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We Deserve a War Debate
Tweet Share on Facebook February 6, 2007 CommentFor the life of me, I can't figure out how it's advantageous for Republicans to postpone a vote on the war. I understand the cute politics that is being played here: The Republicans (led by the White House) are essentially trying to call the Democrats' bluff. If you're really against the war and the troop surge, they taunt, then vote to cut off funds. And the Democrats won't do that–and they know that any measure that says "we won't cut off funds" for the troops is bound get unanimous approval. And the president could claim the largest victory.
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What Was Hillary Thinking?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2007 CommentHillary Clinton, in her Web announcement of a presidential exploratory committee (it's all the rage to do it that way), said she wanted to start a conversation with the American people. Fair enough. So she trekked off to chilly Iowa and started shaking hands, meeting with folks in town halls, answering unscripted questions–always a very tricky business for a new presidential candidate. Buy, hey, Hillary isn't new to this business: She's an accomplished senator and a former first lady. And, of course, she learned politics at the heels of the master: husband Bill.
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The Libby Trial: A Case of Petty Jealousy
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2007 CommentSure, the trial of Scooter Libby is a hopelessly complex Washington story about alleged lying and not about whether someone knowingly leaked the name of a covert CIA agent to the press, which was what it was supposed to be about in the first place. Whew. But here's something about it that's not complex: The folks in the West Wing seemingly suffer the same petty jealousies and problems we all have at the office. And they spend an awful lot of time figuring out how to play the press. (As in: Leak things on Fridays because, as ex-veep press secretary Cathie Martin says, "Fewer people pay attention to it late on Friday. Fewer people pay attention when it's reported on Saturday.")
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Time Is Short for Bush
Tweet Share on Facebook January 24, 2007 CommentIn a way, we were watching a very different president and Congress last night: a more subdued president, reaching out on a few domestic policy issues he knows may actually be doable (like immigration reform and energy conservation). And a president who clearly understands that the public and the Congress are not with him on his Iraq war plan and instead just asked the public to please give him some more time for it to work. Pretty please.
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Washington Wises Up to Corruption
Tweet Share on Facebook January 19, 2007 CommentA funny thing seems to be happening in Washington these days: Elected officials are wising up. In its much ballyhooed 100-hour agenda, the House passed a serious ethics reform measure ... and the Senate last night followed suit, passing a measure to reform lobbying and gift rules, with overwhelming bipartisan support.
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Obama's Tough Haul
Tweet Share on Facebook January 17, 2007 CommentHere's one piece of unsolicited advice for Barack Obama: It will never get any better than this. Right now, you're the rock star, the guy who could possibly give Hillary Rodham Clinton a run for her (big) money, maybe even the first African-American president. And if elected president, there's one more first: the first president to be born after the inauguration of JFK, which was in 1961. Obama is 45 years old.
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Surge Ignites Political Backfire
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2007 CommentIt was really an astonishing thing to watch. The president had just given his much-ballyhooed prime-time speech on Iraq, recommending an additional 20,000 or so troops, trying to reignite support for his Iraq policy. Instead, he sparked a bipartisan rebellion on Capitol Hill that hasn't been seen in a very long while.
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What if Iraq Doesn't Meet the Benchmarks?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2007 CommentIt always happens this way in Washington: A policy gets hatched, it fails, then the leaders look for the best way to fix it. And that kind of change can be a good thing.
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Ford and the Lost Notion of Civility
Tweet Share on Facebook January 3, 2007 CommentI didn't know Gerald Ford. I didn't cover him, but I was an aspiring journalist when Ford did the unthinkable on Sept. 8, 1974: He pardoned Richard Nixon. At the time, like many of us–and most, it seems, of the American public–I thought it was a terrible idea. No man should be above the law, and all of that. Nixon needed to get his due. And who knew whether there really was a deal: the presidency in return for a pardon. The decision left the country scratching its head. And it also probably cost Ford his presidency.
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Obama–the Generational Challenger
Tweet Share on Facebook December 20, 2006 CommentThere's an interesting race shaping up in 2008, and it's not just between a bunch of candidates. It's going to be a generational race–between someone who is probably too young to be considered a baby boomer, Barack Obama, and the rest of the field. While he may technically be considered of that generation, at 45, he really is too young. And in his book, he makes a point of saying that the old arguments–like Vietnam–are just old, and we need need to get beyond that. He does have a point.
Gloria Borger
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.
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