Al Eisele

Robert Caro says he doesn't pay much attention to what reviewers write about his books, but he paid plenty of attention to what one reviewer wrote about The Passage of Power, the fourth and latest volume of his monumental biography of Lyndon Johnson.

And that's not just because of what...

Did Joe Biden just commit political hari-kari with his comment on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that he's "absolutely comfortable" with married same-sex couples having the same rights as heterosexual couples?

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure President Obama isn't "absolutely comfortable" with...

He may be the only person still living who witnessed firsthand the two pivotal events of one of the most dramatic -- and traumatic -- days in American history. And even though it was almost half a century ago, he remembers when history tapped him on the shoulder like it...

Earlier this month, the St. Louis University School of Law paid tribute to the late Sen. Tom Eagleton by hosting a celebration of the Missouri Democrat's life of public service. Eagleton, who died on March 4, 2007 at the age of 77, is best remembered for having been forced to...

Please forgive me for bragging about our children, but my older daughter Kitty is amazing.

She clearly has a feel for history. When she was six weeks old, she underwent surgery at the University of Minnesota Hospital for premature closure of her cranial sutures on the same day that...

He's 88 now and visibly frail after struggling with serious health problems in recent years. He hasn't held public office since 1996, when he stepped down as Senate majority leader to run against President Clinton, who defeated him in a electoral landslide. He lost his bid to become vice president...

News item: The Washington Post:

Las Vegas - The thousands of devices debuting Tuesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show here demonstrate how tech companies are poised to gather unprecedented insights into consumers' lives - how much they eat, whether they exercise, when they are at home and...

Voters in New Hampshire could virtually decide that Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential candidate by giving him an overwhelming victory -- in Tuesday's primary -- although I don't think that's likely to happen. But whatever the outcome, it won't come close to the historic impact of the 1968...

President Obama issued a federal disaster declaration for the state of Iowa Wednesday after the Republican presidential candidates and their entourages, along with thousands of political consultants and journalists, abruptly abandoned the Hawkeye State after Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum finished in a virtual tie in Tuesday's GOP caucuses.

With the final withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, I feel compelled to offer my thoughts about that nine-year war, based on two reporting trips there in 2005 and 2008. But so much has been written and said that I decided I didn't have anything worthwhile to add.

Then I...

I watched the recent documentary film about William Colby, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War, with more than casual interest, even before it stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy because of its suggestion that he killed himself in 1996 because of guilt over his failure...

One of the most interesting, innovative and, I think, important examples of how American journalism can serve the public interest in the Internet age will be highlighted this weekend in Stillwater, Okla.

No, it's not how the news media covers the annual Bedlam showdown between the Oklahoma State Cowboys...

In light of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's three-day visit to Burma/Myanmar, the first by a top American official in 50 years, I'm taking the liberty of resurrecting the post I wrote in May 2009. I think it offers some timely and insightful advice that could help her achieve the...

Dear Newt:

Welcome back. Glad to see you're back in the limelight, right behind Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential polls.

I've missed you since we last touched base in 2003. That's when I was still somebody as editor of The Hill, and wrote one of my many columns...

Normally, I wouldn't recommend a book about a public figure written by someone who calls him "Uncle Bob," but Kathryn McGarr's biography of her great uncle, Washington superlawyer and political insider Robert Strauss, is an exception.

McCarr's well-researched book, The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics,...

Oklahoma City - Next to my native Minnesota, Oklahoma is my favorite state. It's fitting that its postal code is OK, as the rousing finale of the classic Broadway musical that bears its name famously declares.

But everything's not O.K. in Oklahoma these days, as I discovered last week when...

This is a personal story about me and baseball, so if you don't care about me or baseball, you might want to read something else.

In late September 1961, I had just finished a successful season pitching for the Cleveland Indians minor league team in Burlington, N.C. (15 wins, 11...

How ironic that we should read about the death of Harvard historian Oscar Handlin at the same time that Republican presidential hopefuls were beating each other up over the issue of immigration.

Especially ironic, considering that the 95-year-old Handlin's best-known book, published more than a half century ago, "altered...

Everyone has their story of where they were and how they reacted to the terrible events of September 11, 2001. Here is mine:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in my office at The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, when my friend David McCullough called me...

I can't wait to watch President Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress tonight, and it's not because of what he'll say or whether it will boost his popularity ratings, but how Rep. Michele Bachmann will react, assuming she even bothers to attend.

As I wrote after Obama...