WASHINGTON -- It wasn't a blue trickle, but nor was it a tsunami. Rather, the midterm elections brought a gentle, purplish wave of mostly center-leaning Democrats whose profiles suggest a welcome infusion of professionalism and balance to a disorderly House. Unlike the tea party revolution of ...
In describing the GOP tax cuts, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that they and bonuses American workers were getting were "crumbs." They were "tax cuts for the rich." Some argued that the tax cuts would reduce revenues. Pelosi predicted, "This thing will explode the deficit." How about ...
In recent months, the political leadership of two neighboring countries with large immigration programs issued very different messages. They would be the United States and Canada. In the United States, President Trump and his Republican allies vilified the "caravan" of Central Americans making ...
WASHINGTON -- In the previous 50 years, the state of Mississippi has validated Lord Tennyson's belief that "men may rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things." Now the state has until today to explain to the U.S Supreme Court why a state court was sufficiently serious in ...
The day after the midterm elections, President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, replacing him at least temporarily with a more pliable loyalist. When Sessions got the news on Wednesday, he asked if he could finish the week. Nope. Close of business today was the answer. Now, as a ...
It was almost unsettling to wake up the morning after the election and realize it turned out pretty much as we expected. There were, of course, some individual surprises, but nothing on the seismic shock scale of 2016. For months, it had been expected that Democrats would win a modest House ...
WASHINGTON -- When the president announced that he was sending the U.S. military to help secure our southern border, he received bipartisan praise from members of Congress. The Washington Post reported that the move was seen as "smart politics." The year was 2011, and the president was Barack ...
I agree with a lot of people on the right about the great importance of freedom of religion. But some seems to have a rather confused notion of what freedom of religion means. Our founders wanted all Americans to be able to believe as their conscience dictated and to live according to their ...
WASHINGTON -- President Trump's long-expected firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions may be a prelude to an outrageous, blatant political crime that could make the Watergate scandal of the 1970s pale in comparison. Trump's accompanying appointment as acting attorney general of Matthew ...
It surprised few to learn that Robert Bowers, who is charged in the massacre of 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue, was a social misfit and psychotic wreck. Most domestic terrorists are. They latch onto some extreme ideology to obscure the mess in their head. It can be hard to focus on ...
Editor: It is obvious that some racists have appropriated and desecrated the Confederate battle flag for their pathetic causes, but those hateful folks also commonly display the Christian cross and the American flag. Do those symbols also inspire racism? Perceptions of the flag depend upon ...
WASHINGTON -- In arguably the most critical midterm congressional elections in our history, the Democrats acquired a down payment on their challenge to halt President Donald Trump's reign of public division, anger and hate. It fell short of the "blue wave" vote they sought to undo him, but it ...
WASHINGTON -- America's body politic has recently been scarred by excruciating political shingles, and 2018 campaigning was equivalent to acid reflux. But Tuesday's elections indicated that some political antibodies are strengthening the nation's immune system. Tuesday was, on balance, ...
WASHINGTON -- Brett Kavanaugh must have been smiling as the returns came in on Election Day, because it is now clear that the Democrats' campaign to destroy him will go down as a massive blunder. It failed to keep Kavanaugh off the court. It cost Democrats their chance to regain control of the ...
WASHINGTON -- The midterm elections are finally over, more or less, and we got what we got -- Donald Trump is still president. Sorry, but someone had to say it. Now back to the cold realities of everyday life in the White House of Weird, beginning and ending with: Who ordered the brutal ...
Make no mistake: America has rejected Trumpism. No one seriously expected the Senate to flip, because Democrats had to defend 26 seats in that chamber, compared with only nine held by Republicans. The real battleground was the House, where Democrats had to achieve a net gain of 23 seats to ...
Consider the fates of two prominent Americans, comedian Louis C.K. and former President Bill Clinton. Both have been accused of serious sexual misconduct. But unlike the comedian, whose recent tiptoe back into show business has been met with howls of protest, Clinton continues to enjoy public ...
It's appropriate that the U.N. special rapporteur devoted to adequate housing has visited encampments in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Mumbai -- and San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. The homeless situation in those cities and others around the country is positively Third World, a blight that ...
America's founders demonstrated that government is art, not science. The secret is in balance. Biennial congressional elections strike the right balance for the need for stability with the need for change. Midterm elections take place with the continuity of a sitting president. Whoever is in ...
Every student who knocks on my office door on Kent State's campus has likely noticed the illustrated bumper sticker affixed right above the door handle. The drawing depicts an older white man of a certain age wearing a suit and glasses and holding a lit pipe. He looks to be of an earlier era. ...