Capitol Hill Blue's Politics on the Half-Shell

"Opinion" archive

They call this reform? (07:02) - The Senate, by a lopsided margin, has passed a bill designed to show that lawmakers are serious about cracking down on lobbying abuses. The bill is greatly watered down from what the leadership said it intended, and, frankly, the new rules won't change much.
Not much when it comes to alternatives (06:59) - While the Republicans are seeking to heal the wounds of divisiveness caused by the immigration issue and the president's falling ratings, Democrats are hard at work trying to convince the nation they can be trusted with national security. It is clearly a theme that will be aired over and over in the coming election as the minority party in Congress tries to regain control of one or both houses lost more than a decade ago.

Censure is a bad idea (20:38) - Sen. Russ Feingold, a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin and possible candidate for his party's presidential nomination, is asking fellow senators to censure President Bush for misleading Americans about his secret eavesdropping program. A resolution to censure is a bad idea.

In praise of journalism (20:48) - Perhaps surprisingly in this day of write-it-yourself Web sites, there dwell in America some 125,000 human beings known as "general news journalists." Hardly anyone likes them. The bloggers call them "mainstream media." Liberals call them "corporate media." Conservatives call them "liberal media." Everyone else just dismisses them as "THE MEDIA."

Defending free speech (01:00) - An Austrian court has sentenced disgraced historian David Irving to three years in prison. But prosecutors say that isn't punishment enough and that the 67-year-old should serve the full 10 years for violating an Austrian law proscribing anyone who "denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity ..."

Hey Dick! Have we got a gun for you! (05:35) - What's that, Mr. Vice President? You didn't serve in Vietnam? Gosh, I just figured you being a guy who likes to pick up the gun and pull on those camouflage duds that you might have had some military experience at some point.
A no-win situation (05:25) - Should the news have come sooner? Probably. But in the hours between the accident and Katherine Armstrong's phone call nothing happened or was done to change what occurred. There is absolutely nothing to indicate an attempted cover-up, as has been irresponsibly alleged. A cover-up is when one drives a car off a bridge, drowning a female companion and then acts like nothing happened until being caught red handed 11 hours later.

Fanning the flames (05:58) - Wars have been started this way. A group gets riled up over a perceived slight (often religious in nature). Violence breaks out. Alliances are called into play. Reason departs. People die.

Misusing Islam to promote fear (00:04) - By CLIFFORD D. MAY Muslim demonstrators have been torching embassies, stoning churches and threatening mass murder to protest cartoons characterizing Muslims as violent extremists. They have been burning flags and stomping on crosses and Stars of David to express their...

Rebelling against domestic bliss (00:15) - By PAUL CAMPOS The death of Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique," brings to mind a passage from George Orwell's classic essay on Dickens. What, Orwell asks, does the happy ending of the typical Dickens novel tell us about...