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Forgotten, but Not Gone for 02/02/2013
Last weekend, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, and his wife, Ann, were in Washington, where they met with friends and supporters and attended the annual Alfalfa Club dinner, an...
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The GOP's Lost Youth for 02/09/2013
Who the president is when we first come of voting age — and whether we see that president as a successful leader — strongly influences our future voting allegiances. Take the case of Ronald Reagan, who...
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The Anti-Washington Candidate for 02/16/2013
Republicans are seen, and most Republicans see themselves, as the anti-government party. Republican solutions to most of the country's problems begin with, or at a minimum include, shrinking the size,...
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A Maligned Generation for 02/23/2013
This past Monday night, along with 680 other lucky people in Washington's historic Ford's Theatre, I was able to enjoy the wit and wisdom of America's dominant political satirist, Mark Russell. His...
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Can This Marriage Be Saved? for 03/02/2013
From Maine comes this dispatch from a historian friend of mine, Alan Ginsberg, who, like many of us, has become discouraged by the wall-to-wall squabbling that has dominated Washington: "The rhetoric...
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Am I Being Grumpy? for 03/09/2013
Let me stipulate at the outset: I do not qualify for any youth movement. In fact, I first voted in the 1960 presidential contest between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. No conscientious bartender, if I...
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Maybe Not the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer for 03/16/2013
Miraculously, a single government policy initiative has united Washington, D.C. Elected officials who had been either locking horns or crossing swords over drugs, drones or deficits suddenly found...
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A War With No Victors for 03/23/2013
"History is written by the victors," as Winston Churchill wrote. But the United States 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq was indeed a war with no victors. We know the American numbers: 4,488 killed;...
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Two Very Different Questions -- Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion for 03/30/2013
In spite of the nearly unprecedented velocity of change in American attitudes on the legality and acceptance of same-sex marriage, according to the Gallup Poll — from 68 percent-27 percent opposition...
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Honeymoon for a Pope for 04/06/2013
In politics, maybe even in life, perception frequently becomes reality. If enough people see you as a winner, then you will be treated like a winner, which means that your calls, even to important...
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The Gun Lobby and States Rights for 04/13/2013
According to the Census Bureau, in the year 2020, there will be 214,000 living Americans over the age of 100 and, according to Washington wise-man Mark Russell, all of them will have valid State of...
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One Man Who Gave Politics a Good Name for 04/20/2013
There's a hit new movie this spring, "42," the story of how in 1947 Jack Roosevelt Robinson made baseball history and American history by breaking the color barrier to become a Brooklyn Dodger and the...
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A Square Deal for the Little Guy for 04/27/2013
To listen to the language of American political campaigns, you could reasonably conclude that "big" is bad and "small" is good. Who has too much power and influence in Washington? Of course, Big...
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Story Too Good to Check Out for 05/04/2013
As generations of schoolchildren were told, Jamestown in 1607 was the first permanent English settlement on what would become the United States. What we learned this week is that those English...
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Advice for Graduation Day for 05/11/2013
Once again, graduation time is upon us. By some iron rule, every graduation must have a graduation speaker, whose role has been compared to that of the corpse at a great Irish wake: His presence is...
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Second-Term Pitfalls for 05/18/2013
Dan Jenkins, a sportswriter of rare wit, once gave us the Ten Stages of Drunkenness, which include these separate points on the road to inebriation: "Witty and Charming," "Rich and Powerful,"...
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Beware of the Leader Without Friends Who Can Tell Him Unpleasant Truths for...
The late Rep. Morris K. "Mo" Udall, D-Ariz., a gentle giant with laughter in his soul and steel in his spine, was the runner-up for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1976. As an admirer...
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Washington and the Von Moltke Grid for 06/08/2013
We who live in Washington are admittedly a little defensive about this city we call home. Be honest — you would be, too, if the nation's elected leaders won their high offices by repeatedly running...
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Washington Snobbery for 06/15/2013
Let's get this straight: Edward J. Snowden surrenders his well-paid job as a government contractor and, quite possibly, his freedom by publicly confirming how aggressively the National Security Agency,...
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Barack Obama's vs. the Cayman Islands for 06/22/2013
Barack Obama has never minced words about the Cayman Islands. As an Illinois senator, Obama co-sponsored legislation to crack down on wealthy American individuals and corporations using offshore...
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