This week, millions of Americans struggled to understand how an unarmed 17 year old African-American kid stalked by an overzealous community watch volunteer came to be blamed for his own murder. Millions more wondered what all the fuss was about. And like many Americans across the country, I naturally expected our President--who also happens to […]

During the 2012 presidential election, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin cemented her reputation as a willing stenographer for Mitt Romney. Now in a new piece for the Post ("Ten reasons why Liz Cheney should run"), Rubin has transferred her affections to Dick Cheney's daughter, Liz. As it turns out, that is altogether fitting. By manipulating […]

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 […]

The Senate Tuesday reached agreement on a deal paving the way for seven Obama nominees to be confirmed without Democrats resorting to the so-called "nuclear option" ending the 60 vote supermajority required by a filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave credit where he thought it was due. "John McCain is the reason we're at […]

For most Americans now living, those long-ago events were as unthinkable as they were forgotten. In Little Rock, Arkansas (1957), Oxford, Mississippi (1962), and Tuscaloosa, Alabama (1963), Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy dispatched federal troops to enforce the law of the land in the face of local segregationist officials proclaiming "states' rights" as their rallying cry. […]

A quick glance at their travel schedules tells you all you need to know about which Republicans are already reading running hard to win the White House in 2016. Having already visited South Carolina, Texas Senator Ted Cruz will headline an August 23 GOP fundraiser in New Hampshire as part of a summer tour including […]

When the dust-up over the IRS' treatment of non-profit "social welfare organizations" first erupted in early May, I predicted that whatever the findings of looming Internal Revenue Service probes, "the GOP will play politics with the IRS budget regardless. And the certain result will be tens of billions in less revenue annually for Uncle Sam--and […]

Back in 1991, Democrat Edwin Edwards defeated former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard turned Republican gubernatorial candidate David Duke for governor of Louisiana. Edwards famously joked that "the only similarity between me and Duke is that we're both wizards under the sheets." Two decades later, the sheets and hoods may be optional, but for many […]

As has been thoroughly documented, until 2011 no political party had both the votes and the intent to block an increase in the U.S. debt ceiling and thereby trigger both a U.S. default and a global economic catastrophe. Now, despite plummeting annual federal budget deficits, a stabilization of the debt as a percentage of the […]

I have good news and bad news for Colorado Republican state senate candidate Jaxine Bubis. The bad news is that her would-be constituents now know that she authored a series of erotic novels under the name Jaxine Daniels, including the not-so-classic Beantown Heat. The good news is that publishing soft core porn is no barrier […]