Jun 04 2008 - Seattle PI
by MARTIN SCHRAM
Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney. Politically polar opposites. So different in so many ways.
Yet today they are also two of a kind.
They made it big in politics as young men and then, in the still young–prime of middle age, they had heart surgery and complications that led to other procedures. While many sail through these health issues magnificently, people who know Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney best say privately, and sometimes semi–privately (translation: anonymously to reporters) and occasionally publicly, that both are fundamentally changed persons.
Sep 11 2008 - Seattle PI
by Rupert Cornwell
What is it about the daughters of America's elected monarchs and monarchs–in–waiting, when they arrive in Washington, D.C.? Go through the 16 men who have been either president or vice–president since 1961 –– from the era of John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush –– and their sons actually outnumber their daughters, by 27 to 26.
But once a family gets close to the white stucco mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., or No. 1 Observatory Circle, the vice–presidential residence just across from the British embassy, it's the daughters who make the news. And that pattern will not change, whether Barack Obama or John McCain becomes the 44th president next January.
Aug 26 2008 - Town Hall
by Thomas Sowell
Random thoughts on the passing scene:
If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left.
The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer–– and they don't want explanations that do not give them that.
Jul 29 2008 - Town Hall
by Thomas Sowell
Random thoughts on the passing scene:
Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one.
Anyone who is honest with himself and with others knows that there is not a snow ball's chance in hell to have an honest dialogue about race.
I wonder what radical feminists make of the fact that it was men who created the rule of "women and children first" when it came to rescuing people from life–threatening emergencies.
Jul 26 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– The principal reason why former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has climbed to the top of Sen. John McCain's practical wish list for vice president is the possibility that he could bring Michigan's 17 electoral votes to the Republicans for the first time since 1988.
Private polls show Romney could make all the difference in Michigan. A McCain–Romney ticket carries the state by a moderately comfortable margin. With any other running mate, McCain loses Michigan.
Jul 24 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
Syndicated columnist and TV political pundit Robert Novak was cited by police Wednesday after he drove away after hitting a pedestrian in downtown Washington.
Jul 19 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Sen. Barack Obama has been meeting secretly with heavy industry CEOs in Washington to discuss issues that he would face as president.
On the campaign trail, Obama has been highly critical of corporate executives and promised them nothing but tougher regulation and higher taxes. But the unannounced, small evening sessions with them since he clinched the Democratic nomination have been non–confrontational and cordial.
Obama scheduled the meetings without any hopes of winning the captains of industry over from Sen. John McCain, but to show them they would be able to do business with him in the White House and that the president's door would be open to the corporate leaders. Their consensus was that he has largely succeeded in that purpose.
Jul 12 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Despite assurances to the contrary from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic insiders are certain Sen. Joseph Lieberman next year will be kicked out of the party's caucus and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned.
Jul 05 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, whose stock as Sen. Barack Obama's possible vice presidential running mate had been rising, may have ruined his chances with his belittling attack on Sen. John McCain's war record.
Jul 04 2008 - Town Hall
by Ross Mackenzie
A potpourri of recent quotes in the news . . .
Bear, Stearns chief economist David Malpass: “This year should . . . (have been) filled with administration proposals to reform and simplify taxes, cut the corporate tax rate, extend expiring tax cuts, and index capital gains for inflation. At the end of 2007, Congress extended the inflation patch for the alternative minimum tax, without raising other taxes to pay for it. Using the same legislative process, the AMT fix should be made permanent in 2008 and then be used as a pro–growth precedent to make permanent the Bush tax rates that extend only through 2010.”
Jun 28 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has appealed to Senate Democratic leaders to confirm President Bush's long–pending nominations to fill two empty chairs as Fed governors, enabling a fully staffed central bank to handle the current financial crisis. He did not receive a favorable response from Sen. Christopher Dodd, Senate Banking Committee chairman.
Jun 27 2008 - Town Hall
by W. Thomas Smith, Jr
In their new book, FLEECED, political pundit Dick Morris and attorney–coauthor Eileen McGann (yes, Morris and McGann are married), expose companies – both foreign and domestic – U.S. media powerhouses, an ineffective Congress, highly–vocal party hacks, and, yes, Sen. Barack Obama, all of whom are slickering Americans for their own ends, and seriously compromising our national security (among other things) in the process.
FLEECED was released on Tuesday and almost immediately soared to the #1 spot at Amazon.com. On Wednesday morning, Morris and I spent a few minutes on the phone chatting about the book and how it serves as an important primer in both an election year and in a strategically evolutionary period in the war on terror.
Jun 21 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Leaders of Sen. John McCain's campaign are looking toward "527s" as their principal means of attacking Sen. Barack Obama because they have been given a green light by McCain.
"I can't be a referee of every spot run on television," McCain told the Boston Herald in an interview published June 12. He gave up after trying earlier this year to moderate an anti–Obama ad by the North Carolina Republican Party. The GOP presidential candidate, co–author of the McCain–Feingold campaign finance reform act, has criticized using Section 527 of the federal tax code to finance political advertisements by outside groups
Jun 19 2008 - St. Petersburg Times.
by Liam Julian
Elections are difficult for Floridians. No need to bring up 2000 when the Sunshine State's role in 2008 has already caused consternation from West Palm Beach to Walla Walla.
Thank goodness, then, for Safire's Political Dictionary, the fifth edition of which is now available for public consumption. With the fate of Florida's Democratic delegates decided (Howard Dean: "Cut with a sword each delegate into two pieces, and give each candidate half!"), Floridians have a useful manual with which to decipher the rest of the process.
Jun 14 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Before multimillionaire Democratic power broker James A. Johnson quit as Sen. Barack Obama's chief vice presidential screener, the name that came to the fore in his internal discussions was 65–year–old, six–term Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.
Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, made a good impression in his losing bid for the presidential nomination this year. The downside on him is that he talks too much. But he provides expertise and experience in national security that Obama lacks and, as a Catholic, adds cultural diversity to the ticket.
Jun 07 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Sen. John McCain had just begun his speech from Kenner, La., on the year's last primary election night when distraught Republicans began e–mailing each other this message: Is it possible at this late hour for our presidential candidate to learn to read a teleprompter?
Jun 01 2008 - Town Hall
by Paul Greenberg
The day's news continues to deliver a bountiful crop of theories, explanations, analyses, opinions and observations that I don't for a minute believe.
For example:
Raising the tax on capital gains is going to produce more capital. But when you tax something, aren't you bound to make it less, not more, plentiful?
May 29 2008 - Town Hall
by Victor Davis Hanson
Here is how our baby–boom generation solves problems:
— Recently, George Bush went to Saudi Arabia to ask the ruling House of Saud to pump more oil. That request had about as much chance of success as the Democratic–led congressional effort to “sue” the Saudis in American courts for their selfish “price–gouging.”
The current debate about energy in the United States has devolved into doing the same old thing — consume, don’t produce and complain — while somehow expecting different results. Congress talks endlessly about the bright future of wind, solar and new fuels, while it stops us from getting through the messy present by utilizing abundant coal, shale and tar sands; nuclear power; and oil still untapped in Alaska and off our coasts.
May 24 2008 - Town Hall
by Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a strong favorite to be elected to the Senate this year, has told associates that he is being considered as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate. He did not indicate whether he would be receptive to such an offer.
May 20 2008 - Town Hall
by Thomas Sowell
Random thoughts on the passing scene:
Seeing the Pope driven around in a bullet–proof vehicle reminds me of how much times have changed over the years. I can remember when President Franklin D. Roosevelt rode through Harlem in an open car.
A reader's response to my column about the mandated change from incandescent light bulbs to CFL bulbs: "It would be far better to exchange the corrupt hacks in Congress for some winos from the Bowery. Such a transition should open a new bright era for America."
