ArcaMax

In a time of tense partisan clashes, Capitol Hill has a trusted leader in Jane L. Campbell, president and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

Campbell's focus is far from skirmishes but rather on the forces and figures that filled the halls of Congress, keeping memory alive in the spirit of Clio, the mythical muse of history whose ...Read more

How embarrassing. Our showbiz president's glorious $45 million military parade -- fssssst -- fizzled. The gods rained on it, the thing dragged on and President Donald Trump himself kept nodding off in his chair. Sad.

His show needed some of the reality-TV drama that defines this president. For example, he could've had a phalanx of food trucks...Read more

In his book on America's hitherto most accomplished demagogue, "No Sense of Decency," journalist Robert Shogan concluded that the principal reason America's favorable view of Joseph McCarthy eventually collapsed was "the increased revulsion of many Americans for McCarthy as a result of what they saw of him. ... What came across was McCarthy's ...Read more

Let me offer some rare praise for Donald Trump. His attack on Iran's nuclear development sites was carefully executed. Nobody outside a tight circle knew about it in advance. And he was wise in shifting the talk into calls for peace.

We don't know whether the bunker busters reached all the near-bomb-grade uranium or if other sites for fuel ...Read more

The Trump administration has followed through on its promise to gut the Head Start program. Since April, it has slashed 60% of the Office of Head Start staff, closed half of the regional offices where staff with local knowledge worked, delayed funding necessary for payroll and rent and undermined the program's mission through its ban on ...Read more

To bomb or not to bomb.

That is the question.

And the answer is: he'll decide "within the next two weeks."

Why two weeks?

Because with President Donald Trump, "two weeks" could mean almost anything.

Asked two months ago if he could trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, he replied "I'll let you know in two weeks." Still waiting?

Asked ...Read more

In "1984," one of George Orwell's characters explains that "doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." There's a less elegant, yet equally absurd, way to describe the behavior of a politician who expresses two contradictory beliefs at once. People do what they want,...Read more

If you've been a reporter long enough, you learn that when people say you're a "member of the Fourth Estate," they mean to insult you and to let you know they read a book once.

The only exception is lawyers, who use the term the same way they use Latin, as a way to remind you that they've read a lot of books.

And in America, we can afford a ...Read more

We have gotten to the point where lawmakers openly complain about it being "scary as sh--," according to NBC News, with security briefings having "done little to calm nervous lawmakers."

They're right to be worried, as are political leaders at the state and local level, most of whom receive no special police protection. Risking your life should...Read more

With a last name like Feldkamp, I fully expected my DNA results from 23andMe to confirm what I thought I already knew. My ancestry is predominantly German. But it turns out that no, it isn't. I'm mostly British and Irish with less than 2% of my DNA coming from French and German ancestry.

That's not all. According to my DNA, I'm actually more ...Read more

Where is Barack Obama? Democrats had been frustrated that their charismatic former president had gone silent on MAGA's march of mayhem. Where is that smooth, persuasive voice?

It has risen. Obama has spoken, and Democrats would do well to take in the message.

"You could be as progressive and socially conscious as you wanted," Obama sternly ...Read more

A terror campaign is sweeping the United States, orchestrated from inside the White House and waged by masked, militarized federal agents. Its primary targets are immigrants. Also included are those in solidarity with immigrants, and, increasingly, elected officials, all from the Democratic Party. This state repression has a dark and ...Read more

Scene 1: There I sat in the Senate chamber, waiting for a Republican to decry the use of force against one of their own.

Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was knocked to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents in a conference room where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promised to "liberate" Los Angeles from "socialists."

...Read more

If the barrage of MAGA nuttiness and raw meanness is getting you down, ponder this passage from the classic novel, "Don Quixote": "It is not possible for the bad or the good to last forever ... and since the bad has lasted so long, the good is close at hand."

Of course, the good only comes when fed-up people openly rebel against the bad. And,...Read more

In the first months of his administration, President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened due process, a fundamental principle enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. His attacks have spanned from the arbitrary use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport legal residents to the unlawful detention of students.

For years, due process has protected us from ...Read more

While our avowed admirer of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un spent American taxpayers' dollars parading military hardware through Washington, D.C., in order to celebrate his 79th birthday and sent troops to quell protests about the forcible detention of immigrants, Democrats scratched their heads wondering why they're so unpopular among ...Read more

Donald Trump recently wrote on Truth Social: "Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace."

Let's get the obvious out of the way. Trump is heavily ...Read more