Recent Politics Commentaries

Featured image for “Who is Deep Throat?”
Who is Deep Throat?
For years, during and after Watergate, that was the singular political question that many were interested in knowing the answer. Deep Throat was the secret and anonymous source in the Executive Branch who pointed Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the right direction to uncover the covert and illegal operations that were taking place in the Nixon...
Read More
September 7, 2018
Featured image for “Last Man Standing… Tall”
Last Man Standing… Tall
Halfway through the comedy City Slickers, Curly – the irascible, tougher-than-leather cowboy played by tough guy Jack Palance – unexpectedly dies on the trail. At his burial, the cook offers this short admonition to the Almighty: “Lord, we give you Curly. Try not to piss him off.” Given Senator John McCain’s somewhat regular bouts of anger, the Almighty would be...
Read More
September 4, 2018
Featured image for “In Treatment”
In Treatment
As Mr. Lichtman’s recovery specialist, he asked if I would I apprise his readers as to his health and welfare. As many of you who have followed Jim’s commentaries over the past eighteen months know, he has spent an ungodly amount of time examining and writing about President Trump. It became obvious, to both Jim and treatment specialists at The...
Read More
July 30, 2018
Featured image for “The Ethical Take: <em>The Truth is Out There</em> Edition”
The Ethical Take: The Truth is Out There Edition
The words and actions of this unprecedented president, and his cronies continue to chip away at our most fundamental values. Carter Page – After the release of a 400-page FBI document, Page, a “campaign advisor” to the Trump campaign, declared that he was not an “informal advisor” to the Kremlin. According to the document, the FBI believed Page was “the...
Read More
July 27, 2018
Featured image for “Impeachment: Bluff or Worse?”
Impeachment: Bluff or Worse?
In an unprecedented move against the second-highest-ranking official at The Department of Justice, two House conservatives, Representatives Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Jim Jordan (OH), have filed articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. I wrote about the incivility demonstrated by Mr. Jordan in his relentless questioning of Mr. Rosenstein last month, (This is Not Who We Are –...
Read More
July 26, 2018
Featured image for “<em>Wouldn’t</em> Count On It”
Wouldn’t Count On It
After Trump returned from the NATO conference and Helsinki summit — and tweeted what a great success it was — reality came in the form of Republican leadership telling the president that the press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a disaster and that he needs to clean it up. Here’s what Trump said immediately after his meeting with...
Read More
July 18, 2018
Featured image for “Making Russia Great, Again!”
Making Russia Great, Again!
SPECIAL — Posted 4:51 pm After President Trump met with Russia’s President Putin in Helsinki, Finland, the press conference that followed boiled down to one question and Trump’s response. The question from Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire, as transcribed by VOX. LEMIRE: Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence...
Read More
July 16, 2018
Featured image for “Now for Some Good News”
Now for Some Good News
If you think that civility in America has disappeared. If you think that kindness and decency are lost in a sea of cynicism, then this commentary is for you. Two documentaries – RBG, an “affectionate look” at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? about PBS superstar Fred Rogers – are making the rounds...
Read More
July 13, 2018
Featured image for “Break the Law, Get a Pardon”
Break the Law, Get a Pardon
In what is becoming routine, Donald Trump issued another pardon. This time to “two Oregon cattle ranchers,” The New York Times reports (July 10), “who had been serving out five-year sentences for arson on federal land — punishments that inspired the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016 and brought widespread attention to anger over federal land management in...
Read More
July 11, 2018
Featured image for “Who is Richard Painter and Why is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About President Trump?”
Who is Richard Painter and Why is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About President Trump?
Richard Painter served for two years as George W. Bush’s ethics counsel. Since Donald Trump took office however, he’s frequently spoken out about Trump’s ethical lapses on cable news shows. Painter, along with Norm Eisen, Obama’s ethics counsel, have made clear that this president is perhaps the most ethically conflicted of the past 100 years. Last Sunday’s (July 1), New...
Read More
July 9, 2018

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
Why Donald Trump Has Pulled Me Back In—Again
Last August, I wrote that I was “stepping back from the chaos” of Donald Trump. I meant to write about his presidency only when his...
Scott Pelley Responds
During a contentious staff meeting at 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley spoke out sharply, criticizing the judgment and decision-making of CBS News editor in chief Bari...
The Clock is Still Ticking. But Now It’s Ticking for CBS
I began watching 60 Minutes when it premiered on September 24, 1968, when Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace introduced a new kind of television journalism:...
God Has Chosen Donald Trump
At a Trump-backed Christian prayer rally on the National Mall in Washington on May 17, officially called Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise...
The White House as Profit Center
There was a time—not very long ago—when public service required sacrifice. In 2006, when President George W. Bush nominated Hank Paulson, then C.E.O. of Goldman...
Is Ethics Dead? – Conclusion
What kind of leadership… what kind of citizenship, will it take to restore and live the values we claim to believe? It begins with service....