Commentary by Debra J. Saunders

June 1, 2010

Four Very Beautiful Ugly Americans By Debra J. Saunders

I am rarely accused of being overly sensitive to other cultures, and I've had my share of disagreement with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Yet even I was offended at the decision to center the plot of "Sex and the City 2" on an all-expenses-paid vacations to Abu Dhabi for New York's famed four best friends. The sequel's racy material was considered so objectionable that the Islamic emirate wouldn't let filmmakers work there, so the crew had to shoot in Morocco.

May 30, 2010

I Read the Candidates' Books ... so You Won't Have To By Debra J. Saunders

If the eyes are the window to the soul, as the cliche goes, the political world has a corollary: Books written by candidates are the window into the soul the candidates would like you to believe they have.

May 28, 2010

The Obama Mantra: Bill, Baby, Bill By Debra J. Saunders

President Obama spoke in the unfinished hull of a new factory built by solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra in Fremont, Calif., Wednesday to highlight his administration's focus on creating jobs. The new facility, Obama explained to a crowd of hard hats and suits, created 3,000 temporary construction jobs and was expected to provide 1,000 production jobs.

May 22, 2010

Mexico City, Washington Gang up on Phoenix By Debra J. Saunders

Mexican President Felipe Calderon got the tough new Arizona immigration law wrong when he told Congress on Thursday, "It is a law that not only ignores a reality -- but also introduces a terrible idea of racial profiling as the basis for law enforcement."

May 21, 2010

Grim Milestones in War's Headstones By Debra J. Saunders

How is it that The New York Times reported that that the toll of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan reached the "grim milestone" of 1,000 Tuesday, but my newspaper, The Chronicle, had not bothered to report the story?

May 18, 2010

Starving for Attention at UC Berkeley By Debra J. Saunders

When some 20 UC Berkeley students announced on May 3 that they were launching a hunger strike to protest the new Arizona immigration law, they also issued a set of "demands." They demanded that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau denounce the Arizona law, rehire laid-off janitors and drop disciplinary actions against students arrested after a violent protest.

May 16, 2010

Tom Campbell's Fire, Steve Poizner's Discipline By Debra J. Saunders

Some time after he bowed out of the governor's race in January and jumped into the California GOP primary to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer, Tom Campbell turned from a mild-mannered law professor into Rambo. Professor Rambo.

May 14, 2010

Harvard Law's Profile in Courage By Debra J. Saunders

Forget "advise and consent." When President Obama nominated U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, the Dems just wanted a good liberal who won't embarrass them during Senate confirmation hearings, while the Repubs started trying to figure out whether it's safe to try to Bork her.

May 11, 2010

Bennett Feels Brunt of Club for Growth By Debra J. Saunders

Over the weekend, a Utah GOP convention failed to nominate Sen. Bob Bennett in his third re-election bid to Congress.

May 9, 2010

Arizona Law Also Happens To Be Good Politics By Debra J. Saunders

Critics of Arizona's tough new immigration law, which makes illegal immigration a state crime, have called supporters of the bill "racist," "mean-spirited" and "un-American." Here's the newsflash: The measure is also good politics, not only in Arizona, but nationally.

May 7, 2010

Lessons from the Times Square Dud By Debra J. Saunders

Eventually, even a stupid terrorist can get lucky. So why are so many people who think they're so smart so quick to dismiss the very dangers that threaten American lives?

May 4, 2010

Whitman Can Spend, but Can She Govern? By Debra J. Saunders

"Meg 2010, Building a New California," the glossy 40-plus-page "policy agenda" for former eBay CEO and GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, is so slick that it sat on my desk for weeks before I could finish it. I would pick it up, think that, like her candidacy, it is overly packaged, and toss it back on the pile of papers that litter my desk. It does a great job of laying out California's financial woes and suggesting possible reforms -- but it leaves out how she'll get things done in Sacramento.

May 2, 2010

A Year for Desperate Measures By Debra J. Saunders

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, has become my go-to guy for good-government issues. His wife, Joan, he recently confided, calls him "the Sisyphus of reform."

April 30, 2010

America's Political Grand Canyon By Debra J. Saunders

Let me lead with what should be an unremarkable observation: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer did not write federal immigration laws that require permanent residents to carry green cards, employers to check documentation or limits on the number of legal immigrants admitted each year. Washington did.

April 20, 2010

Using the Oklahoma City Bombing By Debra J. Saunders

Monday was the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that left 149 men and women -- most of them federal workers -- and 19 children dead. As is his habit, former President Bill Clinton used the occasion to bash his critics.

April 17, 2010

When It Comes to Earmarks in DC, It's 'E Pluribus Oink' By Debra J. Saunders

When he ran for president, then-Sen. Barack Obama argued that earmarks account for a mere "0.5 percent of the total federal budget," so eliminating earmarks would not solve the problem.

April 16, 2010

Mean and Angry versus Angry yet Determined By Debra J. Saunders

The Republican National Committee has an African-American chairman, Michael Steele, and still the GOP manages to come across as racially insensitive, as well as just plain insensitive. That's no easy feat.

April 11, 2010

Would Goodwin Liu Sink the Left-Leaning 9th Circuit? By Debra J. Saunders

There are two ways the Senate can approach a president's judicial nominees -- and specifically President Barack Obama's nomination of University of California, Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco.

April 9, 2010

High-School Honchos Ace Ingratitude By Debra J. Saunders

File this under: No good deed goes unpunished. In 2002, after now California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner sold his startup business for $1 billion, he became a volunteer, then volunteer teacher, at San Jose's Mount Pleasant High School. He even wrote a book about it and plans on donating the profits from the sales of "Mount Pleasant" to the school.

April 6, 2010

Obama's 17-Minute Non-Answer Answer By Debra J. Saunders

In June, comedian Bill Maher complained of President Obama, "You don't have to be on television every minute of every day -- you're the president, not a rerun of 'Law & Order.'"

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