I'd like to thank Nancy Pelosi for nixing the resolution to honor Michael Jackson. It's not like Congress doesn't have anything to do. (Health care, anyone?) But it was a spectacularly bad idea from the start. And now with revelations about the late singer's drug problems, the coroner's office subpoenaing...

Of course there had to be a question about the tea-bagging remark.

"On April 15th, as many as 700,000 Americans gathered to protest government spending in what were called tea parties," a young man in the audience begins. "Now, you dismissed these voices with a crude sexual joke saying,...

I really wasn't planning on writing about my daughter going to her prom. But sometimes the most unexpected occasions take on political meaning.

Don't get me wrong. It was priceless, one of those moments you hope your teenager will eventually appreciate you showed up for. Before the dance my daughter...

Now that we've gotten those infernal tea-bagging parties out of the way, let's get to what's really important: sexting and teens.

I hope I don't need to explain what this trend is, because I'd just as soon leave that to Urban Dictionary or to Good Morning America, which recently held...

It sure was a big news day. Between Bernie Madoff being led off to prison, Levi and Bristol mercifully breaking up (now there was a stunner!), and Oprah bringing on BFF Tyra and devoting an hour-long show to "all the Rihannas of the world," I had a terrible time deciding...

This hardly seems like the time to worry about cholera in Zimbabwe. Or the rapidly deteriorating availability of medical care for the dying and women unfortunate enough to be pregnant. Heaven knows we've got our own problems, what with zombie banks, people losing their homes and suddenly budget-conscious GOP governors...

Things are getting gloomy in California, and I don't just mean our stormy skies.
On Friday the Governator told more than 200,000 Californians who work for the state to stay home. From now on they'll get two days off a month until June 2011.
I know. You're...

If you want to see the action in Gaza, the good news is you don't have to be a foreign correspondent. Actually, Israel has nixed reporters from entering the country for now because they don't want them getting in the way or information getting out. Or for journalists to get...

Here we are in Soweto. We just drove past Archbishop Desmond Tutu's house, the gentle Anglican cleric who preached against apartheid. I would have missed the undistinguished house entirely had not Eric, our local Soweto guide, pointed it out. It looked like virtually every other place on the crowded block,...

So I'm crawling on my hands and knees through a space about the size of a sewer drain. It's about 105 degrees and hot as Hades and so dark I think I might pass out from fright. But passing out right now would be a very bad thing to do....

Today is World AIDS Day. I know, big yawn. Another day devoted to another horrific pandemic and then after feeling terrible -- or not -- we'll all forget about it. But here in South Africa, where I have been traveling the past two days with a group of American and...

I suppose this is an extreme way to get out of basting a turkey every half hour. Or watching that disturbing Sarah Palin video where she's aggressively chatting away while a turkey is being slaughtered behind her. Or listening to Hank Paulson explain why Americans need to pony up another...

Tomorrow my 18-year-old son Jesse will be one of the millions of young people to cast his first vote for president. As a political junkie and a parent I couldn't be more thrilled. This one of those milestones you look forward to when you wonder why you braved 30 hours...

It's been a few fun days watching the Palin-McCain campaign. Oops! I meant the McCain-Palin campaign.

Granted it hasn't been easy with these two mavericks to tell who's really in charge, what with Palin contradicting McCain on issues like throwing in the towel in Michigan and whether to dredge...

I'm not sure who should win this week's award for Biggest Sexist in Politics. John McCain or Bill Clinton.

For that matter, we might also want to consider Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, for the greeting he gave Sarah Palin when he first laid eyes on...

John McCain sure looked tired during his acceptance speech last night. And I don't just mean the bags under his eyes or the lackluster delivery or how he couldn't wait to get off the stage. Cindy was beaming (an aside here: did you see how happy she was the night...

What a speech. It was warm and persuasive and smart, and only a troll like Dick Morris could have failed to be moved when she talked about her commitment to the working folks of America. And yes, while Hillary gave a killer speech -- and thank god, maybe now those...

I didn't want to believe it.

The incident in late July at the Beverly Hilton. The sneaking into the hotel through a side door. The hiding in the bathroom at 2:30 in the morning while a team of reporters from The National Enquirer lurked outside. The Other Woman ensconced...

I was extremely confused by Bush's rosy economic speech. Here my local bank, IndyMac, is collapsing, with distraught customers waiting in line for hours last week to get their money. Gas at my neighborhood pump has surged to nearly $5 a gallon, the price of oil plunging aside. California's unemployment...

He hugged me when I walked in the back door and found him unexpectedly standing in my kitchen. Unlike so many of my 18-year-old son's friends, who've crossed that invisible line into manhood where it's not considered cool.

Because he and my son had drifted...