Richard Brodsky

The resignation of NRC Chairman Gregory Jackzo puts the issue of nuclear safety smack on the middle of Obama's desk, and then into the presidential race. That's a good thing.  The NRC is not doing the job that the law and common sense require it to do.  It...

After a BizzaroWorld start, the presidential race is settling into recognizable patterns. Wednesday's announcement by Obama that he supports gay marriage is a reminder that there are dozens of important issues and dozens of important constituencies. Even as each candidate's ideology and image (the twin guideposts voters use)...

Entangled in his newspapers disgusting practice of hacking into the private e-mails and phones of innocent victims, Rupert Murdoch appeared before Parliament yesterday and boldly took responsibility and apologized. Or did he?

Murdoch took a time honored approach to controversy and scandal. He butchered the English language in...

American political history has always run on two parallel tracks, movement politics and electoral politics. We have a long and distinguished history of movement politics made up of grassroots upsurges, intellectual ferment and street activity. These movements have spawned electoral politics where public officials adopt the ideas and goals of...

Lest we forget that in politics timing is everything, Obama just reignited the flames of the 99 percent versus the 1 percent battles of last year during his speech at the annual AP luncheon Tuesday. In a deft assertion of the president's power to set the terms of...

In the strange politics of 2012, the strangest wrinkle may be the growing convergence between high-powered establishment financiers and Occupy Wall Street. Earlier this week there was a convocation of bankers, lawyers, academics and financial leaders in the august halls of a major Manhattan law firm. Its

New York just adopted a major reduction in pension benefits for new public workers. It's a sign that pension reduction has become a generally accepted response to the widely growing state and municipal fiscal mess. If a state as liberal as New York will do it, so will...

The repercussions of Rush Limbaugh's truly ugly attacks on Susan Fluke won't be known until November. But if you can remember back to 1982, there was a voter phenomenon, "The Bradley Effect," that has lingered in the public consciousness ever since, and may well come into...

Nazis are marching through Europe again. Real Nazis. Old ones, young ones, brazenly sporting the infamous uniforms and flags of a growing and genuinely dangerous movement.

To American ears, this has the sound of hysteria and impossibility. Nazism was defeated and repudiated, it is the unforgivable insult not just because...

Yesterday, the new Mayor of Yonkers, Mike Spano, created a Commission of Inquiry to get to the truth of the City's financial crisis. Yonkers is a city of 200,000 on the Hudson just north of New York City. It's got a budget of about $1 billion and a...

The improving economy made it seem like morning in America is here again, but not so. Economic clouds are looming on the horizon yet again. There's a growing likelihood that in 2012, municipalities across America will collapse financially, and there's no safety net available to the governments, public...

The Jeremy Lin story has recently taken both expected and unexpected turns. The good news is that on the basketball side of things, Mr. Lin remains the cat's meow. The Knicks win (usually), are exciting and also are team-oriented -- three things that had largely disappeared from Madison Square Garden....

Like many folks I've actually watched the last few Knicks games. I hope you've done the same. Jeremy Lin was made the starting point guard only ten days ago, and is a genuine, not-to-be-minimized, irresistible American phenomenon. You don't have to be a sports fan to appreciate it.

Lin exists...

When the Republican field assembled last year, the early handicapping put Rick Santorum at the very bottom. A one-term Senator from Pennsylvania, he had been trounced in his for re-election campaign, had a string of hard, angry insensitive quotes about various groups he didn't like, had no...

Karl Rove, like many of his type, can't stand the morning sun.  As America brightens up, as the economic news gets better, Karl gets a little cranky.  Nothing else can explain his attack on fellow Republican Clint Eastwood, the former elected mayor of Carmel, California.  On Sunday Clint...

It ain't over, no matter what the Republican establishment may wish. Newt is not finished, but it's safe to say, the handwriting is on the wall.

On the one hand, the new energetic Romney is funded, strategically sound, and climbing. On the other hand he is one...

As a columnist of note pointed out ten days ago, Newt Gingrich changed the world when he embraced the OWS-inspired notion that the 1% is ruining the country.  His attack on Romney's Bain Capital activity and the flap over Romney's effective tax rate of 15% were the hard edges of...

If you're really uncomfortable about the tendencies of American politics in 2012, take some comfort from current events in Russia. Our struggle between a moderate left-of-center incumbent and crazy reactionaries is being fought out in a system that has a set of generally accepted rules and values. Russia is sorting...

Pop quiz: Who asked this question, "Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money?" Lenin? Lennon? Commissar Obama? Eugene Victor Debs? Wavy Gravy? (you will know how old you are in...

American ambivalence to nuclear power is an enduring reality that has survived events and politics in a truly unique way. Americans embrace what they think is the economic and energy virtues of nuclear power while simultaneously fearing the grotesque consequences of a major release of radiation....