The grief and suffering of the families of the four Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 must be unbearable and interminable. Only someone with the most hardened heart would fail to understand their pain and anguish. But that doesn't mean the latest efforts of some of the relatives, enthusiastically supported by Republican hardliners, to […]

And now for some friendly advice for my Republican friends. If you want to criticize President Obama on anything having to do with Iran, don't waste your energy seething about "Iran" and "ransom" and "hostages" and what Ronald Reagan would do. It won't end well for you. After all, it wasn't Reagan's inauguration that secured […]

The Democratic and Republican conventions just completed broke new ground in modern American politics in two ways. Casting a dark shadow over the first presidential nomination of a woman by a major party was the reaction to it by the other. Republicans don't merely want to defeat their opponent at the polls in 2016. They […]

If nothing else, Republicans used their convention in Cleveland to get their hate on. The delegates who cheered Chris Christie's ersatz prosecution of Hillary Clinton had already made "lock her up" the event's lasting sound bite. Offstage, Trump surrogates accused Clinton of "treason" and called for her execution by hanging or firing squad. The foaming […]

One day after the horror in Munich, German authorities are still assembling a fuller picture of the 18-year-old assailant who killed 9 people in a shopping mall there. With the revelations that the gunman was a seriously depressed loner who had researched past school shootings including Columbine and Virginia Tech, it appears increasingly likely his […]

As Donald Trump began steamrolling his Republican competition earlier this year, some evangelical leaders grew concerned. And why not? The formerly pro-choice real estate developer and casino mogul turned GOP frontrunner who once boasted of his dating conquests and personal Vietnam war against sexually transmitted diseases had become a poster child for the notion that […]

Thursday, July 14, represented Donald Trump's first test as the would-be commander-in-chief of the United States. He failed it badly. Facing the unexpected need to react to the carnage in Nice, France, on the eve of his vice-presidential announcement, Trump stumbled, froze, raged, and ultimately beclowned himself on a global stage. The man who would […]

They say the best defense is a good offense. As the GOP prepares for its convention in Cleveland, Republicans have little other choice. After all, the Party of Lincoln is about to officially crown the pathological liar, race-baiting bigot and parasite posing as a populist Donald Trump as its nominee for President of the United […]

In Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump delivered a blistering attack on U.S. trade policy. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong week to proclaim, "We Are Going To Make America Great Again For Everyone--Greater Than Ever Before." Just the day before, the deficit-hawks at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB) offered […]

Three weeks after he expanded the role of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, President Obama on Wednesday he would maintain troops levels at 8,400 for the duration of his term. But to make sure the previously planned reduction to 5,500 did not take place, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) launched their own preemptive […]