The Washington Post has a front page story this morning that details the intense lobbying effort that persuaded Sen John McCain to support a land swap in Arizona that benefited one of his principal fundraisers at the expense of the government A gaggle of former McCain employees worked on the deal

The State of Israel celebrates its 60th birthday today All Americans should take a moment today and think about this anniversary and why we too should join the celebration Palestine was stuck in the Middle Ages in 1948 The Ottoman Empire had ruled the area for centuries until its collapse in Wor

Sen Hillary Clinton s campaign for the presidency had received reprieve after reprieve in New Hampshire Ohio and Pennsylvania Unable to surmount Sen Barack Obama s lead in the delegate count she needed to at least keep the narrative going he can t close the deal she keeps winning races

Readers of this blog will know that it would be inaccurate to describe me as a fan of Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton Yet it is impossible not to admire her tenacity the sheer gumption with which she has approached her ever-diminishing odds of being selected as the nominee of the Democratic party her

Was that Tim Russert on Meet the Press yesterday Instead of the usual offering of gotcha questions and decades-old quotes all designed to put the interviewer s prey into a meltdown Russert asked thoughtful persistent questions of Sen Barack Obama and even gave him sufficient time to answer

Attention all Democratic candidates campaign managers media consultants and constituency organizers If there is not a dog-eared frequently underlined copy of Amy Sullivan rsquo s The Party Faithful on your bookshelf soon please quit Sullivan who is the nation editor at Time magazine writes

Nobody likes paying the exorbitant price at the pump and both John McCain and Hillary Clinton are trying to cash-in politically on Americans cash-out experience when they fill up They have proposed a tax holiday from the federal gas tax for the summer Clinton offers a windfall profits tax on oi

Yes Virginia there is a Republican candidate Amidst all the press coverage of Barack Obama s crazy pastor and Hillary Clinton s craven gas tax holiday you can be forgiven for forgetting that John McCain is running for president too But his campaign is taking shape and doing so in ways that

One of the words Pope Benedict repeated the most during his sermons and speeches while visiting America was truth although when Benedict uses the word my mind s eye sees it with an upper-case T as Truth The phrase dictatorship of relativism from his sermon to the cardinals before the conclave

Well we can t blame Fox News anymore for turning the decades-long career of ministry by the Rev Jeremiah Wright into a You-tube-driven caricature The good reverend on his own initiative went before the National Press Club and demonstrated that he is every bit as zany as the previous caricatur