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(12/06/07 5:00am)
Sex scandals, money scandals, incompetence and insanity have come to define today's Republican Party. But, amazingly, Republicans seem eager to ensure the Democrats as a governing majority far into future.
(11/19/07 5:00am)
Forty-seven isn't as elegant as 50. But some states frankly don't deserve their star on the American flag.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
Politicians stumping on their resolve to "keep us safe" usually train their rhetoric on a predictable lot. For the right, the danger is manifest in cave-dwelling fanatics in the Middle East. For the left, carbon footprints and melting ice caps pose the existential threat. And both political parties collectively wag a finger at Chinese exports laced with lead and antifreeze.
(11/05/07 5:00am)
Halloween, more than an excuse to gorge on candy, is also an ideological celebration for conservatives. Right-wingers have developed an obsessive addiction to fear, whispering spooky tales of an Islamic takeover of the United States, gays buying wedding rings and immigrants requesting driver's licenses (in Spanish!). The most insidious threat, though, is homegrown: the federal government.
(10/22/07 4:00am)
The anvil of conservative malfeasance has walloped the average American so many times now that it's perhaps understandable that pollsters find so many voters crying not "uncle" but "Hillary." The tentative "Anyone But Bush" slogan of 2004 crescendoed in 2006 and now, gathering momentum every news cycle, is poised to launch the famous first lady back into the White House. After eight years of wars, lies and corruption, the electorate doesn't seem to mind much who rescues them as long as it happens soon.
(10/08/07 4:00am)
Partisan fires are raging in Washington. From war to children's health care, the rich histories of liberalism and conservatism grind against each other. In our pluralist society, each camp is compelled to calibrate its philosophical compass to court public approval, translating the wisdom of Thomas Paine or Edmund Burke into coherent platforms.
(09/24/07 4:00am)
Few threats spook politicians like unfriendly facts congealing with public distrust. For Republicans, the routine has become all too familiar. Hounded by a burgeoning awareness that whatever they're doing is a sham, they get desperate. Predictably, their immediate instinct is to grab mud and sling hard. Usually the hope is for a momentary diversion, but unfortunately, some liberals play along.
(09/10/07 4:00am)
With the "surge" in Iraq a failure and incompetence still the governing philosophy of the White House, the presidential primary campaign is a gracious reminder that this national nightmare is in its last throes. The bar has been set low for the 44th president, but the stakes tower.
(04/23/07 4:00am)
Every day that Alberto Gonzalez serves as attorney general is a slap in the face to anyone who believes justice should be a priority at the Department of Justice. Every day President Bush leaves our soldiers to kill and die in Iraq is a punch in the stomach to anyone who believes national security and supporting soldiers should be a priority for the commander in chief. Every day Karl Rove obfuscates his responsibility in every scandal plaguing this administration, every day Paul Wolfowitz goes to work at the World Bank, every day Dick Cheney and John McCain slander anyone who questions their judgment is a kick in the shins to all of us.
(03/26/07 4:00am)
Those of us enchanted by politics are largely dreamers. Like Robert F. Kennedy, we dream of things that never were and ask why not. We ache for some magic wand to realize those dreams. In a society where it too often seems greed is glorified and corruption is congratulated, how dearly we imagine a utopia where the good prosper and the evil perish. If only I were God, as the refrain goes, poetic justice would roll down like waters and vindictive righteousness like a mighty stream.
(03/05/07 5:00am)
Last week a reader criticized my recent prognostication on the developing presidential race for two supposed errors. My "biggest problem" was overselling Barack Obama; my "greatest mistake" was underselling the Republican field.
(02/19/07 5:00am)
Political columnists regularly find two temptations irresistible: D.C. silliness being one and relentless horse race "analysis" being the other. These are frequently substitutes for substance. This week, in the spirit of the David Broders and Maureen Dowds of the world, I will succumb to both temptations in the same column.
(02/05/07 5:00am)
Politics is society's bread. When done right, it nourishes, providing a modest but substantive anchor to a nation's smorgasbord of priorities. When it's neglected, we're left with the stale, bitter crust of disappointment and disillusionment.
(01/22/07 5:00am)
As we all returned to D.C. to start the new semester, we were greeted by President Bush's call for an escalation of the war in Iraq. Jay Leno, of all people, had the most succinct summarization of that plan: "The good news is last night President Bush finally admitted he's made mistakes in Iraq. The bad news is he's planning to make the same mistakes again."
If anything, Bush has been able to temper expectations by leaving us clueless about just what to expect. First he managed to sell a war meant to make America safer and empower moderates in the Middle East, only to accomplish the opposite. Now he has opted for a strategy that effectively offers to wipe off the spit he's spewed across our face with a sharp backhanded slap.
Apparently November's sweeping and decisive election results failed to take public opinion off "mute" in the White House. Pleading for sanity by top military brass has been similarly dismissed. "Every divisional commander, General Casey, the core commander, General Dempsey, we all talked together," General Abizaid told Senator McCain late last year. "And I said, in your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no."
The response of the Bush team and its dwindling apologists has been an attempt to deflect criticism by denouncing everyone else for failing to offer an alternative. First of all, Democrats have rightly made the analogy to one who drops an egg and then charges someone else to piece it back together. This is the Republican's war and ultimate responsibility rests with the president (John McCain and Joe Lieberman will also be co-defendants in the court of history).
But luckily for him, Democrats have been eager to detail several plans aimed at salvaging at least some sort of regional integrity. Representative John Murtha, long a fixture of the military scene in Washington, has coupled his emotional criticism of the war with perhaps the most honest assessment of what is required.
His plan is four-part: U.S. troops are immediately redeployed; a quick reaction force is established in the region; the Marines maintain an over-the-horizon presence; and we pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy.
Senator Joe Biden, an accomplished foreign policy scholar himself, delivered his five-point plan last October. Recognizing the intensifying civil war as the most potent generator of violence in Iraq, he calls for a partitioning into three autonomous regions that would separate the Sunnis, Shia and Kurds under a limited central government.
Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed, heavyweights on the Armed Services Committee, introduced their own plan with steps ranging from a more focused training and logistical approach to addressing regional stability issues through an international conference. Senator Clinton, upon returning from Iraq, proposed capping the number of U.S. troops at 130,000, conditioning U.S. money to tangible progress by the Maliki government and augmenting our focus on Afghanistan to avert complete catastrophe.
The breadth and detail of Democratic options are nearly enough to glaze over the most committed of policy wonks. Bush could have even sought cover from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report. The expert commission's 79 recommendations offer a comprehensive approach specifically tailored to Bush's palate.
Unfortunately, the president has continued to favor slogans over substance, stubborn theatrics over solemn candor. So long as he dismisses public opinion as cavalierly as he does the thousands of lives lost for a mistake, we are condemned to suffer that painful knot of anger, awe, and frustrated sadness as we wonder just how many nations are being destroyed in this futile war.
(01/18/07 5:00am)
Broach the subject of testing and almost immediately there's the complaint that our children are already over-tested, that our system seems to prioritize testing over learning. But this misses the point. In grade school, we had a spelling test every week, and I was quizzed on my timetables at least as often. In this sense, testing was not a replacement for learning, it was an instrument, a catalyst of learning. Doing long division each Friday not only checked up on my arithmetic progress; it honed and sharpened my abilities.
(12/04/06 5:00am)
Today's headlines offer no shortage of worthy political debate. A raging war, early presidential positioning and the emerging details of the approaching Democratic congressional agenda are hard material for a political columnist to shy from. But for my final polemic of the semester, I'm interested in setting aside predictable partisanship. There's another issue, specific to American University, where I find both Democrats and Republicans at fault.
The AU Blue Crew, our university's latest attempt to rally excitement around athletics, is charged with a daunting task. With a basketball team mired in the middle of an unheralded conference, and lacking a football team, traditional "school spirit" has notoriously proven ephemeral at AU.
James Thurber, director of the School of Public Affairs' Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, observes that election night provides for AU students the rallying fervor and excitement typically associated with certain high profile sporting events in January and March at other schools. Most students simply do not choose to attend American because of an allegiance to our athletic program. But while the Blue Crew will obviously not change that fact, I do hope they are successful in cultivating some sort of emotional (even "spirited") resonance between the general student body and our too often overlooked athletic successes.
The Eagle plays a critical role in this campaign. If there's any meta-analysis I have gleaned from my study of politics, it is an appreciation for the overwhelming influence that the news media has in molding public opinion and generating interest and energy. An effective school spirit campaign will require the focused coordination of the Blue Crew catalyzed by the broader sustainment of the school paper.
If The Eagle is pledged to covering the relevant campus developments, and shares the Blue Crew's goal of supporting AU athletes (as a Nov. 16 staff editorial suggests), then it only makes sense that the most prominent athletic achievements would merit mention, if not prominent coverage. Unfortunately, there has been a glaring failure.
As a member of the cross country team, the buried paragraph mentioning our fifth consecutive Patriot League title and our national championship-qualifying regional performance seems quite the snub. The crowning disrespect was when our third straight NCAA championship race wasn't worth a single word of coverage.
Now, to be fair, I don't expect the Blue Crew to organize events publicizing cross country. We host no home meets for students to attend, and the nature of the sport itself pays little regard to the convenience of spectators. But it only seems intuitive that a school spirit campaign would be interested in fomenting an atmosphere of success, in highlighting a championship tradition, in energizing a "we're-number-one" psyche.
We are runners. We've never expected the deification of ogling hordes, or even their basic understanding (What? You guys run for an hour-and-a-half? Without stopping?). But cross country is more than frolicking along in flowered pastures, and track is certainly not some do-it-yourself merry-go-round where we joyfully careen around in circles to our heart's content.
For those of us who have been captivated by the grandeur of speed, recognition in the school paper isn't going to provide the fulfillment for which we quest. But a little respect certainly wouldn't hurt this paper's - and this school's - bid to support its successful athletes. And showing a little more respect, it would seem, is a worthy goal for Republicans and Democrats alike.
(11/13/06 5:00am)
While governing may be a delicate art of negotiation and compromise, the elections that invariably must come before are a set of cold, zero-sum contests with clear winners and losers. An abridged scorecard from last Tuesday:
(10/30/06 5:00am)
"These are the stakes. Vote November 7." So concluded a recent installment of the Republican's latest "Be Very Afraid" campaign, in which a television advertisement scrolls through various Al-Qaida threats before echoing Lyndon Johnson's famous 1964 campaign warning.
(10/05/06 4:00am)
Few actions of government are ever as serious as the waging of war. But in spite of its solemn importance - or perhaps because of it - the national debate tends toward partisan positioning with demagogic rhetoric and empty slogans substituted for a sober analysis of real world facts.
(09/18/06 4:00am)
The reflex of society is to assuage the pain of collective tragedy through myths and narratives that transform suffering into an integral part of the national fabric. The United States is now five years into the process of making sense of those unprecedented September 11 attacks, communally deliberating the past and the future: why were we attacked, how will we respond.