Recent Government Commentaries

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James Comey, Part 2
Continuing my look at the interviews of James Comey on the release of his book, Higher Loyalty, Truth, Lies and Leadership. By far, the most interesting Q&A came between the former FBI director and students from William and Mary College in a Town Hall format broadcast by CNN. This exchange offers more discussion covering the legality of the release of...
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May 8, 2018
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James Comey, Part 1
How we, as a country, ever reached a point where we would have to choose between the credibility of a man who was a former U.S. Attorney, U.S. Deputy Attorney General, and Director of the FBI, and the credibility of a sitting U.S. president marks a sad chapter in American history. At the end of the last part of this...
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May 7, 2018
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Darkest Hour
“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.” – Winston Churchill No, this is not about the Oscar-winning movie examining Winston Churchill’s hard choices that helped save the world. It’s about the darkest choices ever made by a U.S. president. Last week, National Security Agency Chief Admiral Mike Rogers told the Senate Armed...
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March 5, 2018
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Let’s Learn to Be Americans, Again
During a conversation with a friend about the Parkland school shooting, I was struck by something she said: “I’m not a Republican or a Democrat; I’m an American.” Wednesday’s news was consumed with the aftershock of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The first half of the day was occupied with a listening session held by President Trump, attended...
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February 23, 2018
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Project Trump
Last Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laid out chapter and verse on how the Russians meddled in our 2016 election, detailing a series of indictments by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III. “The indictment charges 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for committing federal crimes while seeking to interfere in the United States political system, including the 2016 presidential...
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February 21, 2018
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A. Lincoln: The Interview
I was told by White House Press Secretary John G. Nicolay, that “Mr. Lincoln needed a little respite after recent news of a loss in our great civil war.” “John, I’ve been waiting months for this interview.” “He’s at Murphy’s Bar next door to the theater.” It was a bleak and rainy night when I walked through the front door...
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February 19, 2018
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THIS IS NOT A DRILL
Two commentaries regarding two possible wars demonstrate the vital need for statesmanship over salesmanship. Lawrence Wilkerson served as chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell during the George W. Bush administration at the time the U.S. was ramping up for war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. “Fifteen years ago,” Wilkerson writes in an opinion for The New York Times...
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February 7, 2018
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The Most Unethical Presidency
Friday’s revelations that President Trump called for the firing of Special Counsel Robert Muller III last June, and would have, had it not been for the threatened resignation by White House counsel, Donald McGahn II, is yet another piece of a growing mosaic that may lead to the conclusion that the president obstructed justice. Writing in The New York Times...
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January 29, 2018
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The Truth Needs Allies
Last year I wrote that Trump supporters, in general, fall into two categories: the willfully and woefully ignorant. Let me explain. The willful represent a majority of Republicans in Congress. They realize that Trump is a walking disaster, but they’ll stick with him because he’s a Republican, and many don’t want to face the wrath of his “base.” The woefully...
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January 19, 2018
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Ryan Zinke is No Teddy Roosevelt
Okay, he knows how to ride a horse perhaps as well as conservationist president Teddy Roosevelt.  And he was a Navy SEAL for more than 20 years. Does that qualify him to be the Secretary of the Interior to serve and protect our National Parks? After asking for a meeting with Secretary Zinke for months, ten of the twelve advisory...
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January 17, 2018

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
The Supreme Court is Broken. How Do We Fix It?
As distilled from an email update from Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down...
Leadership as a Moral Act
Britain’s King Charles III spoke to a chamber that, for a moment, set aside party labels—Democrat and Republican—and listened not as factions, but as participants...
Unity is Not a Declaration. It’s a Discipline.
How does a country move from argument to action? The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is not an isolated event. It is part...
When the Line No Longer Holds
There are moments when events reveal more than they intend. What unfolded Saturday at the Washington Hilton was not simply an isolated act. It was...
How High Can Leadership Rise?
What is power accountable to when it no longer accepts limits? We have seen what happens when power turns inward—when it begins to believe it...
The Burden of Command
What does leadership require when decisions send others into harm’s way, and uncertainty is shared not just by those in command, but by the nation...