The defining moment in my adult life came inconveniently about six months after I got the first big break in my journalism career. At least it seemed so at the time.

"You ought to look at our (pro-gay) position papers on gays and lesbians, if you want to see something...

Turns out -- to my relief -- my gut reaction to a Houston TV story (picked up by CNN) last week that blasted the Texas attorney general for saddling rape victims "across Texas" with outrageous bills for police investigations in their cases was on target.

I should...

Journalists occasionally shine light on a public policy that is so disgusting it literally stuns you - just takes your breath away and leaves you speechless.

Your first thought is they've made a mistake. Or this is ratings hype. It can't be true.

After the initial shock wears...

I've had enough of Rick Perry.

At least the Perry who stood on the steps of the Texas Capitol today bashing our federal government and talking openly about Texas seceding from the United States.

This isn't the Perry I knew 25 years ago, when he first ran for...

Pardon my excess here, but occasionally I just lose it. Someone needs to tell Pope Joseph Ratzinger to stop the demagoguery or abort this trip to Africa.

His statement Tuesday, reported as a virtual Papal pronouncement -- that condoms actually increase the spread of HIV -- is frankly unconscionable....

The scene that hugs my heart each time a new president is sworn-in, is generally eclipsed by the pomp and circumstance of the parade and the swearing-in at the Capitol.

It typically lasts about five minutes, and it's treated like an afterthought by the media and celebrants trying to capture...

Let's talk hope for a minute.

Barack Obama seized the word "hope" this year, but back in 1977 my first political hero gave a big speech about it out in California. His name was Harvey Milk, and there is a film about him right now every American...

Enough.

I don't have anything against Caroline Kennedy, though I sort of hate to see her get into electoral politics.

I was in second grade when her father was assassinated about two hours from my home in North Texas, and I always thought of her as keeper of something...

As I watch John McCain's presidential campaign degenerate into a dark, disgraceful display of veiled racism unworthy of the hero who suffered in Vietnam, I'm reminded of the late J.J. "Jake" Pickle, the venerable congressman who represented Central Texas from 1963 to 1995, and a story he once told...

The Twainesque, Becky Thatcher, awww-shucks shtick is wearing a bit thin. It works for certain audiences under certain conditions, but the stakes were too high on Thursday for Sarah Palin to use it all night.

Her folksy fireworks flat-lined after an hour, and as she sounded more and more like...

Like a lot of Americans, I'm watching the White House and Congress preside over this national economic disaster, and it's got me pretty worked-up.

I'm also disgusted with the frame corporate media have constructed for the whole mess beginning with the cadre of recognizable, well-heeled Henny Pennys parading...

Well, John McCain left the stump Wednesday and ran to his old comfort zone, Washington, D.C., hoping a publicity stunt framed as "suspending the campaign" would stop Barack Obama from talking about the fiscal crisis facing the country.

What else should we expect from a guy who asked

Well, isn't Gov. Palin the gift that keeps on giving?

Just when the pack was sure that John McCain chose her to reach out to disaffected Democratic women and lure Hillary Clinton supporters to the GOP, Palin roared onto the national stage Wednesday with Barack Obama so squarely in her...

Phil Gramm's resignation from the McCain campaign doesn't do much for me. I'm reminded of the saying Texas football fans had about the Oklahoma Sooners during the Barry Switzer era: It's tough to drown a snake.

The ironic and frustrating thing about Gramm, whose lobbying activities have now been...

This isn't hype. It's fact. We're about seven weeks from the biggest speech in at least a generation by any figure in American politics.

If you can be there in person, go. If you live west of the Mississippi, take your children. It's an event you'll all remember -- one...

Listen up, citizens. Breaking news here.

President Bush used "propaganda" to sell the invasion of Iraq, and the White House press corps was "too easy on the administration" during the run-up to the war. That's what former White House spokesman Scott McClellan has come forward to tell us...

The Lord truly works in mysterious ways.

This Friday, the same day Joseph Ratzinger arrives in New York for the first time as pope to address the United Nations, a film that examines Christianity's role in religious violence will make its long-awaited premiere across town.

Ratzinger is expected to call...

Listen up friends. If you're interested in the future of Democratic campaigns in this country, there's a name you need to know. It's James Aldrete of Austin, Texas.

Write it down. Stamp it. Earmark it, and commit it to memory.

If tracking polls hold, Barack Obama should...

Garry Mauro must be having the time of his life.

Hillary Clinton doesn't have anyone anywhere in the country -- including the old and new faces inside her national message machine -- more loyal or eager to help her win the presidency than Mauro, the four-term Texas Land Commissioner...

Good Lord! I just read Jim Moore's post on Mark McKinnon saying he will resign from the McCain campaign if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination.

Now, I've been behind closed doors on political campaigns when Ann Richards and Bob Bullock both chewed staff butt, and I...