ABOUT:
Defense policy analysis, commentary and discussion.Give President Barack Obama credit for at least trying to diagnose and grapple with the economic crises of our era — slow growth, widening income inequality and diminished upward mobility.
In 1972, as left-liberals led the Democratic Party to a near-unbroken 20-year run of presidential-election disasters, the late, great New York Times columnist William Safire wrote that “nothing is more certain in politics than the crushing defeat of a faction that holds ideological purity to be of greater value than compromise.”
The chances passing a sensible immigration bill in this Congress appear to be next to zero. But, as with the endless search for Middle East peace, it’s a cause worth pursuing. And, conceivably, there’s a deal to be had.
Like it or not — and lots of people on the right and left don’t like it — the Supreme Court bumped the country into the 21st century with its affirmative action, voting rights and gay marriage decisions.
Michael Bloomberg, Howard Schultz and Peter Ackerman — meet Charlie Wheelan.
Unless the Benghazi scandal consumes her, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is virtually a shoo-in for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination if she wants it. And she’s outpolling her GOP rivals.
As I alluded to in the previous post on the Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz., a number of digital technology programs today give kids and teachers a leg up on learning. They can provide instant feedback on what pupils are learning, customize content to a student’s achievement level, teach English as a second language in novel ways and help kids keep up with assignments.
In the 30th anniversary year of the landmark report on U.S. education failure, “A Nation at Risk,” I really think there’s hope — at long, long last — for a turnaround.
The best news coming out of Congress recently — other than bipartisan work on immigration — is bipartisan work on a tax policy overhaul.
The incredibly swift and effective handling of the Boston Marathon bombing case this week by federal, state and local officials should sustain (or restore) national confidence in those institutions — and embarrass Congress.
ST. GEORGE, Utah — This state is about as conservative as there is, yet it has some of the most sensible immigration laws in the country. Its record is a challenge to Republicans in Congress — and to the Obama administration, which isn’t letting the state go as far as it would like.
There’s nothing I’d like more than to see comprehensive immigration reform pass this year, but those who want to repair this broken system ought to quietly concoct a less-than-comprehensive Plan B just in case.
The National Rifle Association is paranoid about universal background checks leading to national registries leading to confiscation of guns. The NRA threatens politicians who favor limits on the size of magazines. And CEO Wayne LaPierre was downright hysterical on “Meet the Press” last week, attacking New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s $12 million gun control campaign — as if the NRA doesn’t use its clout to block gun control.
Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Association are obnoxious, paranoid and intimidationist — but he and they are not always wrong. Some of their ideas should be adopted by advocates of “gun safety,” including Congress.
In part 1 of this post, I argued that the biggest question facing the GOP is what should it be for? Republicans have been relegated to the role of Scrooge while Democrats have been playing Santa when it comes to taxes and economic growth.
Among the Republican Party’s many problems, perhaps the biggest is: what should it be for? Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush correctly pegged the issue in his Conservative Political Action Conference speech — “stop being the anti-everything party” — but didn’t have much to offer as an alternative.
Republican politicians have three concerns about gay marriage besides safeguarding the institution of marriage. One is that the religious right, a powerful constituency, is dead against it.
Hooray for Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, for changing his mind about same-sex marriage. Now it’s time some other major Republican leaders to do so for reasons other than that they have children who are gay, like Portman and Dick Cheney, or that they,like former Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona, are gay themselves.
Likely as not, you could get rich collecting a dollar each time a speaker at this year’s (or any year’s) Conservative Political Action Conference invokes the name of Ronald Reagan.
It’s four years, two months and millions of rancorous words too late, but could President Barack Obama’s outreach to congressional Republicans be the start of something big?
Longtime readers of my CQ Roll Call column, Pennsylvania Avenue, probably won’t be surprised by what follows — a lament about the state of politics in America from my moderate/centrist perspective. It’s adapted from a speech I gave in January at the Hillsboro Club in Florida. Welcome to the blog!
Contentious as President Barack Obama’s second-term agenda may be in other respects, there’s one item that shouldn’t be: expansion of early childhood education.
Here we go again. Instead of learning from the past four years to avoid brinkmanship, make deals and solve problems, it looks as though President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans just need to fight.
Want Roll Call on your doorstep?
SIGN UPAlready a subscriber?
Sign up to have the print PDF emailed to you.
Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions — anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously.
