Now comes the unpredictable part of the capitol’s high-stakes dealmaking: the rest of the people’s representatives are about to take center stage.
In the ArenaIn the Arena
The Real Gun Violence Discussion
Pete Wehner, with whom I’ve been known to disagree, has some wise things to say about the facile moral posturing that has attended much of the commentary about the Newtown massacre. We’ve been too focused on the need for gun control and spent too little time talking about the far more difficult part of the problem: mental health.
In the ArenaIn the Arena
The Anti-Hagel Campaign Begins
The 2012 election was not a wonderful experience for neoconservatives–and it was a disaster for their beloved hero, Bibi Netanyahu, a foreign leader who tried to influence the American presidential campaign. Indeed, they’ve been proven conclusively ridiculous over the past dozen years, but still they persist. Now they’re after former …
Tim Scott Tapped for South Carolina Senate Seat
Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina on Monday appointed GOP Congressman Tim Scott to fill the seat vacated by outgoing Senator Jim DeMint. Scott, who takes office Jan. 3, will become the first black Senator from the South since 1881, as well as the only African-American in the chamber.
A Tragedy Like Newtown Should Be Politicized, But Changing Anything Will Take Different Politicians
I haven’t read any stories about the innocent children and teachers whose lives were cut short because they went to school at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday. I couldn’t read about the innocent victims who died because they …
‘These Tragedies Must End’: Obama Promises Change at Newtown Vigil, but Can He Deliver?
At a moment of almost incomprehensible horror and suffering, Barack Obama delivered elegiac remarks at a Sunday-night prayer vigil in Newtown, Conn. The powerful speech hit a haunting apex as the President quietly read off …
Outside the White House, Gun-Control Activists Make a Subdued Call to Action
As twilight descended on Washington on Friday afternoon, about 50 gun-control activists clustered on the pavement outside the White House for a candlelight vigil to urge action from the President after a mass shooting at a …
Obama Pledges ‘Meaningful Action’ After Connecticut Shooting
Wiping tears from his eyes, President Barack Obama urged the nation to “come together” in the wake of a shooting that left more than two dozen people dead, many of them children, Friday morning at a Connecticut elementary school.
The Truth About Torture
A debate has erupted about the new film Zero Dark Thirty, and whether it inaccurately suggests that U.S.-sanctioned torture (aka “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”) led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Susan Rice Bows Out from Secretary of State Consideration
There’s a view that politics and national security should be oil and water–that some iron rule of Washington should make the two impossible to mix. In reality, it doesn’t work that way. Even so, Susan Rice’s removal of her name …
Obama: Susan Rice Withdraws from Secretary of State Consideration
Statement by the President on Ambassador Rice
Today, I spoke to Ambassador Susan Rice, and accepted her decision to remove her name from consideration for Secretary of State. For two decades, Susan has proven to be an extraordinarily capable, patriotic, and passionate public servant. As my Ambassador to the United Nations, she plays …
A Punch Turns Political in Michigan Labor Protests
Steven Crowder didn’t instigate the punch or return it. But he got what he wanted: evidence for the widespread conservative caricature that union members are thugs.
The Fed Finally Does Something About Unemployment. And It’s Big.
After three years of doing a wonderful job of maintaining stable prices while doing a terrible job of maximizing employment, the Fed finally seems determined to take its dual mandate seriously.