An August Encomium -- I heard Edward Moore Kennedy sing that song once, leading everyone at his holiday party through the Woody Guthrie verses with unforgettable joie de vivre, while dressed in a lion's costume.

Senator Kennedy dearly loved to laugh, even at himself as the last liberal lion...

Robert and I have been trying to lunch together since June. He works in Georgetown, which isn't far, but this isn't a matter of miles.

Alas, the art of lunching seems to be getting lost in Washington among my set -- let's say around Obama's age, 48 and under....

President Barack Obama isn't the only 40-something Abraham Lincoln admirer in Washington, D.C. We each love his way with words and his prairie populist provenance, but let's just say the 16th president is my historical boyfriend. Let me explain how this crush is blooming like a cherry blossom.

In...

The first time we beheld Michelle Obama and her husband as a vision in black and white was on January 20, 2009, the evening of all the Inaugural Balls.

They looked charmed, as if like they could dance all night at each affair. But what was truly smashing was...

For a girl growing up in Wisconsin, Abraham Lincoln was the president next door, the one whose corner house we went to see in Springfield.

Like so many who fell under his spell since he was born 200 years ago today, I feel that to know Lincoln is to...

Tom Daschle was the man with a plan for dealing with the health care crisis. He is also a man of the people, despite the wave of popular anger that caught him on his way to becoming President Obama's Cabinet Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This Washington drama...

Political history is coming round again, an almost eerie replay of a new Democratic president's struggles to reach across the aisle to Republicans in Congress. Sixteen years since summer 1993, President Obama is getting the same results President Clinton achieved on bipartisanship: too much of nothing.

And I mean...

Even with a shiny new Barack Obama glow emanating out of the White House, I can't shake the passing strange sensation that a trio of governors we've gotten to know lately on the national stage have been as truly weird as the three witches in MacBeth.

Consider the evidence:...

Even with a new Barack Obama presidential glow emanating out of the White House, I can't shake the disturbing sensation that the trio of governors we've gotten to know lately on the national stage have been as truly weird as the three witches in MacBeth.

Consider the evidence: Governors...

What a difference a president makes to a free people.

What Milton, the poet of Paradise Lost, might write about our fall from light to dark between 2000 and 2008.

What a price we paid for the other half of the American electorate supporting George W. Bush: not...

The Pilgrims Were America's First Community Organizers

As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) chirped on-camera while a wriggling turkey was beheaded in the background, one could only feel a sense of thanksgiving that this sprightly but unschooled woman will not be the next Vice President of the United States....

Let Barack Obama's open Illinois Senate seat go to Jesse L. Jackson -- Senior.

He has talked a lot of talk, to be sure, but also walked the walk for 40 years. Serving two years in the U.S. Senate would be a fitting benediction for a remarkable career anchored...

The death of Barack Obama's grandmother the day before the presidential election is like the crushing of a glass at a Jewish wedding: a reminder of the bitter with the sweet that life serves up even on the happiest of days.

Their parting also has a profound lesson for...

American women in our 40s, unite against Sarah Palin!

A specter's on the loose: the woman from Wasilla may be the way we are remembered and represented in the nation's history: a scary thought for Halloween.

We're not the only ones spooked and sobered. Suffragette spirits are stirring,...

Give him this: John McCain is a world-class apologizer for his sins so far.

It's just a matter of time before McCain says he's sorry to Sen. Barack Obama and the country for the mean-spirited turn his presidential campaign took since a well-dressed Hurricane Sarah made landfall at the...

Hey, when Oliver Stone makes a movie about you, W, it's a final sign you're history, either as tragedy or outrage. Cheer up, sometimes both.

It cuts coming from another Yalie, doesn't it, a drop-out at that. As a character study, I've often thought this president was the worst...

The way to say Nashville, according to authorities, is a long "Nash" and a short "ville." It's a place where people like a good story to go with a song -- and we are about to hear one of the saddest songs of America tonight. One that would make Walt...

Reader, here's the text-message to send to Sen. Joseph Biden: O Joe, don't blow it this time.

Remarkably, history has put Sen. Joseph Biden right in the ring with two of the most galvinizing women of our time. Prof. Anita Hill is still seared on our national psyche and...

Did the Democrats invite Sophocles to the party in Denver? The scene wouldn't be complete without an ancient Greek dramatist in the house to capture the catharsis.

His Antigone is one grand gal, but has nothing on Hillary Clinton as a "game-changer." Silver-haired, sulky Bill Clinton, who presided over...

Lest we forget, George W. Bush is still president, the eldest son born to power and privilege by primogeniture.

We the people have exactly seven more months of his reign and believe me, he won't miss a day of making the republic a little more miserable. He is, after...