Michelle and Sasha Obama are taking a beating for their summer vacation trip to Spain. The media are salivating, constantly dissecting what some call an inappropriate trip that sends a "let them eat cake" message to the American people.

I have two words -- lay off.

Can't we just let...

Last summer on our family vacation to Yellowstone National Park, we actually got to see a grizzly bear. Fortunately for safety's sake, it was from a very far distance while we were on a rafting trip, but I was surprised at its color. I had expected grizzlies to be dark...

It looks like it's all SCOTUS all the time this summer -- Justice John Paul Stevens is going, Solicitor General Elena Kagan is (most likely) joining, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is grieving, the Senate is attacking the late civil rights leader Justice Thurgood Marshall, and...

There's been a lot of speculation about who's going to get the prime real estate in the White House press room that's been left vacant by Helen Thomas. CNN's Ed Henry thinks it should go to FOX News. Others say Bloomberg News wants it. Some have suggested it...

I've been a longtime fan of veteran journalist Helen Thomas, especially since she was the first woman to be allowed into the White House press corps. She helped forge the way for later women journalists like myself, she's written some wonderful books about presidential history, and I was lucky...

There are days when, after catching up on my news reading, I wonder if I've been transported into another dimension. Some recent reports about what can happen to American girls in their doctors' offices have me half expecting Rod Serling to show up in my office any day now.

Sure, I get to leave the dishes in the sink and the dirty laundry in the hamper today. And it's great that "some people" (you know who you are!) are going to make me dinner tonight, but on the tenth anniversary of being able to celebrate Mother's Day as...

You might say I have a little inside information about the SEC.

I spent several years there before I was a "recovering attorney" -- first as lawyer in the Enforcement Division who investigated a variety of securities fraud cases and then as Deputy Director of Public Affairs, where I dealt...

Dear New York Times (other mainstream media outlets, you should probably pay attention, too),

I'm so weary of your attempts to marginalize women writers online who happen to be mothers that I almost couldn't write this letter. But I realized that if I didn't, I would feel guilty about not...

Sooner than I am ready for the time to be here, my family and I will be on a big ol' jet airliner heading for China. You may be thinking, "Oh, man! She's so lucky to be going on a fabulous, exotic vacation like that!" And I am (thank you...

Please accept my apologies for the rhetorical question. As someone who worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission for several years, I already know the answer to that question is, "yes." Unfortunately, that mission has gone missing and seems to have been replaced by keeping Wall Street bankers afloat...

February is usually a time many of us reflect on our relationships, what with the pressure of Valentine's Day upon us! But I don't usually write about relationships, unless it's about my increasingly unhappy one with do-nothing politicians! The release of Jenny Sanford's book Staying True, however, has me...

So let me get this straight -- with the exception of Michelle Obama, all the women who were center stage in the 2008 presidential election (whether they were candidates or not) are bitchy, stupid, whining shrews?

If this is where we are in 2010 when it comes to permissible portrayals...

I've had some interesting comments in E-mail discussions, Facebook posts, Twitter and other places about my last post on the attempts being made by former Congressman Harold Ford and his cadre of wealthy backers to push Kirsten Gillibrand out of her seat in the U.S. Senate. Because Gillibrand was...

The political controversy of the week is whether former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford will try to stage a contest to battle Kirsten Gillibrand for her seat in the U.S. Senate.

You may recall there was a little uproar over her appointment to fill Hillary Clinton's remaining Senate term when...

My favorite recovering felon, Martha Stewart, was asked her thoughts on our most recent political pin-up girl, Sarah Palin. I wasn't surprised that Martha didn't pull any punches:

Sarah Palin in 2012? Some are chuckling, but they might want to rethink their take on the first woman on a GOP presidential ticket.

Conservative pundit David Brooks laughed out loud at the suggestion, calling her a "joke". Others point to 2008 wannabes Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee as...

For years, we've had our eye on the Supreme Court, wondering with each new judicial appointment how that person would add to the mix on the longevity of reproductive rights, including the right to an abortion. Who knew that some dude named Bart Stupak would be the one to...

Domestic violence isn't a subject I talk about much, but it's something I feel very strongly about because I have a very personal connection to the topic.

I was a victim of domestic abuse.

Many, many years ago I was married for a very short time when I was...

I had many honest discussions with PunditGirl during the 2008 Presidential election about why her dad and I are Democrats, why we believed that the Bush administration was bad for our country and why we wanted a Democrat in the White House.

But I also made sure that my then-eight-year-old...