If ever there was any doubt about the enormous influence of talk radio in American politics, that's now gone the way of the belief that the earth is flat or that the sun revolves around it. Remaining doubts were put to rest by the furor over Rush Limbaugh's disgraceful branding...

Now that Newt Gingrich, badly beaten in three of four Republican primaries, has vowed to exact revenge by pressing his sick, pathetic, lie-filled candidacy all the way to the GOP national convention next August, we may expect to hear a lot more about

Congratulations. You finally got around to doing a story about the Wall Street protests last night on "All Things Considered," after 11 days of ignoring them. What a disgraceful decision to have avoided coverage for so long, and having your ombudsman try to...

As far as I'm concerned, the most sensible idea to come out of this whole debt-ceiling mess so far is from Vermont's independent senator, Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats. Sanders says President Obama is so weak in his dealings with Republicans that he should be forced...

The single greatest threat to the United States is not joblessness, foreclosures, another recession or skyrocketing debt or health care costs. Nor is it terrorism, China or declining influence abroad. No, the single greatest threat to our country is today's Republican Party.

That's because the GOP is relentlessly pursuing...

A lot of nonsense is going around in the wake of the bin Laden killing. Some of it is coming from Islamabad and some from Washington.

The part from the Pakistani capital involves high-level denials that anyone in the government there had any idea that bin Laden lived for...

There's a powerful new piece of evidence that, the way it is being fought, the war on drugs on the Mexican-American border is a lost cause. It comes in a report issued by the Council on Foreign Relations, a highly-respected foreign policy think tank, that recommends that, as an experiment,...

As one general replaces another in Kabul, it's worth noting that Obama started out last year determined to get American troops out of Afghanistan in the shortest feasible time. If that is still the president's aim, I don't think he can expect much support from the new man he's put...

Don't trust David Brooks. He makes a nice appearance, speaks softly, sometimes even persuasively, and makes like a reasonable person. Occasionally, he is. But more often, he spouts nonsense.

Brooks's latest nonsense was uttered Friday night (6/18) during his weekly news analysis on the PBS NewsHour. The subject was...

I've always been a Democrat. But, faced with the threat of the world's worst oil spill ever, I'm turning conservative, becoming a small government man.

I've been listening to McConnell, Boehner, Palin and the teabaggers, not to mention Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage and the local Washington righties...

I am appalled by all you liberal troublemakers who criticize my fellow Marylander Michael Steele for insisting that he wrote his book BEFORE becoming Republican National Chairman, even though the book makes numerous references to events that took place AFTER he became chairman on Jan. 30, 2009, just ten days...

I am a 76-year-old yellow dog Democrat, with a picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt still prominently displayed in my bedroom. And yes, I would likely vote for a yellow dog if the dog were running on the Democratic ticket against any of today's Republicans. To me, the current crop...

Dear David,

You sent me an email on healthcare from the White House last month, one that went out to millions of people. Now I'm replying by sending one to you. You told me it was time for a reality check. Now I'm telling you the...

Sandy Goodman reported from Germantown, Maryland as part of HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Town Hall Watch.

Yes, Virginia, despite what you read in the mainstream media, there really ARE peaceful town meetings held by Democratic members of Congress to discuss health care reform: meetings where the vast majority...

Fellow Democrats, we face a daunting decision: what's a good Dem to do about the public option? Six months ago, I'd never heard of it. Since then, a whole bunch of Democrats, in the White House, Congress and elsewhere, have convinced me that health care reform is no good without...

Every so often, I read something that I find simply astounding. The latest is news that Yale University Press is publishing a book entitled The Cartoons That Shook The World, without putting any of those cartoons in the book.

The cartoons referred to are the dozen satiric drawings...

The latest about health care reform is that it's going to kill your grandma. At least that's what Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Charles Grassley and a whole bunch of right wing broadcasters and bloggers are telling us. And a lot of people - including a lot of older people -...

Amid the welter of depressing news about the Great Recession, the Taliban's successes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a new rash of bombings in Iraq, there is a single bright spot.

Congress has overwhelmingly passed, and the president has signed into law a bill permitting the carrying of loaded...

I think I have the answer to why Dick Cheney has emerged from all those undisclosed locations he used to hide in as vice president to loudly defend his lawbreaking, precedent-setting promotion of torture: the former vice president is simply nuts. The attacks of September 11, 2001 just did him...

My wife and I were driving in Arlington, Virginia last week when our journey was interrupted by a huge traffic jam and a crowd gathered across from a rundown strip mall. Yellow crime-scene tape was stretched between light poles, aiding dozens of police who kept back onlookers and directed traffic...