Recent Commentaries

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March 2008 Ethical Hero – Colman McCarthy
Colman McCarthy is an anarchist… for Peace! An adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center who teaches at three DC area high-schools, Colman believes peace studies should be part of the core curriculum at every school and University in the country. “The most revolutionary thing anybody can do is to raise good, honest, generous children who will question the answers...
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March 13, 2008
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Top Ten Encouraging Ethics Stories of 2007
It’s easy to play the cynic and say everything’s going to hell in a hand basket when overwhelmed by the more than 1,650 ethics-related stories from last year.  It’s far more difficult to live up to a higher standard in spite of ethical failures. This is all the more reason we need to acknowledge those individuals and companies who do it right. ...
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March 12, 2008
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Client 9
When a breach of trust occurs, so many people are affected. When that breach occurs with an elected official, the implications are more far-reaching.  But Eliot Spitzer was no ordinary, elected official.  He was elected governor of the state of New York in large part because of his passion for meaningful ethics reform and direct actions against fraud and corruption....
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March 10, 2008
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The Fog of Torture
“Washington – President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Senator John McCain’s call for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.” Wait, I’m sorry, I quoted the wrong story.That story, reported by the Associated Press, appeared on December 15, 2005! Let me start over. “Washington – March 8, 2008, President Bush...
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March 8, 2008
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Dear Roger
February 8, 2008 Mr. Roger Clemens c/o The Washington Hilton Hotel and Towers Washington, DC Re: Testifying before Congress Dear Roger, In the past week you’ve been seen going from door to door visiting members of congress trying to drum up support to counter the negative statements about your alleged steroid use in the Mitchell Report. Don’t do it. You’ve been...
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March 7, 2008
Top Ten Ethical Lapses of 2007
I don’t know about previous years, but 2007 certainly seemed to be a banner year for good and bad, (mostly bad) ethics-related stories. So many stories, so hard to choose… only ten! January 1, 2007 started when Eliot Spitzer, New York’s ethical sheriff, is sworn in as the 54th governor of that state. A key campaign pledge: ethics reform. “If there is...
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March 5, 2008
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It’s Ethics, Stupid!
The genesis of this site began with an experiment. I have long believed that ethics-related stories consistently dominate the news. You can’t open a major newspaper without finding at least one, usually more, ethics scandals in sections A and B. But I never sat down to take a closer look. So, from January 1 until December 31, 2007 I decided...
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March 3, 2008

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Rage and Outrage
The last presidential election was marked by deep mistrust and anger. Four years later, the anger has escalated exponentially, with rage now dominating the political...
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In a 2016 poll entitled “What Voters Want in a President Today,” Pew Research reported that “more than a year before the first primaries, more...
The Great and the Regrettable
The Presidential Greatness Project, led by Professors Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin Vaughn, is a research effort that evaluates U.S. presidents through the lens of expert...
Facts or Fear
The Rockwellesque city of Springfield, Ohio, has recently been thrust into the national spotlight, not for its charm but because of false claims spread on...
Fueled by Fear, Guided by Solutions
In America’s deeply polarized political landscape, we’ve become engulfed by lies, hateful rhetoric, and now, escalating violence. The most recent example is an assassination attempt...
What Does the Supreme Court Stand For?
“A Judge Should Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in all Activities.” –Canon 2, Code of Conduct for United States Judges In 1969, Supreme...