It's not the economy, stupid. It's the democracy itself.
Congress and the president have the potential to undermine the biggest global democratic movement since the fall of the Soviet Union. In the Middle East, where I spent this season of Arab Spring, people watched the debt ceiling drama and...
Posted June 2, 2010 | 11:41:51 (EST)
Criminal trials are supposed to be about the facts and the law. The corruption trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich will be about neither.
The facts have been clear for years. Reporters and the Governor's opponents (myself included) have been pointing out the shocking pattern of corrupt behavior for years....
Posted December 15, 2008 | 10:22:36 (EST)
Government corruption, particularly in a democracy, requires countless acts of moral failure. The inclination to deal rather than to clean house, to go along rather than to refuse, made the Blagojevich corruption possible in Illinois. As tempting as it will be to declare victory after getting rid of our crooked...
Posted December 9, 2008 | 15:31:22 (EST)
I've received dozens of calls and messages this morning. The ones who don't know me that well said, "You must be so happy." I'm not. I'm heartbroken.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's sudden arrest of Governor Blagojevich was required to interrupt an ongoing political crime spree. According to the complaint,...
Posted October 16, 2008 | 12:33:01 (EST)
Representative John Lewis didn't get it exactly right when he accused John McCain of unleashing the same hatreds as Governor George Wallace did when he ran for President forty years ago. But George Wallace's legacy is very much at stake in this campaign.
When Democrat Wallace ran as an independent...
Posted September 10, 2008 | 18:46:15 (EST)
Way back when Athens was democracy's startup, voters were literally herded up a hill to listen to the great orators and to vote on policy. They listened, were moved, and made some stunning mistakes, like when they diverted resources from a war that mattered to mount an unnecessary foreign invasion....

2 Comments | Posted October 5, 2011 | 15:00:38 (EST)