Washington, D.C. “I just want to say thank God for the bureaucrats and the lawyers,” Ben Folds exclaims as he leans over a grand piano in the Kennedy Center’s concert hall. “They do good, honest work — and someone has…

When the White House invited my elementary school boys choir to sing at its 2008 Christmas party, I felt deeply embarrassed. This was George W. Bush’s last Christmas as president, and even I knew he deserved better than a chorus…