Category: Column

Orinda, California, Mayor Steve Glazer says that he is running for a state Senate seat vacated by now-Rep. Mark DeSaulnier “as a pragmatic problem-solver rather than a partisan.” In my line of work, I hear that sort of stock phrase all the time; I take it with a grain of salt. In Glazer’s case, however, […]

Twelve years ago, almost to the day, CBS News sent Dan Rather to Baghdad to broadcast an interview with Iraq’s tyrant, Saddam Hussein. I wrote at that time: “Other than the lengths to which Dan Rather went to be obsequious to a tyrant, Americans learned nothing from his interview with Saddam Hussein.” “If one is […]

With friends like Obama, Hillary doesn’t need enemies. Asked about his secretary of state’s insistence on using her own email server, located in her house, the president was quick to contrast Hillary’s behavior with his own policy of “transparency.” “The policy of my administration,” the president noted, “is to encourage transparency, which is why my […]

On Wednesday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the case challenging the IRS’s decision to pay subsidies to lower-income health insurance buyers in states with federal insurance exchanges — even though the Obamacare legislation authorizes subsidies only in states with exchanges “established by the state.” The Obama administration is thus in […]

In recent weeks, the Federal Reserve and its apologists in Congress and the media have launched numerous attacks on the Audit the Fed legislation. These attacks amount to nothing more than distortions about the effects and intent of the audit bill. Fed apologists continue to claim that the Audit the Fed bill will somehow limit […]

I liked the movie “Selma,” though it could have done without the rap song during credits that referenced “hands up, don’t shoot,” a slogan that emerged from the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer whose actions the Justice Department recently determined did not “constitute prosecutable violations” of federal civil rights law. […]

Upon hearing the news of Hillary Clinton’s closeted email server, progressives went into their natural state – attack mode. The former secretary of state unambiguously violated the law by housing her official emails in her mansion’s basement rather than government servers, but true believers couldn’t care less. In the same week retired General David Petraeus […]

The Marriage and Religious Freedom Act was introduced in the last Congress – in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) with 11 co-sponsors and in the House by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) with 92 co-sponsors. This legislation will soon be re-introduced in the current session and should be given priority by Senate and House […]

Get this: The federal government is trying to explain things to citizens in plain English. In 2010, you see, President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act into law. It requires that all federal agencies use “clear government communication that the public can understand and use.” In 2011, Obama took the plain-language initiative a step further. […]

Former four-star general and CIA chief David Petraeus pleaded guilty to one count of retaining classified information for handing over information in personal notebooks to his biographer girlfriend in 2011. He agreed to pay a $40,000 fine; prosecutors said they would recommend two years’ probation instead of prison, although a judge could decide otherwise. It’s […]

For the last several years most of the attention to federal immigration policy has been focused on the border, and on lax interior enforcement. But another insidious problem has accelerated, and promises to worsen for as long as it goes unattended: birth tourism, the practice of allowing pregnant foreign nationals to come to the U.S. […]

The rule of law is in grave danger, as federal regulators use ever thinner legal pretexts to enable vast public policy changes without votes by our elected representatives. In a span of just seven days from February 26 to March 4, the FCC declared the Internet a public utility, Congress acceded to DHS implementing executive […]

One aspect of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress that really seemed to get under the skin of many Obama loyalists was his contention that the Jews are facing another 1938. And of course, the historical analogy is imperfect because historical analogies are almost always imperfect. The problem for the Jews is that […]

The Hillary email scandal changes the calculus surrounding Elizabeth Warren’s consideration of a White House bid. Until now, getting into the race would be seen by the party faithful as a betrayal. In the name of personal ambition, she would have hurt the chances of the obvious nominee — Hillary. She would have paid a […]

If anyone had any doubts that most members of Congress oppose the Obama administration’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran, they can put them aside after viewing the response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress Tuesday. Fifty-some Democratic members chose not to attend. Joe Biden arranged to be out of town, and Barack […]

Historically, the Clintons have proved to be politically indestructible. To paraphrase the movie “Aliens,” to truly destroy the Clinton Industrial Complex, you’d have to nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. Given that alone, I doubt that the unfolding controversy over Hillary’s email schemes spells her doom. The basic details are […]

One of the many reasons constitutional conservatives consider President Obama a threat to the Constitution is his disdain for the separation of powers, illustrated most recently in his plan to bypass the Senate in making an arms deal with Iran. The Framers understood that throughout history, the real threat to God-given liberty had been centralized, […]

It has become conventional wisdom that Republicans are blessed with a talented crowd of potential candidates this cycle. Fine. But here’s my case for why only one of them is likely to win the general election. Forget the triumphalism that followed 2014. It will do the GOP exactly as much good in 2016 as its […]

Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and National Defense consume two-thirds of all federal spending and are responsible for most of the annual spending increases. That leaves Americans with a choice. We must either cut spending on these three programs or pay much higher taxes to cover the ever-increasing costs of the programs. Last week, I looked at […]

#BlackLivesMatter Folks, my wife Mary and I are finally back home in Florida. As Chairman of The Conservative Campaign Committee, we spent most of last year traveling the country getting involved in House and Senate races helping to elect conservatives; living in hotel rooms and out of Mary’s overly packed far too many suitcases. Christmas […]

Hillary Clinton’s expected presidential run is being hailed as a chance to shatter the glass ceiling. That’s nonsense. Hillary rose to power solely on her husband’s sleazy coattails. She’s not self-made. And it shows. The recent email scandal is the latest in a lifelong pattern of entitlement and hubris — traits successful women know can […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Tuesday to warn Americans of the anti-Western threats from theocratic — and likely to soon be nuclear — Iran. Netanyahu came to the U.S. to outline the Iranian plan to remake the Middle East with a new nuclear arsenal. His warning was delivered over the objections […]

Pop star Taylor Swift has donated $50,000 to the New York City public school system. Swift, who was named the world’s sixth most powerful celebrity by Forbes magazine, has commendably performed numerous acts of charity since moving into her $20 million Tribeca residence last year, including visits with sick children at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. […]

Political correctness is a pathological disorder. You can’t say “niggardly” or “black holes” or “chink in the armor” without provoking protests or risking your job. You can’t invoke the Constitution or call illegal behavior “illegal” without being accused of hatred. And now, you can’t goof around at a high school basketball game in silly costumes […]

A new documentary calls colleges like Harvard and Notre Dame “The Hunting Ground,” where rapists prey on women. A bipartisan group of senators demand new rules to “curb campus sexual assaults.” Apparently, new laws are needed because at colleges, sexual assault is “epidemic.” Rape is so common that there is a “rape culture.” I hear […]

President Barack Obama wants Americans to dig deeper into our pockets to expand college education. Let’s update college indoctrination done in the name of education. Cornell University assistant professor Russell Rickford, in a lecture titled “Ferguson: The Next Steps,” told a packed auditorium: “Let’s be very clear about what’s going on. It’s one every 28 […]

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu totally changed the Iran/nuclear debate in his brilliant speech to Congress. Until he spoke, objections to the emerging draft treaty with Iran centered on technical, arcane issues like the number of centrifuges the agreement would let Iran continue to operate and the level of enrichment of uranium it would be […]

“Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus,” wrote Robert Kagan in “Of Paradise and Power,” published in 2003, just as the United States went into Iraq. Americans, he wrote, see themselves in “an anarchic Hobbesian world,” where security and a liberal order depend on military might, while Europe is “moving beyond power into […]