Recent Politics Commentaries

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Dear Speaker Ryan
When President Trump addressed a group of evangelical leaders at the White House recently, he offered this stark warning: “This November 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment. … “It’s not a question of like or dislike, it’s a question...
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September 10, 2018
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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...
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September 7, 2018
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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...
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September 4, 2018
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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...
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July 30, 2018
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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...
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July 27, 2018
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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 –...
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July 26, 2018
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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...
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July 18, 2018
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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...
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July 16, 2018
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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...
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July 13, 2018
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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...
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July 11, 2018