Columns, pieces and posts
They were eyeball to eyeball and both blinked. China will send the American crew members back, and the U.S. is sorry a Chinese pilot died and that our plane landed on Chinese soil without permission. Of all the commentary and chatter that followed the president’s announcement, perhaps the best summation came from a father of […]
Dan Rather is 69 years old, the anchor of “CBS Evening News” for the past 20 years, probably one of the most famous men in America and a political liberal. He is in trouble this week after a front-page story in the Washington Post reported that he recently appeared at a Democratic Party fund-raiser in […]
I have been thinking the past few weeks, as I’ve watched the Democrats attack President Bush’s tax-cut plan as deeply flawed because it benefits the rich and was developed in fact only to benefit the rich, more specifically to benefit rich Republicans and their big-business friends, that this is an odd and an old tic […]
Sixty-two days into his presidency, and 40 days before everyone talks about and writes about his First Hundred Days, some thoughts on George W. Bush and how he’s doing. The great question from those who had not supported him, which is to say from half the country, was: Is he up to the job? The […]
After I left my speechwriting job in Ronald Reagan’s White House 15 years ago, I stayed home, had a baby and wrote. Sometimes I’d run into Washington people I didn’t see anymore and they’d ask, “What are you doing now?” I’d say, with hopeful pride, “I’m writing a book.” They would nod and get the […]
This is the way it’s supposed to be, with division sharp, clear and meaningful. There are two parties, and each believes in different things. The Democrats don’t want to cut federal taxes. They have their reasons. The Republicans want to cut taxes. They have their reasons too. Yesterday in the House they held a vote […]
On some new level and in some new way George W. Bush burrowed into the presidency Tuesday night. Like him or not, he is a man to be taken seriously. He spoke to the House and Senate with apparent ease and confidence, but more important his address was a deft document, and a revealing one, […]
Hugh Rodham, the brother of the first lady, is paid a reported $400,000 to secure from the president of the United States the commutation of the sentence of a wealthy felon who sells cocaine and a pardon for a wealthy felon who sells phony herbal medicines. The president’s closest aide, Bruce Lindsey, discusses pardon and […]
What a terrific speech the president gave Tuesday on the need to cut taxes. He stood at the podium at the Economic Club of New York and seemed to radiate a youthfulness and dynamism that his advisers no doubt hoped would reflect on his economic program. Trim and youthful, relatively new to presidential power and […]
The past week was dominated by three presidents, the new one, the last one, a past one. It was instructive. The new one continues to move forward, becoming accepted by the country as president. The recount seems if not long ago then just another strange mishap, like Al Gore’s makeup in the first debate. George […]