Two years after the Civil War ended in 1865, a Republican Congress gained a veto-proof majority in both chambers. They almost immediately began trimming the powers of the executive and judicial branches. First, they replaced President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction plan…
One way of thinking about the job of an agency Inspector General (IG) is to see it as scraping barnacles from the agency’s hull and warning it about legal shoals. If an IG does that, the agency will do its…
Last Wednesday, the House voted 429 to 3 to pass the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (H.R. 3375), a bill intended to help the Federal Communications Commission fight the junk calls clogging up millions of Americans’ landlines. Robocalls use auto-dialers to…
In “The Princess and the Pea,” an old queen proves that a midnight traveler is a true princess by hiding a pea under an almost unbelievable number of mattresses and down bedclothes. Because she is indeed a real princess, she…
The pious horror of the Democrats about “foreign interference” in American elections is hard to take seriously, especially since most of them seek to turn foreigners — namely, illegal immigrants from Mexico — into tomorrow’s voters. A party that shrugs…
This is the time of year when, all across America, disgruntled adolescents are dragged by adults to places they do not want to go. When they aren’t posing with frozen smiles for group photos, they sit sullenly in the back seat,…
If you want to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president of the United States, then it seems you’ll need a plan. Several, in fact. And those plans must be big. This contest will be about what George H. W….
Despite the legislative gridlock and Washington’s political fixations, legislation is advancing through Congress with bipartisan support that would make it easier for Americans to enjoy financial security when they retire. Presently, too many Americans rely on Social Security for most…
What does a politician do to reassert relevance in a time of universal scorn? Call a press conference! Robert Mueller, as is the usual course for weasels, wants to have it both ways: Trump cleared of colluding with Russians, appealing…