Republicans "energized" by the prospect of bludgeoning President Obama over […]

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that President Obama has narrowed his list of possible replacements for FBI Director Robert Mueller to two candidates. Senate Republicans probably won't be happy with either of the highly respected choices. Lisa Monaco, the White House's top counterterrorism official, is a Harvard and University of Chicago-educated former prosecutor whose […]

For Republicans, Benghazi is the scandal that must not die. Despite the testimony by Obama administration officials including Hillary Clinton and the blistering findings of the State Department Accountability Review Board she endorsed, the GOP is determined to bludgeon the current president and the woman who might be his successor. So, the Republicans' talking point […]

This week, the Republican Party asked Americans to join in the celebration marking the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. In addition to offering "Thanks W" stickers (fittingly available only in black and white), visitors to the GOP.com web site can sign an e-card thanking President Bush "for his hard work and dedication […]

In the run-up to today's celebration at the George W. Bush Presidential Library, America's 43rd President declared that "history will ultimately judge" his tenure in the White House. And that is precisely the problem for the custodians of Bush's legacy. After all, the slaughter of 3,000 people on 9/11, the catastrophic and unnecessary war in […]