Ground Zero on the Tolerance Issue by Debra J. Saunders
The mission of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's Cordoba Initiative is not just to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center near ground zero, but also to build "interfaith tolerance and respect."
Political Commentary
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August 20, 2010
August 20, 2010
The Senate: All Classes Aren't Equal By Larry J. Sabato
Our astute political readership is well aware that the United States Senate has been divided into three classes since the beginning of the Constitutional Republic. That’s because, with a six-year term for each senator, only one-third of the Senate is elected every two years. Senators were elected by the state legislatures until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, of course, but the classes were maintained with the electoral reform, and as new states were added to the Union, the principle of “one-third every two years” has been continuous. While the U.S. House of Representatives is (theoretically) “refreshed” in its entirety by the People at each election, the Senate is much more stable, since two-thirds of the Senate membership is immune from popular uprising in any given election. Passions are given a chance to cool, or to reconstitute, before the next election rolls around.
August 20, 2010
“What’s good for the GOP goose…” By Howard Rich
There’s a disturbing hypocrisy emerging from within the “establishment” wing of the Republican Party lately – a belief that it’s okay to work against fiscal conservatives who garner the support of the vast majority of GOP voters, just not fiscal liberals.
August 19, 2010
Washington Saved Our Economic Hide By Froma Harrop
Clarence the angel has a tough job in "It's a Wonderful Life." He must show the suicidal George Bailey what terrible things would have happened had he not been born. Two prominent economists are playing Clarence to the multitudes who believe that forceful government intervention during the financial meltdown should never have been.
August 19, 2010
Big Government Forgets How to Build Big Projects By Michael Barone
When I drive from downtown Washington to Reagan National Airport, I often encounter delays on the George Washington Parkway due to construction of a small bridge over an inlet of the Potomac.
August 19, 2010
Courage and Lower Manhattan By Joe Conason
Nothing tests a president like standing up against a wave of fear and prejudice, even at potentially great cost to his own party and prospects. That is what Lyndon Baines Johnson did when he signed the civil rights acts he knew would forfeit the South to the Republicans for a generation or more.
August 18, 2010
Watch Out for Haley Barbour by Susan Estrich
The Drudge Report headline declaring that "Murdoch Gives $1 Million to Haley Barbour" is not technically accurate.
August 18, 2010
Summertime 2010 By Tony Blankley
With apologies to George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward and their 1935 classic song, "Summertime" (and the living is easy):
August 18, 2010
Arnold and Jerry Take a Legal Holiday By Debra J. Saunders
When 52 percent of California voters passed Proposition 8 in November 2008, Attorney General Jerry Brown said he would defend the measure during the inevitable appeals. Then, as is his fashion, Brown changed his mind. Ditto Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who twice vetoed same-sex marriage bills passed by the Legislature in deference to California voters who passed an earlier same-sex marriage statute in 2000.
August 17, 2010
Lessons of the Summer Swoon by Lawrence Kudlow
The economy is suffering from something like a summer swoon. In the words of business columnist Jimmy Pethokoukis, the recovery summer has gone bust. We all know this from the sloppy statistics coming in for jobs, retail sales and, most recently, manufacturing. But market-based indicators are telling the same story.
August 17, 2010
The Real JetBlue Heroes By Froma Harrop
The JetBlue flight attendant who theatrically quit his job by cursing out a "rude" passenger and exiting via an emergency slide has become a working-class hero to many. But Steven Slater's story didn't hold up for long. It now appears that the gash allegedly caused by someone slamming an overhead bin into his head was there before the flight. Slater was acting like a jerk long before takeoff, according to recent reports.
August 17, 2010
Flaws Aside, Rosty and Stevens Put Public First By Michael Barone
The deaths this week of two political Old Bulls has inspired some harsh commentary.
August 15, 2010
Real Tax Increases, Real Consequences By Debra J. Saunders
Taxpayers don't look at taxes the way the people who spend the tax money do. Take the battle over the extension of the "Bush tax cuts." Americans to Washington: They were tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. If Washington allows all or parts of the "Bush tax cuts" to expire at the end of the year, the result won't be to not cut taxes, as Beltway lingo and President Obama suggest, but to raise taxes.
August 13, 2010
Birth Days, Death Days By Susan Estrich
My friend Kath would have turned 60 this week.
August 13, 2010
Obama’s Transparency Charade Continues By Howard Rich
The more things “change,” the more they stay the same in Barack Obama’s Washington, D.C. – especially when it comes to government transparency.
August 13, 2010
Blood Diamonds Meet U.N. Swells By Debra J. Saunders
Prosecutors at the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague interrupted the trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor last week with some comic relief. They put supermodel Naomi Campbell on the stand to tie Taylor to the trade of "blood diamonds."
August 12, 2010
The Racists Return By Joe Conason
Among the most revealing aspects of life during the Obama presidency is the panoply of responses to a black family in the White House. What made so many of us proud of our country on Jan. 20, 2009, has increasingly provoked expressions of hatred from the far right. That is troubling, but not nearly as troubling as the behavior of conservatives who excuse, embolden or simply pretend to ignore the bigots surrounding them.
August 12, 2010
Obama's State Capitalism: A Failure of Modesty By Michael Barone
"The pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated." Those were the carefully chosen words of the Federal Reserve Board after its meeting Tuesday. Translation into English: We wuz wrong.
August 12, 2010
Regulation Made Canada Fat and Happy By Froma Harrop
Suppose the U.S. government had posted a budget surplus in 12 of the past 13 years. Suppose not a single major American financial institution had failed or needed a government bailout. Suppose the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 6.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, rather than at 2.7 percent.
August 11, 2010
Coffee, Tea or Me By Susan Estrich
That's what the ads used to say, back in the day when air travel was considered glamorous, stewardesses were required to be young, slim and beautiful, and people actually "dressed" to take a plane. As for me, I thought it was glamorous just to go to the airport, much less get on a plane.
