Recent Politics Commentaries

Featured image for “What Was Absent from the Security Summit”
What Was Absent from the Security Summit
One week ago, President Obama closed the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington with these words: “This afternoon’s session turns the focus on the terrorist networks themselves. It tells us the possible consequences of terrorists obtaining and using a weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately, as I said this morning, no terrorist group has yet succeeded in getting their hands on a nuclear device. Our...
Read More
April 8, 2016
Featured image for “Does Civility Matter?”
Does Civility Matter?
According to supporters, part of the rise of Donald Trump is due to his compulsion to “tell it like it is.” While a large part of his rhetoric is insulting, Trump rationalizes that he does so to wake us all up to the fact that “America isn’t great” anymore. Whether you agree with that last statement or not is a...
Read More
April 6, 2016
Featured image for “American Diogenes”
American Diogenes
Lately, a few readers have asked why I spend so much time writing about Donald Trump. It can be summed up in one word. Actually, Jon Stewart told us when he signed off for the final time on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show; a show that began seventeen years earlier as a comedy riff on the news of the day,...
Read More
April 1, 2016
Featured image for “<em>Et tu,</em>Wolf? <em>Et tu!?</em>”
Et tu,Wolf? Et tu!?
Here are the comments I sent to CNN earlier this week: Dear CNN News Producers: (I know you won’t pay attention to this, but I’ll say it anyway.) Please, please, PLEASE STOP all coverage of Donald Trump “controversies.” We know his M.O. We’ve seen enough of his supporters drunk on his Kool-Aid defend him… to the death.  » Read more about:...
Read More
March 30, 2016
Featured image for “Ryan’s Grope”
Ryan’s Grope
Paul Ryan missed his moment, a seminal moment, a “come-to-Jesus” moment. It could’ve been a Reagan moment: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” As the leader of the House and his party, Ryan should’ve called Trump out, by name, as a misogynist, bully, bigot, demagogue, inciter of violence. Instead, the man whose name was raised as a possible presidential candidate...
Read More
March 25, 2016
Featured image for “The King of “No””
The King of “No”
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said, “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” When it comes to considering President Obama’s selection of Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans are opting for their right over what is right. Congress has a long history of not...
Read More
March 23, 2016
Featured image for “Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”
Smarter than a Fifth Grader?
With the shameful shenanigans demonstrated by all the name-calling, four-letter words, and rally violence by certain presidential candidates, you can only imagine what grade-schoolers think. That’s just what CBS News correspondent Chip Reid wanted to know. Reid sat down with five 5th graders, Max, Ella, Brynn, Ananya and Will, to ask them what they think about the 2016 presidential race...
Read More
March 16, 2016
Featured image for “Snake Pit”
Snake Pit
The Fortune Cookie is a desperately funny Billy Wilder film about an equally desperate con man by the name of “whiplash” Willy, a lawyer (brilliantly played by Walter Matthau), and his schnook brother-in-law, (the equally brilliant Jack Lemmon). Lemmon is a TV cameraman who is accidentally sidelined by a football player while covering a game. After Gingrich learns from his...
Read More
March 14, 2016
Featured image for “The Ethical Take: Ides of March Edition”
The Ethical Take: Ides of March Edition
Lots to get to, so let’s get to it. Breaking News: “The Republican Party is Shattering” – So says Republican Soothsayer-In-Chief Peggy Noonan. Noonan may be a late-comer to the implosion of her party, but after Trump’s decisive win in 7 states last Tuesday, she now admits that Trump is indeed, “a divider of the Republican Party… [and] unpredictable.” However,...
Read More
March 7, 2016
Featured image for “Trump Supporters to Electorate: <em>DROP DEAD!</em>”
Trump Supporters to Electorate: DROP DEAD!
Just when you thought the Republican race for the presidential nomination could not possibly get embarrassingly worse, it does. Last night, billionaire huckster Donald Trump had already won 7 of 12 state primaries and looked to increase his lead before the night was over. Forty-eight hours earlier he was interviewed on CNN’s State of the Union (Feb. 28), by Jake...
Read More
March 2, 2016

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),...