Tyranny is no longer ‘lurking’ just around the corner
Given last week’s revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, it’s worth recalling President Obama’s Ohio State University commencement address. The president decried “voices” warning “that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.” It’s no longer lurking. It’s here.
Benghazi, IRS: Son of Watergate?
Opinion Column
In his defense of President Obama, Press Secretary Jay Carney is beginning to sound a lot like Ronald Zeigler, Richard Nixon’s spokesman. Carney only has to use the word “inoperative,” as Ziegler did when incriminating evidence surfaced that proved his previous statements untrue.
Would things go better with Koch?
Opinion Column
‘Mainstream media” are alarmed by reports that billionaires Charles and David Koch are considering the purchase of Tribune Company’s eight daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times.
Immigration bill is full of holes
Opinion Column
There’s the story of a woman with five kids who was asked if she had to do it all over again would she have five children? “Yes,” she said, “just not these five.”
How much confidence do Americans have after Boston?
Opinion Column
The last time there was a terrorist attack on America, we got the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. Each entity has spent billions to keep us safe, but neither could stop two brothers, Tamerlan, a permanent resident, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a newly minted U.S. citizen, who lived in America and, reportedly, became radicalized jihadists, from killing and maiming innocent people at the Boston Marathon last week.
Margaret Thatcher inspired self-reliance
Opinion column
There is a story about Margaret Thatcher, which is probably apocryphal, but speaks volumes about the strength of Britain's first female prime minister, who died Monday at age 87.
Could school choice be the answer?
Opinion Column
My first question after reading about seven teachers in an Atlanta public school accused of altering standardized test scores to make it appear students performed better than they actually did was: How could they!?
Why do liberals fear success for others in their party?
Opinion Column
There are many successful liberals, so why do so many of them wish to subsidize failure for the poor, instead of showing them how to succeed?
Public opinion shouldn’t trump principles
Opinion Column
History is full of warnings about what happens when people follow public opinion instead of standing by their principles. In its most extreme manifestation, public opinion might well become mob rule when vigilantes take the law into their own hands.
Obamacare prompting doctors to opt for retirement
Opinion column
Last week, politicians who helped craft the Affordable Care Act (ACA) celebrated in self-congratulatory style the third anniversary of that monstrosity which will soon extinguish health care as we've known it.
Confronting the truth of radical Islam in America
Opinion Column
President Obama should listen to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the “founder” of shuttle diplomacy.
Maryland law kicks out the death penalty
Opinion Column
The Maryland legislature recently voted to abolish capital punishment in the state, making Maryland the sixth state in the last six years to eliminate the death penalty.
Detroit's slippery slope is everlasting
Opinion column
Since the Motown sound went silent — except on oldies stations — and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents.
Who decides what’s fair in who we marry?
Opinion column
Given his track record on marital fidelity, former President Bill Clinton is not the person I would consult about “committed, loving relationships.” Clinton used those words in a Washington Post op-ed last week, urging the Supreme Court to overturn the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman, which he signed into law.
Examining the downside of orthodoxy
Opinion Column
It’s a safe bet that most conservative Republicans would rush to support a political leader with the following record, especially in a traditionally Democratic state.
Scott does a 180 on health care act
Opinion Column
Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was one of those tea party stars whom voters believed had the courage of his convictions when he promised, as recently as last summer, to block The Affordable Care Act in his state. But last week, writes the Orlando Sentinel, “Scott made an abrupt about-face, embracing a three-year expansion of Medicaid coverage for about 1 million low-income Floridians that will be paid for by the health care law.”
Ryan’s hope is to buy time in order to win war
Opinion column
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is looking beyond today and the beginning of the sequestration. In an interview I conducted with him on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Ryan told me he believes a majority of Americans will come to understand how bad the debt is after the rhetoric gives way to reality.
Obama playing on people’s emotions
Opinion Column
At the end of 1995 and stretching into January 1996, the federal government “shut down” because of an impasse between President Bill Clinton and House Republicans led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Double threats just get in the way
Just as Lenin’s body remains on public display in Russia, because one never knows when he might be useful to rally the masses, so, too, does the ghost (but thankfully not the body) of the late Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) remain a useful symbol for Democrats in Washington.
State of the Union speech recycled
Opinion column
President Obama’s approach to so-called “climate change” appears to include recycling old ideas.
Carson was out of line at prayer breakfast
Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies.
Media has double standard on drone attacks against Americans
Opinion column
An unsigned and undated Justice Department white paper, obtained by NBC News, reports The New York Times, “... is the most detailed analysis yet to come into public view regarding the Obama legal team’s views about the lawfulness of killing, without a trial, an American citizen who executive branch officials decide is an operational leader of Al Qaeda or one of its allies.”
Government shouldn’t define what constitutes a ‘church’
Under pressure from religious and conservative groups, the Obama administration has offered another compromise on the issue of birth control coverage within the Affordable Care Act.
‘60 Minutes’ missed opportunity to ask hard questions
In the days of the late Mike Wallace, “60 Minutes” was known for hard-hitting, aggressive journalism that asked the questions viewers wanted answered and held the powerful accountable.
GOP needs vision, optimism to rebound
Opinion Column
Some political commentators are dancing on what they believe to be the grave of the Republican Party, claiming that the only way the GOP can have a viable future is for them to behave like Democrats.
New ‘big government’ era taking off
Bill Clinton isn’t often wrong when it comes to politics, but his assertion in his 1996 State of the Union Address that “the era of big government is over” was a bit premature. In light of President Obama’s Second Inaugural Address, the era of big government has just begun.
Laws alone don’t protect
Opinion Column
If laws were enough to deter criminal behavior prisons would be empty.
Senators should press Hagel for answers
Opinion column
Biography isn't policy. President Obama's choice for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, former Nebraska Republican senator, has a resume most politicians can envy: a clean senatorial record, no ethical lapses and two purple hearts from a war many opposed and many more tried to avoid.
Female vs. male senators
Opinion Column
As the son of a woman, the husband of a woman and the father of daughters and granddaughters, I celebrate the record number of females who are now United States senators. However, I do see some differences in the way these and other women are treated, depending on their party, policies and beliefs.
U.S. tax rates fueling expatriation
With so many foreigners wanting to become U.S. citizens, it’s still a shock to know someone who has relinquished his citizenship. It is another reason for simplifying the U.S. tax code.
U.S. soldiers did not die in vain in Vietnam
Opinion column
It has been 50 years since President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. “advisers” to South Vietnam to help battle the communist North and 37 years since the end of that divisive war and the country’s unification under Communism. Today, Vietnam is fighting a war with itself.
Christmas good time to give gifts that count
What if you could give a gift that mattered; one that literally kept on giving and improved the life of another person? Would you buy that gift? Two years ago I bought two gifts for people I have never met. One was a goat and the other a sewing class. Both went to people in countries who need just a little to enable them to take care of themselves and their families.
What is the answer to unexpected evil?
Trying to explain an evil act like the one that killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is on a par with explaining how the universe was formed.
GOP looking at back-to-the-future shift
Opinion Column
Sitting in the room at the Jack Kemp Leadership Award dinner last week, listening to Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, and Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and of late the GOP vice presidential candidate, I sensed more than a generational shift in party leadership.
Egypt poised to accept extremism
The opening scene-setter for the 1996 film “Independence Day” might serve as a metaphor for what Egyptians could face if a draft constitution written by a panel dominated by Islamists and based on Sharia law wins approval in a referendum: “A loud rumble is heard. Suddenly, we are covered in darkness as the shadow engulfs us. Only the image of our Earth hangs in the air, until a huge silhouetted object suddenly blocks our view.”
Spending other people's money is a taxing job
Congress returned to "work" this week (now there's a laugh) to complete its lame-duck session before taking another holiday. Spending other people's money is a taxing experience.
Marco Rubio may be the next Reagan
Conservatives have been dreaming that a political reincarnation of Ronald Reagan would lead them to an electoral promised land. I never put my faith in such a possibility, because the past is a dangerous place in which to live. Reagan never lived in the past, though he learned from it.
Groundhog Day: Middle East version
In the film "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray wakes up each morning and relives the previous day.
Changing America is still a dream within reach
A look at the electoral map indicates the Republican Party won in square miles. Unfortunately for them, electoral votes, not landmass, won President Obama a second term.
After the presidential election, what comes next?
Opinion Column
Presidential elections decide only who wins the White House and a congressional majority. They don’t by themselves solve the nation’s problems.
How does one judge another as a racist?
When white liberals voted against the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas (including then-Senator Joe Biden) were they racist? Many white liberal Democrats are working overtime to defeat Rep. Allen West, Florida Republican. Are they racist?
U.S. foreign policy still murky
Opinion Column
After watching the third presidential debate, are you clear on America’s foreign policy? I thought not. That’s because there appears to be no singular foreign policy, rather a series of foreign policies, which must be tailored to fit each nation.
McGovern a good friend and example
Former South Dakota Democratic Senator George McGovern, who died Sunday, had all manner of evil said about him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was called unpatriotic, disloyal, an appeaser and an enabler of communism. Those were the printable slanders.
Wanted: New, workable foreign policy
Opinion Column
On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a foreign policy speech to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. He was correct in his indictment of the Obama administration for its numerous failures -- especially in the Middle East -- and his embrace of Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" philosophy. A strong and respected America is less likely to be attacked.
Nation’s survival rests with debates
Political column
Mitt Romney’s main advantage in his first debate with President Obama on Wednesday may be that the president will be speaking without a teleprompter. His second advantage is the president’s record and how he has failed to fulfill many of his promises.
Spending, not Romney taxes, the issue
Did anyone think the release of Mitt Romney’s tax returns would satisfy Democrats and make them focus on the real issues in this campaign, including President Obama’s failed domestic and foreign policy record and approaching massive tax increases? If so, please call me for a great deal on Arizona swampland.
Will the media hold Obama to the standard it's set for Romney?
There's another video, this one of Mitt Romney speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Boca Raton.
Choice needed with public schools
An oft-quoted line from then-governor of Massachusetts Calvin Coolidge might be updated to include "the public interest," as well as public safety.
Politicos miss a Noble effort
Columnist Leonard Pitts wrote a story for the front page of last Sunday's Charlotte Observer indicting both parties for failing to speak up for the poor. He inspired this column.
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