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Washington Monthly
The Balance of Powers Demands a Strong Congressional Research Service
Is it too late to fix the Congressional Research Service, Congress’s in-house think tank? On March 20, interim director Robert Newlen described encountering a staffer balancing her cell phone on a door jamb in the repurposed Washington, D.C. book depository that houses CRS. When asked why, she explained that it was the only place she could get cell service and be responsive to calls from congressional offices. When called, she would answer, hang up, and call back from outside the building.
The Reporter Who Made Us Love Politics—Or Tried
Charlie Peters, my original mentor in the magazine world, used to say that the hardest talent to find among aspiring writers was a true, light, instinctive comic touch. Lots of people could work hard, write fast, and stay up late. Lots of people were politics nuts or history buffs. Many people were willing to ask questions and do research and go through the repeated self-education that is the reporter’s life.
The Irrepressible Walter Shapiro
It was October 27, 1994, and a day earlier, Israel and Jordan had signed a peace treaty in the desert expanse that straddled the once-warring nations. It was just a year after the Oslo Accords. Bill Clinton and his press corps were on the road to Damascus, where he would be the first president to meet strongman Hafez al-Assad in Syria in almost 20 years. When our charter flight touched down at Damascus International Airport, amid propaganda posters of Assad and plenty of menacing Syrian security forces, my friend Walter Shapiro asked me to snap a few photos. One Jewish kid from the New York suburbs to the other, we looked at each other with the same can-you-believe-this grin.
Without Flawed “Negative Framing,” Poll Finds A More Unified Nation
Earlier this month, in Milwaukee, as Republicans gathered to nominate Donald Trump for a third time, there was plenty of demonizing to be seen and heard on the convention floor. Signs that said “Mass Deportation Now” were passed out to and displayed by delegates. Many speakers targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and espoused divisive rhetoric.
I’m 84 and Know Something About Aging. It Was Right for Biden to Get Out of the Race
At age 81, President Joe Biden finally threw in the towel. He will not be the Democratic party’s nominee. He was quick to tap his Vice President Kamala Harris to head the ticket, and if the Democrats rally around her, as Biden urged, she will be a formidable candidate.
Kamala Can Correct Trump’s Tallest Tale
Any incumbent president running for re-election tells some variation of this basic narrative: We are better off than we were four years ago. Voters can be confident our policies are working and will help solve the remaining problems. The 2024 election was unusual because two incumbents were running, each selling...
Kamala Harris: Woman of the World
This story was originally published on October 24, 2020. California is waiting to be welcomed back into the national conversation after four years of disrespect and neglect from the White House. In a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, not only will California’s favorite daughter bridge the widened — and widening — federal-state divide, she will team with a President Biden to rebuild America’s powerful role in the world.
Be of Good Cheer!
The painful circumstances of the end to Joe Biden’s candidacy will soon be forgotten, but the accomplishments of his presidency will be remembered for generations. Biden will be seen by historians as the most consequential one-term president in American history, with trillions in investments in infrastructure, technology, and green energy that will propel the United States forward. And his exit will be in the selfless tradition of Cincinnatus and George Washington, who originated the peaceful transfer of power that is the sine qua non of our republic.
The Democratic Nominee Needs to Put the Supreme Court Front and Center
The Supreme Court is out of the news, and reporters are focused on the presidential election, including whether Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, the despicable attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and the nomination of J. D. Vance for vice president. But no one should take the summer off from what the Court is doing. America is facing an assault on our democracy, carried out by the Court’s supermajority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, and lower court judges. Democrats must respond to this attack, no matter their nominee, even if the Court is out of the headlines with its term concluded earlier this month. We’re glad to see reports that President Biden will soon propose term limits and a binding ethics code for Supreme Court justices.
Good News for Democrats: Trump’s Bad Speech Wrecked the Republican Convention
On Thursday, July 18, I felt more hopeful than I have in months about the future of this country. Actually, I should say on Friday, July 19, because Donald Trump’s horrible 93-minute speech—which literally put some Trump-loving delegates to sleep—didn’t end until after midnight. Trump shattered...
The “Meh” Performance of J. D. Vance at the Republican Convention
When J. D. Vance took the podium at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last night, it was with lofty expectations from critics and supporters alike. He may not have been a surprise pick to be the vice-presidential nominee, but he was a bold one for his youth (39), intelligence (bestselling author, Yale Law School), and ferocious America First-style nationalism. (See Jacob Heilbrunn’s terrific piece on this.) But by the time the self-described hillbilly left the stage, it was a big “meh.” No wonder the headlines the following day were, not only understandably, dominated by high-level leaks about pressure on President Joe Biden to drop out of the race but also more findings about the would-be Donald Trump assassin and how the U.S. Secret Service failed to prevent him from shooting the former president. Vance’s headlines were way down your scroll, not just because he got a late start with much of his speech running after 11:00 pm on the East Coast.
With Vance Selection, Trump Doubles Down on America First
Last week, amid the NATO summit in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell boasted that he had effectively stymied the America First movement by helping pass a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine. Republicans, he said, were starting to realize that supporting assistance to Kyiv was “not some kind of political suicide mission.” The 82-year-old Cold Warrior went on to condemn Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his intimate ties to Russia and China, and he suggested that Donald Trump and other conservatives might be having “second thoughts” about cozying up to the authoritarian leader.
Chief Justice Roberts’s Rule of Disorder: Where the Trump Legal Cases Stand
On Monday, Donald Trump became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. The same day, a federal district court judge he appointed, Aileen Cannon, threw out the Mar-a-Lago documents case in which the evidence was overwhelming that the former president obstructed justice. The Republican nominee remains a convicted felon in New York State, where he’s also been barred from doing business, found liable for sexual assault, had his charity dismantled, and other penalties in what’s fair to call a crime spree. He has been charged with multiple additional felonies in federal and Georgia state court.
Doctors Should Leave Their Politics at Home
In addition to fighting cancer and heart disease, doctors at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) are fighting each other. On one side are pro-Palestinian doctors and medical students, some wearing keffiyehs while on duty, who say it is crucial for UCSF to take a stand against the Israel-Hamas war and to call for a cease-fire. Their chants of “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada!” can be heard in patients’ rooms.
JD Vance is the Rarest of VP Picks: The Double Down.
Last month I reviewed Donald Trump’s reported short list of vice presidential picks, noting that the choice would be of great import since “whoever he picks could shape the post-Trump Republican Party.”. Senator JD Vance was clearly picked to ensure the post-Trump Republican Party looks just like Trump’s...
The Roberts Court’s Chevron Ruling and Darkening Clouds Over the Administrative State
With Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court has finally interred the so-called Chevron doctrine, named for its 1984 decision, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The Roberts Court’s ideologically predictable 6-3 decision garnered headlines as a victory for legal conservatives hoping to curb federal regulation. However, the difference Loper Bright will make in the win-loss rate of agencies challenged in court remains uncertain. Other Supreme Court decisions, usually far less celebrated, are likely to destabilize the administrative state more than Loper Bright.
Why Trump’s Veep Pick Matters
Bill Scher, our ahead-of-the-curve politics editor, penned this column last month. We thought Republican Nominee Donald Trump’s selection of Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate merited reupping the column as it originally appeared. –The Editors. Once a non-incumbent secures the presidential nomination, the political media obsesses over...
Get a Grip, Democrats. You Can Still Win This
“The presidential contest ended last night,” an unnamed “veteran Democratic political consultant” told NBC News the day after former President Donald Trump was grazed in the ear by an attempted assassin’s bullet. “We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency,” said an anonymous “senior House Democrat” to Axios.
Trump’s Democrats-Support-Infanticide Trope Is an Infuriating Lie
Quick question: Have you ever known a woman who was nine months pregnant and who just showed up unpregnant one day? Who simply shrugged and said she’d decided she wasn’t cut out for motherhood after all and took care of her little problem at her neighborhood abortion clinic?
Wilson Didn’t Resign. The World Suffered. Biden Need Not Repeat That Mistake
Medical historians debate what exactly happened to President Woodrow Wilson in April 1919. What we do know is that he wasn’t the same afterward. Wilson was in Paris leading post-World War I peace talks and overseeing European relief and reconstruction. The first American president ever to leave the country while in office, he stayed abroad for seven months between December 1918 and July 1919, save for a three-week break in late February and early March, when he sailed to America to sign legislation, meet with senators, and deliver three speeches. In Paris, he was clocking in 15-hour days, desperate to forge a new international organization—the League of Nations—to prevent future world wars.
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