Recent Politics Commentaries

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It Gets Worse
When Donald Trump “tweeted” his inane remarks about being a “stable genius,” or his 89 tweets regarding President Obama’s birth certificate, few took his buffoonery seriously. As president, however, that buffoonery has become considerably darker and knows no limits. “I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistle-blower the information because that’s close to a spy,” Mr. Trump...
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October 2, 2019
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The Enablers
On July 23, 1974, Republican Congressman Lawrence Hogan held a press conference to explain why he was calling for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. In a story that would easily garner a place in John Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage, had it been written later, Hogan spoke with passion and commitment to a higher principle. “I want with all my heart,”...
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September 30, 2019
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The Cancer
“I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and that if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it.” – John Dean, counsel to President Richard Nixon, in testimony to a Senate subcommittee, 1973. The simple facts are these: President Trump called and asked a foreign official for...
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September 27, 2019
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The “Witch Hunt” Papers
It doesn’t take a CIA analyst to discern President Trump’s meaning in reading the notes of a conversation between the himself and Ukraine President Zelenskyy on July 25 of this year. In fact, all it takes is basic English skills. After congratulating Zelenskyy on his election win, Trump begins with an obvious “set-up.” “I will say that we do a...
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September 26, 2019
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Are We There?
From the very beginning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reluctant to look at any impeachment inquiry. What changed? One phone call, and a whistleblower in the intelligence community who cited “multiple acts” that the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General said were “credible” and “urgent” regarding the president’s actions. In a clear and measured statement, the House Speaker addressed the American public:...
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September 25, 2019
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1969: The Good, the Bad, the Politics, the Music, Two Miracles and a Principled Stand
In 1969 — fifty years ago, today — I was driving a 1965 blue Mustang while attending my second year of college as turmoil swirled in the country. While I didn’t know it at the time, the country was more divided then at any time since the Civil War. The Good: miniskirts… lots of them. The Bad: the Manson family....
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September 24, 2019
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“Credible” and “Urgent”
While trying to stay above the crisis-du-jour by this president, there are some matters that are just too vital to ignore. According to several media reports, a whistleblower in the intelligence community notified the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General (ICIG) of a serious issue involving communication between the president and a foreign leader. “Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence...
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September 20, 2019
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A Time of Fear…
Note to Readers: Apologies for my absence. I’ve been working on completing a long-term project. It’s taken longer than expected. I hope to have another commentary on Friday, and return Tuesday. I appreciate your understanding. It was a time of fear; fear of communism; fear of American citizens who may be Communist spies; hate for those who sat before the...
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September 16, 2019
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Clear and Present Danger
Over the last few months, I have deliberately scaled back commentaries about our current president: his narcissism; his ego; his blatant dishonesty; his more than 2,000 conflicts of interest; his insistence that he knows more than anyone else; his obsessively cozy relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin; his “love” letters from North Korea’s Kim Jung- un; his “firings” of administration officials...
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September 11, 2019
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It’s Just Wrong!
It’s not that women are smarter than men (although many clearly are). It’s that they have a way of cutting through the crap and revealing the hard truth of the matter better than men. Recently, I was exposed to another little piece of ethical wisdom while attending a dinner with friends. When the conversation turned to the current occupant of...
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September 4, 2019

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...