Recent Politics Commentaries

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One Truth
Every Republican in Congress who has dismissed, downplayed, falsely labeled, remained silent, or criticized the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol should be required to watch Four Hours at The Capitol in its entirety. Except they won’t. Why? Because their personal interests take precedent over the people they were elected to represent and serve. Because...
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November 2, 2021
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That’s Their Mindset
What do these four things have in common: money, status, power and politics? “Gamal Abdelaziz, a former hotel and casino executive is accused of paying $300,000 to get his daughter admitted to the University of Southern California as a basketball player based on false qualifications. “John Wilson, a private equity executive, is accused of paying $220,000 to get his son...
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October 12, 2021
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Just Tell Us The Truth
In 2005, I was speaking to a group of teachers, students, administrators and alumni at the Penn State Forum. During the Q&A that followed, one audience member asked, “if you only had five minutes to speak with the president of the United States, what would you tell him?” “Only five minutes?” I said. Even though I had not meant it...
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September 17, 2021
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No QVC?
Hunter Biden has a new career: painting and selling his artwork. While that’s good for him, it’s not so good for dad. Big ethics issue. “‘The whole thing is a really bad idea,” said Richard Painter, who was chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007,” The Washington Post reports (July 8). “‘The initial reaction a...
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July 14, 2021
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“Festival of Truth”
“Terror is nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice.” – Robespierre While the French revolutionary’s words ignited an uprising that ultimately overturned the despotic empire of Louis XVI and opened France to new age, his words resonate today, but not in the way he originally intended. Today, we have our own King Louis who is supposed to be in former...
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July 12, 2021
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Fact, Fiction and Adam Kinzinger
Adam Kinzinger is a committed conservative. However, that commitment does not extend to supporting Donald Trump and his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and that Vice-President Mike Pence had the power to throw out votes when the electoral votes were being certified in the Capitol on January 6. Kinzinger calls the obsequiousness by Republicans to Trump, “capitulating...
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July 6, 2021
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An Undiminished Devotion
In 1826, a month before the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Washington publisher, and civic leader Robert C. Weightman declining an invitation to attend next month’s celebration due to his “sufferings and sickness.” While the first reading of American Independence took place on July 8, 1776 in Philadelphia, the first event honoring...
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July 2, 2021
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This is Where We Are
This is what irresponsibility looks like, where dishonesty thrives and “loyalty” trumps rationality. This isn’t a close call. This isn’t, well, you know, it might have been this, or maybe that. No. The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by fervent Trump supporters and armed extreme right insurrectionists is not opinion. It’s fact. Many of those who didn’t see...
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June 28, 2021
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The Diminishment of Our Democracy is Not About Trump…
…it’s about us. It’s about those who support him, those who mimic, tweet, or Facebook his outrage and lies, and those who remain silent. He’s no longer president. He no longer has direct control of our lives. There’s nothing left but the clown show of rallies where he reiterates the same tired lies and conspiracies to supporters who feed his...
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June 11, 2021
Eye-to-Eye
Embed from Getty Images Thirty-one minutes and forty-three seconds into his speech at the GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, former Vice-President Mike Pence said this about the January 6th insurrection of the Capitol building and President Trump: “…I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on that day…” That’s it? “Eye-to-eye”? What a feeble attempt at characterizing your...
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June 7, 2021

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
It Was Important Then. It is Important Today
Freedom of speech in America is under attack, not only when people are denied the right to speak, but when lies, intimidation and the deliberate...
When Political Identity Replaces Ethical Judgment
The political and cultural landscape has become a minefield of conflicting beliefs, many now rooted less in public policy than in personal identity. One of...
Principles Matter.
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...
All the President’s Men 2.0
“Politics had infiltrated every corner of government—a strong-arm takeover of the agencies by the Nixon White House.” —Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President’s...
The Threat to November Is Already Here
“Cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”—George Washington’s...
Jon Ossoff and the Conscience of Atticus Finch
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),...