While attending a conference last week, I found myself in an elevator with two other attendees. While my name tag appeared to suggest I was speaking at the conference, I explained that I do write and speak on ethics. One attendee smiled and asked, “Does ethics exist anymore?” While our nation’s capital endures numerous ethical lapses, it’s important to recognize...

The whistleblower was not in on the call. It was hearsay. “Everything Trump says was in the best interests of the country.” No due process. Secret basement meetings (with Republicans in attendance). “The Ukrainian president didn’t do the investigation… No quid pro quo.” “Was there a quid pro quo?” E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland asked rhetorically, testifying before the House committee....

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” – Thomas Paine, English-born, American philosopher and activist. Taken from Paine’s essay, The Crisis, those words were meant to inspire American revolutionaries as they faced an extraordinary moment of character. Considering our current crisis, what Paine writes next is worth reflection. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will,  » Read more about:...

“So, he’s going to do the investigation?” – President Donald Trump, in a phone call to Gordon Sondland in Ukraine Why is this man smiling? Gordon Sondland, the man literally in the middle of the president’s impeachment inquiry, appears happy as he walks to a joint House committee not long ago. How will he feel walking to the House Intelligence...

In January 1972, John Dean, White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon, met with Attorney General John Mitchell and others to hear a plan proposed by G. Gordon Liddy for intelligence-gathering for Nixon’s re-election campaign. After the plan met with resistance, Liddy scaled it back and Mitchell approved a scheme that called for a break-in of Democratic Headquarters in the...

It’s no longer about right vs. wrong; it’s about Democrat vs. Republican. It’s not about looking at the facts; it’s about looking at the latest tweet from the president. It’s not about loyalty to the Constitution; it’s about loyalty to a corrupt president and his die hard base. That’s Washington, in a nutshell. What’s missing from that curt analysis is...

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” Fact-check: while attributed to Winston Churchill, versions of the expression existed as far back as the 1700s. Since the advent of social media, however, that cautionary quote needs serious updating and here’s why. Currently, more than 2.41 billion individuals use Facebook, of...

Much has been said regarding General James Mattis’ speech at a recent event. Here’s my take. James Mattis, one of America’s foremost generals, served and led in the Gulf War, as well as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, later serving as Donald Trump’s secretary of defense before vacating that position. In his resignation letter, Mattis wrote to the president saying,...

Even as Gordon Sondland – appointed by Trump as ambassador to the European Union – was testifying in a closed-door session in Congress, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, held a little press conference in the White House publicly saying what we all knew for the last several weeks, that there was, in fact, a “quid pro quo”...

The only time I watch Fox News is when Shepard Smith is the anchor for the mid-day news, the factual news, the honest news, not the distortions put forth by those so-called opinion guys on the network. It really isn’t surprising that the vast majority of Fox revenues are brought in by those other guys that pander to the president,...