As America’s birthday approached during the House select committee’s investigation of the Jan. 6 attack last year on the Capitol, I was reminded of George Washington’s warning about political parties — and why he thought they were a terrible idea. Po

Some editorial writers, columnists and activists are working overtime to tell stories of women who oppose last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. Women will die, they say. What about the lives of their unborn children? Th

“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the

We know Donald Trump’s spreading a big lie. But he’s not the only one. So’s the Vatican. Trump’s big lie is that he won the 2020 presidential election, which he did not. The Vatican’s big lie, which it’s been spreading since World War II, is that Pop

This is not just another setback. Anyone who’s lived long enough has seen the Supreme Court issue a ruling they didn’t like. This is not that. No, what made the ruling that felled Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, more

There were times over the last 50 years when some pro-lifers felt they would never see Roe v. Wade overturned and the right to life again recognized by government. Many who never doubted didn’t live to see this day. They had marched in the cold stree

In overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court delivered the right’s biggest single victory ever, and it may spell the end of the conservative movement as we’ve known it. It was Ronald Reagan who popularized the notion that the conservative movement r

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, could same-sex marriage be next? Or even interracial marriage? I’m not too worried about interracial marriage since, to coin an ol

Eighty-three years ago, Mr. Smith went to Washington. Last Tuesday, Lady Ruby did, too. Georgia election workers Ruby “Lady Ruby” Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea ArShaye Moss -- “Shaye” to her friends -- appeared last week before the House committe

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated the year that former U.S. Senator John Danforth first took office (1968). The Watergate break-in happened the year he was re-elected to that post, as Missouri’s attorney general (1972). Danforth entered the U.

Ready, aim, fire: “I believe in Jesus, guns and babies.” So declares Kandiss Taylor, GOP candidate for governor of Georgia, in a campaign ad. Or how about: “I’m Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL, and today, we’re going RINO-hunting.” This is not about killing

In the 1950s when television was in black and white as was the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, comedian Milton Berle would occasionally wear a dress in a skit, causing the studio audience to laugh uproariously. How things ha

Will Donald Trump be held accountable for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and what was a multi-layered conspiracy to overturn the results of the presidential election? Attorney General Merrick Garland has stated that "We're just going

ABC News thought it was — in the words of George Stephanopoulos — “too ugly” and “too dangerous” and declined to show it on air. So Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted it Sunday night, letting us all see the threatening letter that recently came to his wife

While some people wonder whether we’re on the brink of a second Civil War, I sometimes wonder whether we ever really finished the first one. The Juneteenth holiday weekend, a celebration of the ending of legal slavery in the United States, offered am

For congressional Republicans, the election can’t come soon enough. In the modern era, it’s hard to think of a time when the party out of power had more things going its way. Harry Enten, CNN’s political data analyst, recently noted that going by the

While inflation, high gas and food prices, a falling stock market, corrosive politics and a looming recession are all causes for concern – even alarm – two recent Gallup polls reveal an erosion of foundational principles that are key to a stable and

She’s not exactly starving for affirmation. To the contrary, Malala Yousafzai is a global icon. Since 2012 when, as a 15-year-old Pakistani girl, she survived being shot in the head by a Taliban thug, she has met with heads of state, addressed the Un

Sometimes in the art of political stagecraft, an entire debate can shift on a single statement. Former Nixon aide John Dean comes to mind. His declaration during the Watergate hearings of “a cancer growing on the presidency” stands out as a pivotal m

If a man takes a gun, shoots, and kills a woman who he’s been in an intimate relationship with, is the gunshot victim more, or less worthy of protection depending on if the two were married? Really, it’s not a trick question. Logically, from an empat

The nation has seen blockbuster congressional hearings before: the Army-McCarthy hearings, which wrecked the career of the hateful Senator Joseph McCarthy; the Watergate hearings, which forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon; and the Iran-

“Just imagine for once if we led the world in funding peace and not wars.” Just imagine! The words are those of Robert Weissman, president of the organization Public Citizen, in response to the legislative efforts of Reps. Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan,

If the House January 6 committee proceeds to its seemingly predetermined conclusion that Donald Trump incited the Capitol riot and tried to reverse the results of the 2020 election and if they recommend to the Department of Justice that Trump committ

"Everybody plays the fool.” -- The Main Ingredient, 1972 I won’t bother reasoning with you. As I’ve said before in this space, it’s my opinion that you folks who support Donald Trump are, by definition, incapable of that function, so it’s foolish to

As they were preparing to go to the airport to visit their new grandchildren, two friends of mine were robbed recently outside their Kenwood co-op building near the University of Chicago. Suddenly I was alerted once again to the horrors of Chicago’s

We’re only two installments into the limited-run production of the Jan. 6 hearings, and so far, I think they’ve been great. But I also think they’ll leave almost everyone, except for me, unsatisfied. For many Democrats and Never Trumpers, the hope is

Most people are familiar with the phrase “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The incendiary rhetoric that has engulfed our political system has demonstrated that especially violent words can cause hurt, even death, t

It comes at the end. After his supporters march on the U.S. Capitol chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!” after they breach police barricades, after they smash windows and climb through, after they chant “Hang Mike Pence” and erect a gallows for tha

My condolences to Chesa Boudin, the by-now-famous San Francisco district attorney who lost a recall election Tuesday. The polls saw it coming. As expected, his loss is being celebrated with Champagne by lock-’em-up conservatives and, for that matter,

We’ve never seen anything like this week’s first public hearing of the House Select Committee on January 6. By any standards, it was a blockbuster event: The first House committee hearing produced like a Hollywood action movie. The first House commit