Democrats in Congress have again brought the minimum wage to the national political stage.

Paul Ryan is getting the hate treatment – again.

WASHINGTON – The obvious unifying element for Democrats looking ahead to the 2020 presidential election is their imperative to oust Donald Trump from the Oval Office. They desire it for a multitude of reasons, starting with his glaring incompetence for the job and the rampant corruption in h…

As someone who was lucky enough to cover the 1992 presidential campaign – involving Republican incumbent President George W. Bush, Democratic challenger Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and the independent maverick, Texas billionaire businessman Ross Perot – from start to finish, allow me to make …

WASHINGTON – With a disgust commensurate with the fact, Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat, says that during 40% of his 10 Senate years the government has been run on “continuing resolutions.” Congress passes these in order to spare itself the torture of performing its primary function, w…

WASHINGTON – From Little Red Riding Hood’s terrifying encounter with the Big Bad Wolf to Kevin Costner’s balletic romance with some kindred, four-legged spirit in “Dances With Wolves,” Americans have long had a love-hate relationship with the ancestral predecessor of our favorite family pet.

A man named Josef Buzhminski told this story at the trial of Adolf Eichmann.

The great irony is that by the very act of putting political considerations ahead of clear constitutional duty and profound national interest, the Democrats are seriously undermining their own political prospects.

Mercy, was that a moment.

WASHINGTON – Maybe President Trump was right that we needed a “Salute to America” last week, because apparently some Americans have lost sight of the greatness of our country. Case in point: To mark Independence Day, The New York Times posted a video op-ed challenging what it called the “myt…

“Time has upset many fighting faiths.”

The Vindy announced its death about a week before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested. Though the timing was only a coincidence, the juxtaposition speaks volumes about the state of American journalism.

Imagine an opposition political party in a land being taken over by an oligarchy, headed by a would-be tyrant.

Nike is doing it wrong.

Sen. Kamala Harris demonstrated rare skill during the debate – managing to shiv Joe Biden and look nice doing it. By adopting the language of “hurt” instead of anger, she finessed the problem that usually attends launching an unprovoked attack: that it may harm the perpetrator as much as the…

WASHINGTON – Apparently on the theory that one bad turn deserves another, the next Democratic National Committee round of 2020 presidential candidate debates in July will again be held on two consecutive nights, with 10 contenders taking the stage at one time.

WASHINGTON – During a single visit to Asia, President Trump embraced not one, not two, but three dictators. He became the first American president to set foot in North Korea, where he praised his "great friendship" with North Korea's despotic leader, Kim Jong Un; he held another cringe-worth…

In more than a half-century of working to understand human affairs, I’ve encountered no greater mystery than this: how has the Republican Party managed to keep the unquestioning loyalty of (the great majority of) its supporters even as it has violated almost all the values it had once claime…

For the first time in European history, women occupy two of the most important posts in the governance of Europe. The German Ursula Von der Leyen is the new head of the European Commission and the French Christine Lagarde will succeed the now legendary Mario Draghi at the helm of the Central…

With the first round of Democratic Party debates behind us, Americans have now heard from their candidates why they think they should run the country.

WASHINGTON – "Surreal" was the word Ivanka Trump used to describe North Korea, which she briefly visited this past weekend with dear ol' dad.

Given the recent fight over whether U.S. refugee detention centers are in fact “concentration camps,” the Trump administration might want to borrow a page from the Chinese and simply call them “vocational skills education training centers.” That way, no one would really care at all.

WASHINGTON — Thursday night’s Democratic debate was billed by many in advance as a head-to-head clash between the two early 2020 polling frontrunners, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

At least three score years ago, my savvy precinct committeewoman impressed upon me an immutable political truth: Every election is not about the candidate(s); no, every election is about the voters ... and about the future. I’m relieved that my precinct committeewoman was not around to hear …

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kamala Harris of California may have been the breakout winner of this week’s Democratic presidential debates, but there was one clear loser: the American taxpayer. These were the most expensive presidential debates in American history. Never have so many candidates proposed…

Hypertourism has become the curse of desirable places all over the world. It refers to the swarms of tourists who clog the plazas and narrow streets of prized cultural destinations – Florence, Venice, Barcelona, Prague and others. Party cities, such as Amsterdam, where both prostitution and …

It is 2:30 in the morning, and I should be sleeping.

Sixty-six percent of Americans believe that the Fourth of July is one of our nation’s most important holidays. To celebrate, 62% of Americans will watch fireworks, 54% will enjoy a cookout with family and friends, 19% will attend a parade, 13% will go to the beach, and 11% will sing patrioti…

Of all the human tragedies that are associated with the issue of abortion, none has had so profound and destructive an impact on our nation as the interminable political conflict that’s been raging over the issue for decades.

WASHINGTON – Several current trends among millennials do not bode well for Democrats. Indeed, they suggest a greater affinity for (many) Republican policies, notwithstanding a, perhaps, contiguous dislike for the GOP’s leadership.

WASHINGTON – The doctrine that court precedents should have momentum for respect – the predictability of settled law gives citizens due notice of what is required or proscribed – is called stare decisis. This Latin translates as: "To stand by things decided." The translation is not: "If a pr…

WASHINGTON –- After President Trump called off a military strike on Iran for its downing of a U.S. military drone, some compared his decision to President Barack Obama's shameful failure not to enforce his "red line" in Syria. Sorry, the two situations are completely different. Trump was rig…

Chinese President Xi Jinping might possibly agree in the coming days on further steps to bring down China’s trade imbalance with the U.S., giving Donald Trump a face-saving way of ending his trade war.

When Vice President Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana, he got along well with the mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, despite the fact that Buttigieg is a gay, liberal Democrat and Pence is a straight, socially conservative Republican.

WASHINGTON — The problem with a lifetime in public service is a lifetime in public service.

Mo Udall, the legendary Democratic congressman from Arizona, was brutally candid about his party’s bad habit of succumbing to intramural recriminations that became the political equivalent of a civil war in the leper colony. “When Democrats organize a firing squad, they form a circle,” Udall…

News flash: There’s a crisis at the border.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is being lauded as the serious candidate in the race. Her motto, “I have a plan for that,” is accepted as proof that she is thoughtful and conscientious. That’s too generous.

According to news stories, the Trump campaign fired pollsters who allegedly leaked polling results that show President Trump performing poorly against Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in battleground states.

WASHINGTON – That the Democrats’ two evenings of dueling oratory snippets this week are called “debates” validates Finley Peter Dunne’s prediction that “when we Americans are through with the English language, it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy.” Already a linguistic…

WASHINGTON – Let’s get this straight: Joe Biden is leading in the polls for the Democratic presidential nomination because he’s the most “electable” candidate in the Democratic field? A guy who doesn’t realize that I worked with segregationists isn’t a winning message with Democrats in 2020?

Just think about it: a clothing item that permanently disfigures a body part, encouraging nerve growths that set off shooting pain. Fashionwise, it telegraphs sexual availability. And amazingly, some employers demand that their female workers wear this cause of physical agony to the office.

I wasn’t born until the year after the end of the second World War, but that time is as alive in my consciousness as the history I’ve actually lived through. That’s partly because the America I grew up in was continually processing that history with movies and TV documentaries. But the reaso…

The Democratic presidential primary debates are scheduled to begin next Wednesday and Thursday, with 10 candidates competing each night. Joe Biden enters the debates as the nominal front-runner, followed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. There’s an excell…

“What’s your pitch to the swing voter on the fence?” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked President Trump in an interview that aired Sunday.

The worry last week was that the Trump administration was ginning up fake intelligence about Iran blowing up oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz to justify a war against Iran. Then, this week, President Donald Trump said the Iranian attacks weren’t a big deal.

See if you can find the logic in this. A local government issues traffic fines to residents for infractions like not wearing a seat belt, expired registration tags or a broken taillight. If the fine isn’t promptly paid, then interest and penalties pile up, and a $50 or $100 ticket can quickl…

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. – Jonathan Nash Glynn – artist, pilot and philanthropist – never envisioned himself as a missionary, but, absent religion, that’s what he has become in recent years.

History will best remember Bernie Sanders for his role in helping elect Donald Trump. Happily for many (if not most) Democrats, Sanders is now fading big time.