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...

To: Hillary Clinton
Fr: An Uncommitted Democrat
RE: What to say tonight when you lose New Hampshire

Anyone who said you have to win New Hampshire tonight is an amateur. These have been tough losses, and South Carolina isn't looking good, but your campaign can still recover....

I was clapping wildly and shouting "brava" to Rosie Perez on Sunday during the curtain call for The Ritz when two cast members stepped forward and announced something that left me stunned.

If they are right, there's an unintended consequence to the Broadway stagehand strike that literally could be...

James Carey was a true giant -- both intellectually and in his dealings with the oversized and over-fragile egos that dominate academic life. When Carey passed away last year, Jay Rosen appropriately noted that American journalism lost a man many considered its most accomplished professor.

Carey's criticism of journalism...

All it took was one slip.

One awkward, unscripted moment after a silky-smooth speech and the mystique Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spent more than a half hour crafting for hundreds of scholars and students Monday at Columbia University evaporated into pitiful ether.

Who can take the president of Iran seriously...

To: Matthew Lee, Anne Flaherty and AP Washington editors

CC: Americans and American media who rely on the AP

Bcc: Washington press corps reporters, if they exist, who have a shred of independence from the government left.

Mr. Lee and Ms. Flaherty, you should be ashamed. You know somewhere...

The frustrating thing about Peggy Noonan is -- she is just so darn talented.

I really mean that. Damn it.

A good number of us can go mano-a-mano with those she generally stands with -- and I think win -- in the so-called "market place of ideas." A...

A break, please, from presidential politics, the argument culture and the failings of the mainstream news media. As Mike Lupica reminded us recently there will be an Olympics, a BCS and Super Bowl, and two World Series before we choose the next president.

But, we are about two weeks...

Lawyers know that cases often are won or lost before the opening arguments.

Decisions made in pretrial hearings over what evidence will be allowed and what witnesses may be questioned shape the story the jury will hear. Even the sharpest orators admit the "frame" that has been created for...

I can't think of anyone I would less rather spend time with than Jerry Falwell. I really can't.

But I owe Falwell something. We all do. I teach my students at NYU about it most semesters, and I guess today is a good time to blog about it.

Kevin Tillman is a real American hero.

Watching him testify before a Congressional committee yesterday about the cover-up of his brother's death reminded me that nearly 50 years ago, I won the lottery in this life: I was born a citizen of the United States of America.

There...

A strange act of providence struck the other day when a white envelope came in the mail. Inside was a magazine I've read for years - a special tribute edition - dedicated to a friend I still can't believe is gone.

It was a toney version of the venerable...

Damn it, Imus. You really can make it hard on your loyal listeners.

I don't always agree with you, but I do agree with the straight-forward, on-air apology you issued on Friday. Your remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team were "completely inappropriate...thoughtless and stupid."

Despite our occasional differences,...

Watching Vanessa Redgrave channel Joan Didion last night in The Year of Magical Thinking, many of Didion's writings rushed through my mind, but the one that stayed was my favorite piece of her reporting, the essay Insider Baseball.

Earlier in the afternoon, students in my government reporting...