Recent Accountability Commentaries

Featured image for “Final Report, Part 2”
Final Report, Part 2
On Thursday, I explained how, after a 19-month Freedom of Information request, I obtained a copy of the only independent investigation examining allegations of misconduct in Ken Starr’s Office of Independent Counsel. Former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Jo Ann Harris and her Co-Counsel Mary Harkenrider spent 10 months and conducted 25 interviews during that investigation. In my...
Read More
October 25, 2014
Featured image for “Final Report, Part 1”
Final Report, Part 1
A Special Counsel Report, hidden for 14 years, sheds light on the ethics of Ken Starr’s Office of Independent Counsel. On January 16, 1998, Monica Lewinsky was rushing to meet Linda Tripp at the Pentagon City shopping mall across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia. The two friends and former Pentagon co-workers were scheduled to have lunch in the food court...
Read More
October 23, 2014
Featured image for “Fast and Furious, Part 1”
Fast and Furious, Part 1
“Facts are stubborn things…” – John Adams On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre began as a flash mob of citizens who surrounded and heckled British soldiers quartered in the city. With the local citizenry up in arms about the incursion of British troops by England’s King George, the growing crowd of Americans-to-be threw snowballs, sticks and ultimately stones at...
Read More
May 12, 2014
Featured image for “Lost”
Lost
There’s a strange thing about real life stories that make them more compelling than fiction. The random chances of life intrude in such a way that we are left to make sense out of a cloud of unanswerable questions. Such has been the case with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In 10 days we have gone from initial reports of massive...
Read More
March 17, 2014
Featured image for “Dark Money”
Dark Money
That’s the term used to describe undisclosed funds that are used to help pay for an election campaign without the voter knowing who donated the money prior to an election. A report from The Center for Public Integrity (Feb. 27), a non-profit investigative journalism group revealed that “Two of the tightest races for U.S. Senate in 2012 were in Nevada and Arizona....
Read More
February 28, 2014
Featured image for “Grimm Reality”
Grimm Reality
“If you ever do that to me again, I will throw you off this f…ing balcony.” That was United States Representative Michael Grimm bluntly threatening NY-1 political reporter Michael Scotto. After discussing Grimm’s reaction to the president’s State of the Union message, Scotto questioned the New York congressman about 2010 campaign violations. With that, Grimm abruptly ended the interview. However, immediately after...
Read More
January 31, 2014
Featured image for “The Gospel According to The Duck”
The Gospel According to The Duck
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, right; says so in the First Amendment. So what’s all this fuss about A&E’s Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson sharing his opinions with a few million Americans? Well, if you’re A&E, the cable network jointly owned by the Hearst Corporation and Disney/ABC, you might want to step back and consider the impact Phil’s “opinions” have...
Read More
December 20, 2013
Featured image for “Fall from Grace”
Fall from Grace
Drug maker Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.2 billion and plead guilty to a misdemeanor in marketing the antipsychotic drug Risperdal and other drugs. “The agreement,” The New York Times writes (Nov. 4), “is the third-largest pharmaceutical settlement in United States history and the largest in a string of recent cases involving the marketing of antipsychotic and anti-seizure drugs to older...
Read More
November 6, 2013
Featured image for “Syria: The Moral Response”
Syria: The Moral Response
All focus is on President Obama and Congress as to whether the U.S. will enter into a “limited” attack on Syria as a response to their use of chemical weapons. This is a difficult issue and there are no easy answers. As The New York Times (Sept. 5), recently made clear, the rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have demonstrated their own...
Read More
September 9, 2013
Featured image for “Oprah, We Need Clarification”
Oprah, We Need Clarification
Oprah Winfrey hit a racial hot-button recently when she compared the death of Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till. “Trayvon Martin parallel to Emmett Till, let me just tell you. In my mind, same thing.” Winfrey is referring to the 1955 Mississippi case where a 14-year-old black teen was brutally tortured and murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His...
Read More
September 6, 2013