Desmond Tutu, the Anglican archbishop who faced assassination threats as he fought apartheid in South Africa, has been watching American politics closely. The Nobel Peace Prize winner sounds discouraged, but offered a valuable perspective in a recent interview with Newsweek. Newsweek: You said George Bush should admit that he made a mistake. Were you surprised […]
By now, most of you have probably heard about the latest Bush administration plan to deal with detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other military prisons — hold them forever without bringing them to trial. Administration officials are preparing long-range plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists whom they do not want to set free or turn […]
It’s rare when I agree so wholeheartedly with anything Chief Justice William Rehnquist has to say, but the ailing jurist was absolutely correct last week in his year-end report about dangerous, ongoing political attacks on the judiciary. “The Constitution protects judicial independence not to benefit judges, but to promote the rule of law: Judges are […]
I should probably save myself the aggravation and stop watching the darn show, but I continue to marvel at Meet the Press’ standards. Last week, it was Dr. Phil. This week, it was an example of the kind of ideological balance we’ve come to expect from the “liberal” media. The first half of the show […]
To borrow an idea from National Journal and the title from one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, I have a few awards to deliver as we close out another fun-filled year. Speech of the Year Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard and […]
Ron Suskind raised a point the other day in a New York Times op-ed that I wanted to follow up on. The president chose Bernard Kerik to lead the Department of Homeland Security because he was “a good man,” an intangible, gut-check standard that the president also applies to judicial nominees and world leaders. I […]
In a much-discussed op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Post, the Industrial Areas Foundation’s Michael Gecan argued that the Dems’ “celebrity worship” hints at the party’s inability to connect with regular Americans. Thirty-two years ago, in the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago, I believe I witnessed the destruction — actually, the self-destruction — of […]
This stopped being funny quite a while ago. In the nine weeks since the election, House Republicans have changed their own rules about having a leader serve while under indictment, suggested that the Ethics Committee chairman (a Republican) has to replaced because he’s acted in too neutral a fashion, and now are preparing to make […]
The Club for Growth recently said it hopes to spend $15 million on a media campaign backing Bush’s plan to privitize Social Security. Wall Street investment firms are gearing up for an expensive lobbying campaign of their own. Presumably, proponents of Bush’s approach will be hitting the public with a sales pitch just as soon […]
He clearly touched a nerve. When the United Nations’ emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, called the overall aid efforts by rich Western nations “stingy” in response to the devastation of the tsunamis in Asia, Bush administration officials got very defensive. Colin Powell hit the morning shows to emphasize that our $35 million aid package is […]