Today, it’s hard to believe the uproar that erupted when first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 96, traveled to Latin America to represent her husband in June 1977. There were cries of “Who elected her?” and doubts about whether a simple farmer’s wife...
Just hours before an Army reservist shot up a bowling alley and then a bar in rural Maine, the U.S. Senate voted to prohibit the Veterans Administration from automatically reporting to the FBI background checks system the names of veterans deemed mentally incompetent who had relinquished the management of...
Wildly successful in business, and the first Democrat to represent his congressional district in 60 years, it’s not surprising that Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) fancies himself as a potential president. He’s got a healthy ego, and he’s jumping into the Democratic primaries at a critical juncture when time is...
Republicans convened again today in their search for a House Speaker, and it doesn’t look promising. They can’t even agree on whether to keep voting behind closed doors or to take their internal battles to the House floor for the public to see firsthand their disarray. Majority Leader Steve...
Democracy is messy. Everybody gets to have their say, it takes longer than it should, nobody gets everything they want, and in the end, the majority rules, a simple principle that’s getting a stress test on Capitol Hill. After keeping the government funded with more votes from Democrats than...
The media crowned her Di-Fi, shorthand that captured the striking presence and confident leadership that Dianne Feinstein projected as an early pioneer of women winning elective office. She was the first woman to lead the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors in the ’70s, and while the significance of...
As their workers remain on strike, the Big Three U.S. automakers can’t defend raising their multimillion dollar salaries by a higher percentage than offered to hourly workers. GM’s Mary Barra visibly squirmed when asked by a CNN correspondent how she could justify refusing the union’s demand for a 40...
The House Speaker is living up to his last name, reviving a 21st century McCarthyism with lots of ominous sounding allegations about bank records and shell corporations delivered with a somber tone—but without any evidence to back up the alarming words. He looks California cool under fire, but launching...