This week, I have the honor and pleasure of joining Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer as we meet in Washington, D.C. with an impressive swath of Obama Administration officials -- from the White House to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and...

Two years ago, at this very site, I came out and endorsed marriage equality.

My announcement wasn't a matter of courage at all -- I'd put behind my life in the arena after two terms as Kentucky State Treasurer, and as I embraced my new status as a

It was 1993.

Andrew Sullivan had only recently written The New Republic cover story introducing many Americans to the very idea of gay marriage; it would be nearly a decade before any state would legalize it.  The notion of "marriage equality," furiously debated before the Supreme Court and among...

We tend to mythologize the dead; and perhaps that's fair with politicians who've passed, since we use them for rhetorical target practice when they are stumping the earth.

But regardless of the intended spirit, today is a very special day for the memory of my friendly acquaintance and sometimes political...

I'm no Jerry Seinfeld.  But there are few things I enjoy more than making people laugh. Intentionally, of course.

In fact, as a recovering politician, I've found that the effective employment of a sense of humor -- particularly of the self-deprecating variety -- can be an invaluable resource in...

When it comes to restoring strong, long-term growth in our nation's economy, there are few solutions more practical, bi-partisan, and urgent than immigration reform.

Our current immigration system is rigid, outdated, and simply unable to keep up with demands of the new global marketplace. For our nation to thrive...

The last couple of weeks have been littered with false starts and steps backward in fiscal cliff negotiations. America needs its leaders to find a solution now more than ever, but real leaders have not yet emerged from the Capitol or the White House.

The American people...

As an American liberal who loves Israel because I'm a liberal, I've been disturbed by the recent diminishing trend of American progressive support for the Jewish state in its decades-long conflict with its increasingly hostile neighbors.

A recent CNN/ORC poll concerning the Gaza conflict intensified my anxiety: While a...

There's a leadership crisis in Washington.

Although we've re-elected President Barack Obama, much of the president's success depends on what happens in Congress. If we want our country to move forward over the next four years, we need Congress and the president to put political point-scoring aside and work...

Jonathan Miller, an Obama supporter, and Ted Buerger, a Romney supporter, are two of the co-founders of No Labels, a grassroots movement of more than 500,000 Democrats, Republicans and Independents, dedicated to promoting bi-partisan problem-solving. Below, each of them suggest what they'd like to hear from their candidate...

Promises, promises.

President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney are certainly making plenty of them.

Recent experience, however, suggests they will have a hard time keeping many of their promises.

It's not because either is intentionally lying (all the time); but rather, it's because gridlock, obstructionism and hyper-partisanship have become...

I've used this column on numerous occasions to promote the work of No Labels, a national grassroots movement, involving more than 500,000 Democrats, Republican, and Independents, all of whom agree that we must at times put aside our labels to do what's right for our nation.

Whatever our...

It's instructive that my impossible run through the World Series of Poker tournament was a study in black and white:

An exhilarating roller coaster ride encompassing 40 hours of mind-thumping boredom.

A liberal former politician succeeding by playing with an über-conservative game plan.

A victory of steadfast patience, the absence...

On June 30, the biennial General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will consider the church's divestment from three American companies because of their sales to Israel. This misguided, ineffectual proposal would have only one meaningful ramification -- It would seriously deepen a growing chasm between the church and some...

For most of his career, I'd been largely indifferent to NBA superstar Lebron James. My passion is college basketball, and since Lebron leaped straight from high school to the pros, I never had the opportunity to root for him in Kentucky blue, or curse him if he had, God forbid,...

Last November, I published a blog post at The Huffington Post entitled "The Liberal Case for Israel."  It was my most popular and most controversial piece to date.  This week, I published a new book, "The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Lies About the Jewish State."  For...

I've never been so devastated by the defeat of a conservative Republican to the U.S. Senate as I was this Tuesday.

It's not just that Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is a great guy: a warm, humble, often hilarious teddy bear of a man who's the type of person...

One year ago today, in my inaugural column for The Huffington Post, I came out of the closet for marriage equality, and encouraged the President to do the same.

While I'm not presumptuous enough to think that my column made any difference (I am a recovering politician, after all),...

An uninformed visitor to my old Kentucky home this week might conclude that they'd mistakenly walked onto the compound of a Prozac-fueled utopian cult.

An odd but euphoric delirium had descended upon the hills, hollers and hamlets of the Bluegrass State.  Men and women walking more upright, a bounce in their steps, a...

Last week, I received a very warm reception from my hometown's Tea Party organization.

Yes, you read that correctly...

My regular readers know that I am an unabashed, gay-marriage-embracing, pro-choice-supporting, clean-energy-promoting, immigration-reforming, economic-inequality-battling, church-and-state-separating LIBERAL.

And yet, I repeat (for my friends that may have fainted upon reading...