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Court Gives Special Interests a Backdoor Reprieve
Tweet Share on Facebook June 26, 2007 CommentFirst, let me be clear about this: I am a great supporter of the First Amendment. I'm a journalist, after all, and it protects me and my ilk. It's also important to the country, and our values. So let's stipulate all of that before we get to what the Supreme Court did yesterday.
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Cheney's Furtiveness Has Gone Too Far
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2007 CommentAfter living with the Bush administration for all these years, one notion has become unalterably clear: Vice President Dick Cheney likes to keep secrets. Even more than that, Cheney himself is a believer in the ultimate privacy of the executive branch. We have seen that over and over again with the refusal to reveal the names of those he met with on energy policy. The importance of confidentiality in the executive branch, he believes, trumps everything else.
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Libby Pardon: All But a Done Deal
Tweet Share on Facebook June 5, 2007 CommentI bet that now it's all but a done deal: a pardon for Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Today, in sentencing the vice president's former chief of staff to 2½ years in prison for his role in the CIA leak, Judge Reggie Walton really threw the book at him. "People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and the security of the nation in their hands, have a special obligation not to do anything that might create a problem," the judge said. And that was that.
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Hillary Books: Worth a Read
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2007 CommentSo a holiday weekend approaches (translation: no news), and suddenly the contents of two books about Hillary Clinton are poured into a piece on the front page of the Washington Post. One book is by two former New York Times investigative reporters; the other is by Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame. And, in unison, the HRC folks claim that the books are too boring for words--and what isn't boring is just wrong. Have a nice weekend.
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'Insider' McCain Punches Back
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2007 CommentIt's become a problem for John McCain in this presidential race: He's now too inside Washington, people say. He's gone Establishment. His support for the war is killing him with those independent voters he wants to attract. And now, his support of an immigration reform measure is hurting him with his party's conservative base.
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Bush in Passing Lane on Fuel Efficiency
Tweet Share on Facebook May 16, 2007 CommentSo the White House—which has had a hard time lately with its image—has finally done something to applaud. The president wants to increase the fuel efficiency of the cars we drive and yesterday ordered up new rules governing that. That means something very simple: Automakers need to start producing cars that give us more miles for the buck, and oil producers need to get with the ethanol program. And fast.
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A Royal Reprieve
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2007 CommentHonestly, the queen could not have come to Washington at a better time. We are all completely worn out with the congressional tug of war over Iraq, and now it seems like the fight will go on at least through the summer. We haven't seen a lot else accomplished, even though the one instruction the voters gave during the last election was this: Get something done. We've been watching 18 presidential contenders debate and wondering why we still feel like there's got to be something more out there (you feel that way more acutely, according to the polls, if you're a Republican). To top it off, the spring weather started out cold–and only now has it begun to warm up.
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Secret Talks Could Yield Immigration Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2007 CommentWhile the immigration rallies attract thousands, while those who rant against immigration attract their base voters, there are secret talks going on between the White House and Capitol Hill to actually get something done on immigration this year.
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Obama: 'I Can Only Lead With You'
Tweet Share on Facebook April 25, 2007 CommentTuesday was the Washington meeting of the National Jewish Democratic Council, and the Democratic presidential candidates were eager to line up to court votes and financial support. But the one candidate these folks haven't heard much from before was Barack Obama, and he came–after his campaign showed a short movie first on his candidacy. Once up on the stage, Obama was less a rock star than a rote candidate, delivering much of his stump speech to a crowd eager to listen.
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Victims' Photos Make Tragedy Even Sadder
Tweet Share on Facebook April 17, 2007 CommentThe news itself was hard enough. Unbelievable, unexplainable, and even then, incomprehensible.
Gloria Borger, a contributing editor at U.S.News & World Report, writes the magazine's On Politics column. Borger is also the national political correspondent for CBS and a regular panelist on the PBS public affairs program, Washington Week in Review. Borger is a 1974 graduate of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and is now a member of the university's board of trustees.