Although some Republican readers here might not believe it, it’s very important to me to be fair. And I feel I have not been fair to Donald Trump.

Among the most powerful people in the justice system are prosecutors and the judges to whom they present their cases. The way our system is set up, judges must rely on whatever facts a prosecutor puts forth inside their courtroom.

Some polls in recent weeks have provided an encouraging picture for President Donald Trump of strengthening support among black voters.

A fixture of family Christmas movies is worldly wise children recovering some of their innocence. "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947) provides an early example.

Josef Stalin is reputed to have said: "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." In the hands of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, the deaths of thousands can be a partisan bludgeon.

Guns and the defense of the Constitution in Virginia

There's a general assumption in public policy discourse that economic policy and social policy are separate universes.

 Elizabeth Warren had great momentum for a while. Then her poll numbers leveled and fell. The standard explanation is that the Democrat's "Medicare for All" plan comes across as too radical – both the price and the part that would force over 150 million Americans off their employers' private…

WASHINGTON – Now that Democrats have built a very strong factual case to impeach President Trump on abuse of Congress and of presidential power, it seems certain the House of Representatives will vote to impeach him. But then, just as certainly, the Republican-controlled Senate will acquit h…

PARIS – The facts emerging in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump paint a clear picture of a president who used unofficial cutouts and official diplomatic envoys to pressure the leadership of a foreign country to announce the investigation of a political rival in exchange for unlock…

Donald Trump Jr., in his better-selling book, "Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us," writes of his reactions to visiting Arlington National Cemetery and driving "past the rows of white grave markers." He explains: "In that moment, I ... thought of all the attacks …

Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays.

People often offer cynical interpretations of American support for Israel. It's the malign influence of the Jewish lobby, or Israel is a colonial outpost of the American hegemon or Israel has brainwashed American policymakers. What these right-wing conspiracists, anti-Semites and committed l…

The dynamics at work in our world are beyond anyone’s capacity to fathom. We can’t be certain, for example, about what will emerge from the American people as the impeachment process unfolds over the next few months, as the public is exposed to a succession of dramatizations of presidential …

The focus here isn't President Donald Trump. He is a creature unto himself. Rather, this is about his spineless political party, which stands mute, or even supportive, as he breaks U.S. military discipline, morale and leadership.

In listening to the Democratic presidential debates, we might conclude that “Medicare for All” is a legislative possibility. It is not, and any presidential candidate with a scintilla of self-respect must admit that fact. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that just 30% of American…

"The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America" is the title of a 1960s book by historian and librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin. Pseudo-events, he wrote, are staged solely to generate news media coverage. Real events involve independent actors and have unpredictable outcomes. Pseudo-eve…

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my parents gave me a Cabbage Patch doll with blonde hair and eyes that blinked.

What do you think of when you hear the word "whistleblower"? Perhaps "tattletale" or "snitch" pop into your mind. Maybe the word conjures up the image of a person who, at great personal risk, comes forward to reveal illicit activity the public needs to know. Either way, as you have likely no…

In her diary entry for July 15, 1944, Anne Frank wrote words that would harrow and challenge generations not yet born: "I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

It’s the Democrats’ task to ask the question: how can the president’s wrong-doing best be presented to increase public support for impeachment?

Ask not why the Trump administration must dismantle America’s environmental laws with such gusto. By now, that’s a given. Instead, let’s ask why some automakers, businesses that must plan years in advance, are siding with a president intent on sowing chaos in their own industry.

President Donald Trump recently launched his black-outreach operation – called Black Voices for Trump – in Atlanta. The objective, of course, is to move more African American voters to the Republican Party. There is good reason to believe Republicans can attract more than the 8% of the black…

The New York Times reported last week on a study showing that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax (and presumably Sen. Bernie Sanders’ even more ambitious version) would reduce economic growth by nearly 0.2 percentage points a year over the course of a decade.

There are large historical differences between America’s two major political parties in how they choose their presidential nominees.

A few words about walls.

I mentioned here (“The thank you note”) my choosing to reach out to my two 5-year-old granddaughters (who live on the other side of the country) by sending them a series of videos, on each of which I tell them an Aesop fable.

I'd like to personally bop over the head the next Democrat who says that Michael Bloomberg shouldn't be running for president because he's a billionaire. Let's give thanks that a simple-minded dismissal of rich candidates didn't sink FDR's chances.

Five hours, nine minutes and 17 seconds into Wednesday’s nationally televised impeachment hearing before the House Intelligence Committee, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York, began asking Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. a series of questions about his military service.

Our nation has entered a legal process of great import. In the balance are the integrity of our political and constitutional processes, the wielding of the powers of the presidency, and the unity or disunity of the nation.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has impressive credentials: he graduated third in his class from Los Amigos High School in California's Orange County before winning an appointment from his congressman – "B-1 Bob" Dornan, a conservative remembered for his unstinting support for the California-…

Rep. Katie Hill didn’t have to resign, but she did. She had not been found guilty of sexual impropriety, although the House Ethics Committee had launched a formal investigation into whether the married California representative had engaged in an affair with a congressional staffer.

Here's a word from the field of crime I'm betting you've never heard before: hybristophilia. It's pronounced HIGH-briss-toe-feel-ee-uh, and it's such an obscure word some dictionaries don't even include it – yet.

Now that the public meetings of the impeachment inquiry are opening in the Congress, it is not altogether illusory to hope for a moment like the one that saw a Republican, Sen. Howard Baker, ask a question that contributed to bringing down the Nixon presidency: “What did the president know, …

Moderation along with good manners delivered impressive victories to Democrats last week. Case in point was Andy Beshear's win over Republican incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin in the Kentucky governor's race.

Two American women of color.

Evil: A coherent force that spreads a pattern of brokenness.

Donald Trump is headed for Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa this Saturday for the big football game between the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University.

"Every generation blames the one before."

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook says he’ll run political ads even if they are false. Jack Dorsey of Twitter says he’ll stop running political ads altogether.

From the advice columns I’ve occasionally read over the years, I’ve learned that more than a few relationships in America are strained – are sometimes poisoned – by the failure of the recipient of a gift to express some kind of gratitude for the generosity of the gift-giver. (So I know that …

What can you say about "sophisticated" investors who would pile billions into a startup whose 40-year-old founder walks the streets of Manhattan barefooted and says his company's mission is to "elevate the world's consciousness"? Did I mention that his enterprise has yet to turn a penny of profit?

The 1994 funeral of former Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill was truly memorable. To the same North Cambridge, Massachusetts, church, St. John the Evangelist – where O'Neill was baptized as an infant and had married his beloved Millie – came two former U.S. Presidents, George H.W.…

 Women are not the problem.

One hears often lately about how America’s founders sought to assure that America’s president could not become a “king”— meaning someone not accountable to the rule of law.

Imagine a day when hardly anyone is able to get away with murder. Think about that. If there were a way to almost guarantee a killer would be discovered and punished, wouldn't the murder rate go into freefall decline?

For the first time in 86 years, a baseball team from Washington, D.C., is in the World Series. This is good news -- obviously for the long-suffering Nationals fans in and around Washington, but also for every American who cares deeply about the survival of our republic.

If you want to run for office, political consultants will hammer away at one point: Tell stories. People respond to stories. We’ve been a storytelling species since our fur-clad ancestors gathered around campfires. Don’t cite statistics. No one can remember statistics. Make it human. Make it…

Here’s a parlor trick: How many people can you name who were in favor of impeaching William J. Clinton and also favor impeaching Donald J. Trump? Or flip it: How many opposed Clinton’s impeachment at the time and now also oppose Trump’s?

There is economic life after coal, and the sooner America’s coal country concedes that coal as a power source is about dead, the sooner it can move on to better days. This is the reality of coal. It’s on the way out whether President Donald Trump “digs” it or not.