BY RICH GALEN
JUL 28 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

I was wrong. I thought that Michelle Obama’s speech on Monday night would retire the trophy as best speech of this, or any other, year.

Then came Joe Biden. First of all, he called the First Lady of the United States “kid” and got away with it. Then he called the President of the United States “Barack” which, as it happens is his name, but it was jarring to hear the Veep call his boss by his first name.

Biden got off the best line of the night – not a gigantic cheer line, but an important one: “When the middle class does well, the rich do very well and the poor have hope; they have a way out.” Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 19

I find it very uncomfortable writing in the first person and reading the work of those who do.  After the sixth or seventh personal pronoun, I often just quit reading.

This, on the other hand, is all about me so I just can’t avoid talking about me.

This week it will have been a month since I suggested to the half dozen or so good friends who read my stuff that I feared the entire country was hyperventilating over presidential politics and that we should take a month off from Don and Hil, breathe into a brown paper bag, and adjust our attitudes and our behavior.

My editor said I ought to take my own advice, so I did. So here is my report. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 18

John Korsmo, Lincoln NE, said it pretty well on Facebook after the killing of police in Dallas:

“There isn’t enough room on people’s timelines to address all of the ridiculous things people are doing. I may be wrong but it seems like there is more unrest than I can ever remember in my lifetime. May just be how prevalent social media is too but just this last couple months has been very disheartening.”

I don’t know John. I don’t know if he can be called “an average American” but he expresses a bewilderment and frustration that most Americans must feel about events and behavior over which we have no control but have a profound effect on our lives. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 18

A year ago, after the Charleston killings, I wrote:

“I don’t know how we ever get to that national conversation about race that for some reason is the ultimate, if unachievable goal of so many. My friend, the late Bill Gavin, told me years ago that there is no good outcome from a conversation in which two sides do not trust the motivation of the other. And regrettably, those individuals usually thought to be the best to conduct a conversation about race—activists, politicians, academics—are those who seem to question each others’ motivation the most often. They usually cannot extract the politics and prejudice, the suspicion and ulterior motives from their own discourse.”

I write about much that does not stand the test of time, but this does. One year later, we are no closer to honest discourse. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 18

Much of the racial conflict in America cannot be resolved by politicians or in a political arena, especially a presidential campaign, already awash in racial hypocrisy. Voters should not tolerate the exploitation of race and class warfare in any campaign. Something has to change as well in the formulation of public policy.

When it comes to race there is some serious sorting out required, starting with the distinction between civil rights and human rights.

Many of the gross inequities in our system of criminal justice, public education, in our economy, and in the distribution of health care, even in transportation, can be traced to the imprisoning effects of poverty, not racism. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JUN 29  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published in the Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank

The headlines blared breathlessly. “Trump Breaks With Party on Trade.” “Defying GOP orthodoxy, Trump trashes trade deals.” And so forth. As somebody who worked for House Republican leaders for 15 years, I can tell you that if Donald Trump is a heretic when it comes to free-trade orthodoxy, he is not alone in that heresy.

Indeed, over those years, I witnessed first hand as Congress — under Republican control and under Democratic control, with two presidents with the last name of Bush and one president with the last name of Clinton — either try to pass or successfully pass major trade legislation that has set the table for our modern economy and face significant GOP opposition each time. Continue reading →

BY THELMA ASKEY  |  JUN 29

When the shock and emotional reaction to the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union wears off, perhaps a more thoughtful and analytical view will emerge. For that, look at the heart of the problem. Look to Brussels.

Fifty-two percent of the British population are not ignorant, uneducated, white (now almost an epithet) isolationists with fear-mongering in their hearts and with buyer’s remorse in the aftermath. One needs to consider with a clear head what democracy has wrought. Most voters, as was intended, went to the polls guided by the perspective of their own life experiences; what they thought was best for themselves, their fellow citizens, and their country. For many, it was a very tough choice. It was a choice primarily for accountability, patriotism, AND stability. Voters were not leaping INTO the chaotic, great unknown outside the warmth of the EU; they were leaping OUT…they were saying NO to what they see as a disintegrating reality and an unpalatable, impalpable future. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JUN 23 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

House Democrats not only took to the House Floor yesterday, they took over the House Floor. They staged a sit-in to protest the lack of votes on gun control measures.

It will be unproductive.

I’m not suggesting that the issue of gun control – or at least more complete background checks – is silly. I am suggesting that a childish demonstration such as the Democrats pulled yesterday will not move a single vote – on or off the House Floor.

It would – should – horrify the House Democrats to realize they are following in the footsteps of Newt Gingrich who was the first to employ modern guerilla tactics on the House floor. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUN 22

The single-story wood frame house needs a paint job. The foundation is cracked. Windows are broken and the roof leaks.

Oh, yes, it is also on fire.

Research guru David Winston has been using a picture of this house for years, to make a powerful point: Too often in politics we miss the big picture. We replace the windows and fix the roof, but don’t put out the fire, which in Winston’s analogy is a bad economy. Fixing the economy has been the number one priority of Americans in nearly all of the years Winston has been presenting his burning house. But government has done little, while concern has turned to fear and fear to anger and anger to despair. And, once again economic doom and gloom loom are on the horizon. There is talk of recession. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JUN 20 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are “underwater” as it pertains to their favorable/unfavorable ratings.

The percentage of people who have a negative image of Clinton is in the mid-50s. Those who have similarly chilly feelings toward Trump are in the mid-to-high 60s, although in a Washington Post/ABC News poll released last week Trump’s unfavorable hit an unheared of level of 70 percent.

Clinton has been a major figure in American politics since the election of 1992 – probably two years before that when Gov. Bill Clinton broke onto the national scene. Let’s look at that. Someone eligible to vote (having achieved the age of 18) would have had to been born in 1974 or earlier. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JUN 13 | Reprinted from Townhall.com

My first thought when I turned on my TV Sunday morning and found that the Orlando shooting had occurred in a gay nightclub was: They’re dead because they were gay.

I have a lot of gay friends. I tried to come up with words that would express my feelings for what they must have been going through.

I couldn’t.

I assume they were going through the same feelings I had – and will have again, I fear – when Jews are attacked in shops and restaurants. Those attacks occurred not because they were in the wrong random place at the wrong random time, but because they were in a place that Jews were known to frequent. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JUN 13  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

America’s First Amendment to the Constitution is unique.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

No other country goes out of its way to protect the right of everybody to practice whatever religion they want.

The attack in Orlando shows the limits of that protection. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JUN 2 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

Donald Trump’s press conference to announce his donations to veterans’ groups was a jaw dropper. The amount of money he announced having donated (about $5.6 million) is a long, long way from small change even if you measure your total wealth in the billions.

But, if the Trump campaign thought its candidate making good on a promise made months ago was going to lead every newscast in the near Galaxy, they were wrong.

What led, of course, was Trump’s excoriation of the press in general, the political press corps in particular, and three specific reporters in laser focus. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
MAY 26 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

I need a day off from politics. This is a sad column tumbling headlong toward maudlin. It’s about a high school classmate of mine named Marty Packin. If you want politics today, scroll down to the Lad Link. Reed will fill that role solo today.

I graduated from high school in 1964. If you missed my 50th Reunion column you can read it HERE. I just read it again. It’s pretty good.

Marty was also a member of the West Orange Mountain High School class of ’64. He had grown up with most of the people we graduated with. Had been there through the grammar school, junior high, and high school years. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
MAY 9  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published in The Hill

In 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt bolted the Republican Party in opposition to incumbent William Howard Taft and ran as a third-party candidate, it put Nicholas Longworth in a very tough position.

Like former House Speaker John Boehner, Longworth was a Republican Party stalwart and a member of Congress who hailed from Cincinnati. He was also married to Roosevelt’s daughter Alice, who aggressively supported her father’s insurgent campaign.

Longworth chose his party over his wife by backing Taft over his father-in-law. While that decision put a chill into his marriage, it didn’t hurt his career in the long run, although he did lose his House race during that brutal election campaign to a Progressive candidate supported by Alice Roosevelt. He would later win reelection in 1914, eventually become Speaker of the House and have his name put on the building that houses the Ways and Means Committee. Continue reading →

BY B. JAY COOPER
MAY 9 | Reprinted from The Screaming Moderate (bjaycooper.com)

I served on the staff of two Republican presidents, one Republican Cabinet member and four Republican National chairmen, as a Republican myself. Today, I quit the Republican Party and registered as an Independent (technically, “unenrolled” as they call it in Massachusetts).

Why? Donald Trump may think he’s attracting more to the Republican Party but he also is pushing many from the party. I also question how many of his crossover voters in the primaries are actually registering with the GOP – I’m guessing not many. He claims to be expanding the party. He’s not but there are millions of voters drawn to him. He is a candidate of convenience for them. A candidate with whom to place their anger and their hopes. Continue reading →

BY B. JAY COOPER
APR 20 | Reprinted from The Screaming Moderate (bjaycooper.com)

Before we even are positive who the two candidates will be for the two political parties (though Hillary is a sure thing and Trump is the favorite), there are key takeaways from this primary season. And they are takeaways that elected officials – at all levels – should take seriously. They are not one-year wonders.

Bernie Sanders has delivered a message of the inequities of the economic system – the 1 per cent getting richer and the 99 percent paying more taxes. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are delivering messages that the grassroots of the GOP want progress from their elected officials, not broken promises. Continue reading →

BY NEIL BRADLEY
APR 10 | Reprinted from Medium.com

There is increasing interest in Congress and among conservatives about how to restore the powers and responsibilities of Congress in making laws and exercising oversight of the federal government. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) recently launched the Article 1 Project. One of Speaker Ryan’s (R-WI) six agenda task forces is dedicated to restoring constitutional authority. These are important efforts.

There is a temptation in these efforts to focus almost exclusively on what rules within Congress should be changed or what new laws can be enacted to restrain the executive branch. While rules changes and new laws are necessary, they are insufficient and, as we have seen with measures like the REINS Act, can be difficult to enact. While continuing to work on changes in rules and statutes, those concerned with restoring the powers of Congress ought to also think about what operational changes they can effectuate right now to assert more authority over the executive branch. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
MAR 31 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

I Tweeted this Tuesday night:
Gotta give @realDonaldTrump this: He is much better at defending his employee than Breitbart was at defending theirs

Of the 11.5 thousand times I’ve hit the “Tweet” button (I don’t have any other hobbies) this one struck the loudest chord. 394 people either re-Tweeted or Liked it.

Once again the DC-NYC axis doesn’t get it. Continue reading →