October 2, 2015: a date… which will live… in infamy; at least for one journalist. That look of utter defeat on Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank’s face comes as a consequence of a promise he made last year. “I’m so certain Trump won’t win the nomination,” Milbank wrote, “that I’ll eat my words if he does. Literally: The day Trump...

In April, I wrote a commentary encouraging President Obama to visit Hiroshima. As reported in The New York Times three days ago (May 10), “President Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, Japan…” since the United States dropped an atomic bomb, ending World War II. In a blog post, White House Deputy National Security Advisor for...

Tomorrow is “T-Day”; the date presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump sits down with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to “hash out” some accommodation on policy and personality issues as Trump moves forward with his campaign. Last Sunday, Ryan was brutally honest in an interview when CNN host Jake Tapper asked if he would be willing to support...

Good news about Dennis Haines… finally! Last week, I wrote about Vietnam Vet. Dennis Haines’s difficulty in getting a medication approved by the V.A. for treatment for Hepatitis C – an infectious disease that he contracted after he had unintentionally received tainted blood while being treated by the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh. One week ago, I had contacted...

On Monday, I contacted Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey’s office and explained about Dennis Haines’s battle with the V.A. system. A Vietnam veteran and recipient of both a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, Haines had been approved to receive drug treatment for the Hepatitis C he had contracted through tainted blood while in a military hospital. While the treatment and payment...

Last February, I reported that Vietnam Vet SP4 Dennis Haines (Ret.) was having difficulty receiving treatment for Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that affects the liver’s function. The condition was brought about when he and others were inadvertently given tainted blood while in service. At that time (Feb. 5), Haines wrote to me about his status. “Jim, Here’s the deal,...

George Clooney’s compelling 2003 film, Good Night, and Good Luck, is about character assassination and the two men taking a principled stand against such tactics: CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, and producing partner, Fred Friendly. After publicaly exposing U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for destroying careers and lives through rumor and innuendo – usually claiming guilt by association – the...

We’ll get to the “Shocking Details” in our “bombshell” in a moment, but first, a little housekeeping. Deflated Brady – First, football’s “greatest quarterback of all time,” Tom Brady is suspended for four games for being “generally aware” of a scheme to deflate – and thus make the ball easier to control – footballs in the 2015 A.F.C. championship game....

I was overwhelmed and grateful to have received more than 20 comments on my three-part series, Trust and Confidence, about Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti’s 1998 principled battle with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. I have discussed this story with a handful of friends who kept wondering when I was going to write-up an analysis of a story that I had...

Last Monday (Apr. 15), the editorial board of The Washington Post took notice of President Obama’s upcoming trip to Japan and called for him to visit Hiroshima where, almost 71 years ago, an atomic bomb was dropped by U.S. forces to end the war with Japan. “The bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945,” The Post board writes, “and of...