Recent Accountability Commentaries

Featured image for “Who is Deep Throat?”
Who is Deep Throat?
For years, during and after Watergate, that was the singular political question that many were interested in knowing the answer. Deep Throat was the secret and anonymous source in the Executive Branch who pointed Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the right direction to uncover the covert and illegal operations that were taking place in the Nixon...
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September 7, 2018
Featured image for “The Ethical Take: <em>The Truth is Out There</em> Edition”
The Ethical Take: The Truth is Out There Edition
The words and actions of this unprecedented president, and his cronies continue to chip away at our most fundamental values. Carter Page – After the release of a 400-page FBI document, Page, a “campaign advisor” to the Trump campaign, declared that he was not an “informal advisor” to the Kremlin. According to the document, the FBI believed Page was “the...
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July 27, 2018
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Wouldn’t Count On It
After Trump returned from the NATO conference and Helsinki summit — and tweeted what a great success it was — reality came in the form of Republican leadership telling the president that the press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a disaster and that he needs to clean it up. Here’s what Trump said immediately after his meeting with...
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July 18, 2018
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Making Russia Great, Again!
SPECIAL — Posted 4:51 pm After President Trump met with Russia’s President Putin in Helsinki, Finland, the press conference that followed boiled down to one question and Trump’s response. The question from Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire, as transcribed by VOX. LEMIRE: Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence...
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July 16, 2018
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Republicans, Are You Listening?
No sooner had Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 12 Russian military intelligence officers involved in the hacking of our 2016 presidential election, then Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats cautioned Senators on Friday that “the warning lights are blinking red again,” meaning that we are facing another potential 9/11-size cyber-war with our adversaries, most notably, Russia. “Russia,...
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July 16, 2018
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Break the Law, Get a Pardon
In what is becoming routine, Donald Trump issued another pardon. This time to “two Oregon cattle ranchers,” The New York Times reports (July 10), “who had been serving out five-year sentences for arson on federal land — punishments that inspired the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016 and brought widespread attention to anger over federal land management in...
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July 11, 2018
Featured image for “Who is Richard Painter and Why is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About President Trump?”
Who is Richard Painter and Why is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About President Trump?
Richard Painter served for two years as George W. Bush’s ethics counsel. Since Donald Trump took office however, he’s frequently spoken out about Trump’s ethical lapses on cable news shows. Painter, along with Norm Eisen, Obama’s ethics counsel, have made clear that this president is perhaps the most ethically conflicted of the past 100 years. Last Sunday’s (July 1), New...
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July 9, 2018
Featured image for “Truth, Justice and the American Way”
Truth, Justice and the American Way
“Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird.”  “It’s a plane.”  “It’s Superman!”  “Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman,  » Read more about: Truth, Justice...
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July 4, 2018
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This is Not Who We Are
Twelve days ago (June 15), I wrote “Without standards of courtesy, civility and decency, everyone is free to engage in a bickering brawl of incivility that only continues the cycle.” Last week confirmed that we are officially in the brawl. Most Americans are good, decent, honest people. They’re respectful and courteous. If they make a mistake, they usually make amends....
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June 27, 2018
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Truth, Trust and the Media
Approximately 20 minutes into a one-on-one conversation with PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff last month, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl revealed something that Donald Trump told her in a pre-interview conversation. “At one point,” Stahl said, “he started to attack the press, and I said, ‘You know, that is getting tired. Why are you doing this? … You’ve won...
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June 25, 2018