Illinois's second congressional district seat, held by Jesse Jackson, Jr. for 17 years, is a big political prize: a safe seat for Democrats, winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to winning the general. The seat is not likely to be open again anytime soon.

District voters, wearied by the...

Super Bowl weekend was a one-two punch. First, there was the announcement of President Obama's proposed policy the New York Times wrote would mean "churches and religious organizations that object to providing birth control coverage on religious grounds would not have to pay for it," notwithstanding the...

I understand why Barack Obama admires Beyonce. Like him, she is smart, hardworking, forthright and demands respect. Besides, his closest advisor likes her. A lot. But it strikes me that, hard as it may be to imagine, President Obama isn't totally enamored of Beyonce.

Think that's not possible?...

Girlfriends: Now that we have the president back, is it time to turn off the computer and cool-out? Nope. Not a chance, after the morning's reading.

The first article up was: "'Family fight:' 3 friends vie for (congressional) seat," in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times. The article is an...

For one year in high school, I had a second sister. Her name was Anamaria Monsao Mollo. She was an exchange student from Brasilia, Brazil. In September 1967, Anuska, as she was called, came to live with my family and attend Pearl River (New York) high school, under the auspices...

Political powerhouse Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been a subject of national media attention since answering Chicago Sun-Times reporters' questions while at the Democratic National Convention a couple of weeks ago. Okay, now: Hold your breath and get ready for this one. Nope, the questions were not...

Back in the Monica Lewinsky day, a significant divide developed among Democratic women advocates: those who couldn't forgive President Clinton for behavior that embarrassed Hillary Clinton beyond telling, and those (like me), who said "we've got bigger fish to fry here, and let's keep our eyes on the prize --...

Reports on women's reasons for choosing to seek public office are replete with data supporting the fact that these women, regardless of political party affiliation, are motivated by a desire to improve the lives of women and children. There are also occasions when women-electeds join hands across the political aisle...

The first time I visited Tel Aviv, I saw tall women with long, straight blonde hair at a local nightclub. I assumed they were European visitors. Nope. Not according to my Israeli cousin who took me there. He told me they were Jewish, just like us. But they don't have...

I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that. --

So, I took time off from blogging to get my book going. That's my excuse for my silence of the last few weeks (in case anybody missed me!). But what I learned during these few weeks sure enough is just what the book is about: "Every day (really, really) is...

Of course, had you looked, you wouldn't really have seen Saul Alinsky (he died in 1972), but, I'm here to tell you, you would have seen Alinsky's ghost, hovering behind the backs of President Obama, and his estimable companion, The Rev. Al Sharpton.

As President Obama and Rev....

As she made clear Tuesday morning in an interview with CBS's Gayle King, the clear-headed and brilliant, knows-what-she-wants-at-all-times Michelle Obama is no kind of stereotypical "angry black woman." In fact, Michelle Obama is no kind of (publicly) angry woman of any kind. Quite to the contrary (her "MO":...

I've now had a few days to cool-down since the announcement of President Obama's decision, made by his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, to deny over-the-counter, morning-after emergency medicine ("Plan B") to teenagers under age 17 (many of whom are sexually-active).

Good thing, too. The time...

So, what have we got in this latest reproductive rights crisis? The one where the Catholic bishops and the president are debating and deciding what rights we American women will have? Well, sadly, ad nauseum, and once again, what we've got is no woman sitting at the decision-making table.

What...

Tuesday night.

And then my faith in the American people, especially in the Mississippi people, was redeemed.

My friend Jodi Jacobson, editor of RH Reality Check, pointed-out Wednesday morning that while the "egg-as-person" amendment, Initiative 26, was roundly defeated by Mississippi voters yesterday, Initiative 27, the "voter...

In a national radio address on February 23, 1934, Huey Long unveiled his "Share Our Wealth" plan, a program designed to provide a decent standard of living to all Americans by spreading the nation's wealth among the people.

Long proposed capping personal fortunes at $50 million each...

Not only is all politics local, all politics is personal. And no issue, with the possible exception of preservation of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, is more personal to most American Jewish women voters than reproductive rights, including access to legal abortion.

So much so...

School has begun in earnest for us girls enrolled in the school of politics. So, girlfriends, sit-up straight and pay attention, for these two school days and nights are likely to teach us more than we may learn during any other two anytime soon.

Why? Well, last night we had...

Drew Westen's brilliant piece in Sunday's New York Times, about character traits of President Obama, and how they may explain his disappointing actions, took me back to some notes I made, earlier this year.

My notes recorded the notion that Barack Obama's seeming shortcomings as a President may...