“We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom.” On January 20, 1961, I was in seventh grade, watching John F. Kennedy deliver his inaugural address. I could not have known then that I was witnessing a moment in history, with words that would inspire generations to come. As Thurston Clarke recounts in his book Ask...

I’ve spent much of my life thinking and writing about ethics. About honesty. About responsibility. About integrity—not simply when doing the right thing is easy, but when it demands courage, carries consequences, and comes at a personal cost. We are 18 days away from a national election. Lately, I’ve found myself wondering whether we’ve reached a point in American life...

Republican John Williams, a chicken farmer and feed dealer from southern Delaware, had never gone to college.  He spoke so quietly on the Senate floor that the news media dubbed him “Whispering Willie.” But when he spoke, people listened as he exposed the biggest corruption scandals of the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s – sending hundreds of government officials to...

This is the opening statement delivered by Jack Smith, former Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 29, 2026. I’m including his statement in its entirety because, in Washington today, character, integrity, and courage are increasingly endangered virtues. Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Durbin, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity...

In 1998, at the height of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti was driving to work when a radio report stopped him cold. President Bill Clinton had been accused of having a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. When Merletti arrived at his office, his deputy informed him that Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr wanted to question...

In 1984, Wendy’s ran a television commercial featuring the redoubtable Clara Peller, staring at an enormous hamburger bun. Inside was a burger patty smaller than the bun’s sesame-seed budget. She looked at it for a moment and asked, “Where’s the beef?” More than forty years later, it may be time to ask a similar question about the people we elect...

A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single line stopped me. Katie Morosky, played by Barbra Streisand, has just returned from a political demonstration in Washington. She and Hubbell are arguing when she says: “People are their principles.” It’s a simple sentence. But...

I’ve written about Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff before, but after watching his questioning of Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI), I think he deserves another look—particularly in comparison with Atticus Finch, the central character in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The comparison is not exact, nor should it be. Atticus is a fictional Alabama...

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things—not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” When John F. Kennedy stood at Rice University in 1962 and said those words, he was not merely talking about rockets, astronauts, or beating the Soviets into space. He was speaking to something larger in the American...

Much has been written about George Washington, our first American president: his command of the Continental Army, his leadership in the fragile birth of a new nation, and his presidency. But less attention has been paid to Washington the person, the private Washington, whose conduct set a standard that may be even more urgently needed today. At a time when...