March 2013

President Obama and his family this morning went to Easter Sunday services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Here are notes on the Easter service from the pool reporter, which included this part, "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us…

Thanks to our friends at Powerline for featuring Clark Griffith's recent perceptive meditation on "Baseball's Timeless Appeal." In their spirit, I'll also recommend to one and all the exchange in the Fall 1990 Public Interest between Donald Kagan ("George Will's baseball—a conservative critique")…

Congressman Tom Price, a Republican, has said he will not announce a decision about running next year for the Senate in Georgia until May, but a pair of fundraising emails obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD indicate the GOP congressman may be leaning toward getting in the race. Here's an excerpt from…

Bjorn Lomborg claimed on John Stossel's television show last night that money isn't being spent well to combat "global warming":

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the future of the GOP. Hosted by Michael Graham.

There is a great tendency both here and abroad to concentrate on the entertaining features of American politics:

At a speech today in Miami, President Obama urged America to "do better."

Gary Schmitt writes:

Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion were shocked during a committee hearing this week when a Planned Parenthood official endorsed a right to post-birth abortion.

At the end of last month, Dennis Rodman, the eclectic former basketball star, hung out with Kim Jong-un, the leader of the rogue North Korean state. "I love him," Rodman would say of his new friend. "The guy is awesome. He was so honest."

A local news affiliate in Idaho reports that the Obama daughters are spending Spring Break skiing at Sun Valley:

Elliott Abrams writes: 

Chief Justice John Roberts is the victim of credit card fraud, according to multiple reports out today.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Executive Editor Fred Barnes on President Obama's gun control speech and the failure of Republicans in Congress to promote an agenda of economic growth. Hosted by Michael Graham.

Reuters reports:

President Obama called for action to be taken on gun control measures in a speech today at the White House, and said that "speeches aren't enough."

President Obama argued for gun control today, with "moms on this stage whose children were killed as recently as 35 days ago":

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports:

First there was Solyndra.  The company was going to deliver cutting edge solar technology.  It didn't happen and the company is now defunct after running through half a billion or so of government money.

In an article titled, "Use of Food Stamps Swells Even as Economy Improves," the Wall Street Journal reports that "The financial crisis is over and the recession ended in 2009. But one of the federal government's biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn't…

Ashley Judd will not challenge Mitch McConnell.

Paul Bedard writes of the latest reason for apprehension about the coming of Obamacare:

At the swearing in ceremony for the new head of the Secret Service, Joe Biden said "my agents are excited …we picked her." Secret Service director Julia Pierson is the woman Biden was referring to.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted that Obamacare might cause "some men and younger customers [to] see their rates increase," in regard to health care insurance costs. But the White House refused today to address Sebelius's comments, and would only insist that health…

On CNN, analyst Jeffrey Toobin predicts that "DOMA's in trouble":

Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation debated CNN's Piers Morgan and his guest, Suze Orman, about same-sex marriage Tuesday night. Morgan concluded the debate by saying he found Anderson's position "a bit offensive." "It's not fair, it's not tolerant, it's not American," said the British-born…

Nelson Lund, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

First Lady Michelle Obama is headed next month to Chicago to discuss "Youth Violence," the White House announced today. 

Eighty percent of Americans are unhappy with Washington, a new CBS poll finds. Many are angry.

CNN reports:

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on California’s Proposition 8, which defines marriage as being between couples of the opposite sex. Today they’re hearing them on the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman at the federal level. Like Roe…

The reductio ad absurdum of American jurisprudence.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior editor Andrew Ferguson on the Supreme Court's consideration of same sex marriage and his editorial "The ‘Science’ of Same-Sex Marriage." Hosted by Michael Graham.

Senator Tim Johnson will retire, Politico reports:

In an interview with the Huffington Post, National Rifle Association president David Keene says that "Gun control advocates were ready" for the Newtown school massacre. 

Writing on Iraq, Victor Davis Hanson says that "we have forgotten, over the ensuing decade, the climate of 2003 and why we invaded in the first place. The war was predicated on six suppositions."

House Phil Gingrey of Georgia plans to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. The six-term Republican and obstetrician will make the announcement at his alma mater of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Here's more from Georgia Tipsheet:

The country has been crying out for another big-money lobbying effort and now, as Jennifer Martinez writes in the Hill, "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is helping launch a new lobbying organization with a group of prominent Washington political consultants and tech executives."

According to Art Carden in Forbes:

In the first three months of the year, members of the first family have been on three vacations, averaging a vacation a month. And now it's being reported that the first daughters are on a spring break vacation in the Bahamas.

Michele Bachmann faces a congressional ethics investigation, according to the New York Times. 

The New York Times reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior editor Lee Smith on the mess in Syria and his piece "Why Obama Won't Move Against Assad." Hosted by Michael Graham.

After two items last week on the cost of lodging for Vice President Joe Biden's early February trip to Europe, other news organizations began to investigate further.  Wolf Blitzer's show The Situation Room on CNN uncovered a contract apparently also related to the same visit to Paris:

In a press release today, the White House announced a massive line-up for its annual Easter Egg Roll. The event, which appears to still be on, faced threats to cut it due to the sequester.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas has produced this web video, titled "Spring Break Shut-Out," encouraging the White House to re-open for tours:

Russian authorities have reportedly raided offices of human rights group Amnesty International, according to the Associated Press. 

Gary Bauer debated Nicolle Wallace yesterday on Fox News over the issue of same-sex marriage and the courts:

Walter Russell Mead writes that “Francois Hollande really can’t catch a break. One of the most memorable election promises he made was to raise marginal tax rates on the very rich—those making €1 million or more—to an eye-popping 75%. His government has, alas, finally decided to scrap that…

Good news for a change from Phnom Penh: Ieng Sary, brother-in-law of and cofounder with Pol Pot of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge movement, died last week. Or perhaps it wasn’t really good news. His heart (who knew he had one?) gave out before the Cambodian-U.N. tribunal had a chance to finish…

Marietta, Ga.

Gettysburg

With Obama-care poised to kick in to high gear next year, Dr. Brian Forrest routinely hears skeptics ask if the new laws and regulations will stifle his innovative primary care practice outside Raleigh, N.C.

Neil Gross is a sociologist at the University of British Columbia who previously held posts at the University of Southern California and Harvard, has a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, and received undergraduate training at Berkeley. He edits Sociological Theory and has written a book on…

In downtown Algiers, on June 4, 1958, Charles de Gaulle expressed himself clearly, as usual. The conventional wisdom has it that he was “ambiguous,” even “duplicitous.” But what he said was that the page had to be turned in Algeria: Political and civil institutions had to be reformed; there could…

My wife Cynthia occasionally interviews our kids, jotting down their answers in little journals. She asks questions like, What was your favorite part of our trip? What was your favorite meal?

There was much talk during the recent conclave in Rome, as there usually is at such times, about the Catholic church as a medieval institution. Occasionally that took the mild form of newspaper Sunday supplement pieces brightly describing the voting process in the Sistine Chapel. More often it…

Among its many splendors, a papal conclave affords a refreshingly unguarded window into the media’s parochial view of the larger world.

"With Obama-care entrenched, Democrats feel free to gripe,” read the headline in Politico. And gripe is the word. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington gripes that the administration won’t subsidize Americans “just above the poverty level.” Senator Bill Nelson of Florida gripes that the…

"Tonight my country stands alone,” the British historian and diplomat John Wheeler-Bennett told the American people in a radio broadcast on the night of June 17, 1940, the day that France capitulated to Hitler. He continued: Alone before the embattled might of totalitarian Europe, Nazi Germany…

The American position on the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic should be obvious.

The barbershop of the U.S. Senate has run deficits of approximately $350,000 a year for each of the last 15 years. So Senate sergeant at arms Terry Gainer has decided to try out a new model, one that has looked rather unfashionable during the Obama era: privatization.

"The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered,” Kentucky senator Rand Paul said Thursday to the Conservative Political Action Conference. “I don’t think we need to name any names here, do we?” he added coyly.

Last fall, a few days before Halloween and about a month after the publication of Mind and Cosmos, the controversial new book by the philosopher Thomas Nagel, several of the world’s leading philosophers gathered with a group of cutting-edge scientists in the conference room of a charming inn in the…

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an enigma. 

"I heard [Obama] say, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep it,’ ” John Wilhelm, chairman of Unite Here Health, representing 260,000 union workers, recently told the Wall Street Journal. “If I’m wrong, and the president does not intend to keep his word, I would have severe second thoughts…

I've spent worse hours at the movies than the ones I spent watching Oz the Great and Powerful, which purports to tell the story of how the Wizard gained his dominion over the Emerald City. It has a great title sequence, there are a few good lines, and there’s an absolutely magical conceit involving…

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On Friday, President Barack Obama left Israel, after spending a couple days with the leaders of America's closest ally in the region.

House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers said this morning on CBS that "it is abundantly clear that that red line has been crossed." Watch here.

The American Action Network released this video "celebrating" Obamacare's 3-year anniversary:

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg claimed this morning on NBC that "We're not banning anything" by implementing new soda restrictions:

As the men of Harvard exit the NCAA tournament at the hands of the Arizona Wildcats, you'll surely want to wish them a fond and hearty farewell. So sing along with the final verse of "Fair Harvard," written by Reverend Samuel Gilman for the university's 200th anniversary in 1836.

Mighty Georgetown, a number two seed, fell to Florida Gulf Coast, a number fifteen seed, last night.  Florida Gulf Coast has only been eligible to play in the tournament for two years.  

In a statement released at 5 a.m. today, Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, blasts the budget the Senate passed very early this morning. Sessions's main concern is that the budget "has zero real deficit reduction" and "never balances."

Protesters gathered at the American embassy in Amman, Jordan to signal opposition to the U.S. and President Barack Obama, according to the Jordan Times.

Mark Drajem of Bloomberg reports that “U.S. crude oil production in the fourth quarter will exceed imports for the first time since 1995, as booming fields in North Dakota and Texas put the nation on track to surpass a quarter-century output record.”

Marco Rubio: Repeal Obamacare.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Elliott Abrams on the president's Middle East trip and his piece "Obama in Jerusalem." Hosted by Michael Graham.

It’s still unclear whether chemical weapons were used earlier this week in attacks in Syria's Aleppo province, and if so who’s responsible—Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s troops or rebel forces. The U.N. is opening an investigation, as is the White House.

In 2010, the Democrats rammed Obamacare through Congress in open defiance of public opinion, and an incensed citizenry responded by giving Republicans their biggest gains in the House of Representatives since before World War II.  Now, coinciding with tomorrow’s 3-year anniversary of President…

Thanks to former Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak and his group of seven pro-life Democrats, women across their districts face higher insurance premiums today. 

Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

The little island of Cyprus is not behaving as other European countries desire and this, according to Bloomberg, is irritating German Chancellor Angela Merkel who “told a closed-door meeting of legislators in Berlin today that she’s annoyed the Cypriot government hasn’t been in touch with the…

As it turns out, Vice President Joe Biden's London stay in February was not the most expensive part of his trip. A government document released on February 14, 2013 shows that the contract for the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand came in at $585,000.50.

Congressional aides may not be able to pay the price of a decent meal in Washington D.C. if this sequester madness continues.  This, anyway, is what Debbie Wasserman Schultz is saying.

Vice President Biden and his entourage spent a little time in London in early February during his first foreign trip of the second term of the Obama administration.  A document released today revealed that the cost of lodging in London alone was close to half a million dollars. The contract was…

On March 21, 2013, history was made. Ivy League champion and 14th seed Harvard men's basketball team busted brackets everywhere as it upset 3rd seed New Mexico, winning its first NCAA playoff game ever and notching its first victory over a top-ten team. Read all about it here and here. 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Mark Bauerlein on the cost of college and his story "Forbidden City: The left-wing stranglehold on academia." Hosted by Michael Graham.

Defending defense.

Harry Reid will reverse course and allow a tough gun bill to be introduced in the Senate.

Has a quiet military coup taken over China’s foreign policy?  Is China’s new president, Xi Jinping, leading the militarization of policy or submitting to it?  The questions are not frivolous or far-fetched given recent actions and statements emanating from China’s new leader and other influential…

Since just after his reelection last year, Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped 8 points, according to a poll from Pew. Forty-seven percent approve of Obama's job, down from 55 percent in December.

Vice President Joe Biden incorrectly stated early today that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been "shot and mortally wounded":

Republican Karen Handel, the former Georgia secretary of state, gubernatorial candidate, and vice president for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, is moving closer to running for the Senate next year to succeed Republican Saxby Chambliss. Georgia political blog Peach Pundit reports:

President Obama spoke to the Israeli people today, at the Jerusalem Convention Center. His remarks moved his administration toward the pre-Obama consensus views of the Clinton and Bush administrations, indeed at several points echoing Bush’s 2008 speech to the Knesset. But he presented a view of…

In a speech to the Israeli people today, President Obama appeared to take a slight jab at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Barack Obama was heckled during a speech today to the Israeli people:

Here's the text of President Obama's address to the people of Israel:

At a press conference today in Ramallah, President Barack Obama addressed the assembled journalists while standing under a Yasser Arafat banner:

Speaking at a press conference today in Ramallah, President Obama said he doesn't "want to put the cart before the horse" in terms of dealing with the so-called settlement issue before the security issue:

The AP reports:

Understanding the Ryan and Murray budgets.

On Tuesday, Kentucky senator Rand Paul delivered a speech in favor of legalizing the status of illegal immigrants and opening up a path to citizenship for them. Immigration hawks were not pleased. "He just pissed away the [presidential] nomination quite honestly," said Mark Krikorian of the Center…

Mark Sanford, former governor of South Carolina, has cleared the first hurdle in his comeback campaign. He will be in a runoff to determine the Republican candidate for a vacant House seat. He got some 37 percent of the primary vote. Which would have seemed an utterly improbable back in 2009, when…

In a press conference today, the Federal Reserve announced it will keep interest rates low and leave QE3 unchanged, continuing to buy $85 billion a month in bonds to prop up the economy.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Philip Terzian on his editorial, Stand with the Falklands. Hosted by Michael Graham.

President Obama went after MSNBC host Chuck Todd for asking too many questions at a press conference today in Jerusalem, Israel:

President Obama's gifts for his Israeli hosts, via the pool report:

The Washington Post seeks a blogger to write "at least a dozen pieces" a day, according to a memo obtained by Poynter. The blogger would be part of the Style section of the newspaper.

Every single U.S. senator is expected later today to have to vote on whether the federal budget should be balanced, senior Senate aides tell me. The vote will be for support of an amendment to the Democratic budget, which is currently not balanced, and which will be debated on the Senate floor…

President Obama, who is left handed, revealed today in Israel that as a kid in Indonesia, he "would get hit with rulers" for writing with his left hand. From the pool report:

Freshman Republican congressman Tom Cotton may have only served in Congress for a few months, but conservative groups are already considering him for a 2014 Senate run in his native Arkansas against vulnerable Democrat Mark Pryor. The Washington Post reports on a new poll showing Cotton, an Army…

The wife of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mrs. Sara Netanyahu, will give First Lady Michelle Obama a Passover Seder plate. And "Ms. Netanyahu will give Bo a rubber hamburger toy," according to the pool report:

From the White House pool report:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talks about her work outs in an interview with the Washington Post. “When I started, I looked like a survivor of Auschwitz,” she tells the paper. “Now I’m up to 20 push-ups.”

Eliot Cohen, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

President Obama told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel that "It's good to get away from Congress." Politico's Mike Allen reports:

The U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea tweeted this over night:

Tom Cotton's truths about Iraq.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the future of the GOP. Hosted by Michael Graham.

Despite Hollywood actress Ashley Judd’s high-profile political rollout, national Democrats appear to be looking for an alternative Senate candidate in Kentucky to challenge Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for instance, has remained…

Dorothea Wolfson writes:

A commentator on CNN dubbed Pope Francis "the hope and change pope" earlier today:

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker delivered a stirring speech over the weekend to the crowd at CPAC... 

Democratic House member Luis Gutierrez of Illinois reiterated his support for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants while acknowledging that in order to receive Republican support, that path may not be "clean, clear and quick." He also stated that illegal immigrants who want to become…

In a season when we all become bracketologists, here is an interesting variation that uses the form to conduct a playoff in which the school that costs more to attend wins and moves on to the next round against another institution of absurdly high priced learning.  Another elimination and the…

Acting Labor Secretary Seth D. Harris addressed the Annual Legislative Conference of the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) on Monday. As part of a scathing attack on attempts to reform public employee labor unions, Harris told a joke that he said was “making the rounds a few years…

Michael Gerson, writing in the Washington Post:

Richard Cohen, writing in the Washington Post:

Who are the Hazaras and why are they marked for annihilation in Pakistan? Two frightful terror bombings, taking 185 lives and wounding hundreds more, were reported from the city of Quetta, near the border with Afghanistan, and the capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, in the first two months…

Robert Samuelson's fine column in the Washington Post, “America the retirement home,” argues that “The budget debate’s central reality is that federal retirement programs, led by Social Security and Medicare, are crowding out most other government spending,” and that this is endangering the other…

The New York Times Magazine glosses over reality.

A year at Columbia University's journalism school will set you back nearly $84,000. 

The Russian energy company Gazprom is offering to bailout Cyprus in exchange for gas exploration rights, according to media reports. 

A reporter from Colorado asked White House spokesman Jay Carney how President Obama justifies "lavish vacations" and golf trips, and whether he plans to cut back:

Vice President Joe Biden, who is in Rome for the new pope's inaugural mass, says he "better show up" at party with cardinals tonight or "I'll lose my soul." Via the pool report:

At the Republican National Committee’s self-healing session Monday morning at the National Press Club, Chairman Reince Priebus ran through a five-point “action plan” for moving the party forward. It’s a plan, Priebus said, of “bold strokes” that shows the GOP is “done with business as usual.” Per…

A contemporary bit of saber rattling, a United States Air Force long range bomber flew over South Korea earlier this month as part of war games.  There was more to it, however, than the usual readiness exercise, as Bloomberg's Tony Capaccio reports, the U.S. was sending a message:

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus reiterated that he believes Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster over the Obama administration’s drone policy was a “unifying moment” for the GOP and that the party is "totally on board" with the libertarian senator.

There are legitimate territorial disputes, and then there is Argentina’s dispute with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands.

To prepare for President Obama's trip to Israel this week, it's worth reading Elliott Abrams's book Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

National Journal's Steven Shepard reports that Anthony Weiner's

Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas talked about "Iraq: Ten Years Later" yesterday on CNN's State of the Union:

This week Paul Ryan’s House Budget Committee is set to release its fiscal year 2014 budget, which promises to balance Uncle Sam’s books in 10 years. Ryan’s offering will elicit lamentations from the usual quarters of the mainstream media: House Republicans have lurched sharply to the right,…

Every Christmas Eve, M. R. James (1862-1936), the celebrated scholar of medieval literature and provost of King’s College, Cambridge, enacted a strange ritual. After participating in the Christmas service at King’s College Chapel—that miracle of 15th-century Gothic architecture whose soaring…

When news broke that the Obama administration was lifting the rule excluding women from combat units, the rare sound of bipartisan applause reverberated on Capitol Hill. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, one of two conservative women in the Senate, said she was “pleased” with the change, issued in…

A meta-study that appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine last September found no “strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods.” A dozen Stanford researchers combed some 237 studies that analyzed food consumption and health outcomes among…

Ronald Reagan astonished much of Washington when, in 1981, he hung Calvin Coolidge’s portrait in the White House Cabinet Room.  

What to make of Rand Paul’s 12 hours and 52 minutes of fame? Was his filibuster on the floor of the Senate last Wednesday, as Charles Krauthammer said on Fox’s Special Report, though substantively misguided, “a stroke of political genius”? Was it, as Seth Lipsky suggested in a column in the New…

On March 6, Barack Obama invited a dozen Republican senators to dine with him at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington. The group spent virtually all of their time discussing debt, deficits, and spending. Obama picked up the tab. The next day, he hosted House Budget chairman Paul Ryan, along with his…

The recent decision of the Washington Post to abolish its ombudsman has inspired a variety of responses among the chattering classes. Some have been cynical, some have been furious, and some have been anguished​—​although, to be truthful, we took a certain pleasure in Post publisher Katharine…

I doubt John Boehner has read much feminist theory, but it’s never too late for him to start. He and other GOP leaders, not to mention the Republicans who want to run for president in 2016, might want to familiarize themselves with the concept of the double bind. They are in the middle of one, and…

Syrian Kurdistan

President Obama’s outreach to congressional Republicans isn’t a minor tactical shift. It’s a course correction. Five days after denouncing Republicans as tools of “the well-off and well-connected,” he had dinner at the swanky Jefferson Hotel in Washington with a dozen GOP senators. Not only had…

Recall how improbable it seemed that the tiny nation of Greece might bring down the Euro and cripple the world's financial mechanisms?  And, then, the story – if not the danger – seemed to fade away.  Well, it now appears that the even more insignificant island of Cyprus may provide the spark. As…

Bill Kristol, with Nina Easton, Karl Rove, and Joe Trippi, on the Internet-only Fox News Sunday postgame show:

Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus announced a "national marketing and branding campaign" on CBS this morning:

House speaker John Boehner was asked about gun control measures being considered in the Senate this morning on national television:

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Jeb Bush writes that “America could be on the threshold of its greatest century.”  Why?  Well, here’s one reason he gives:  “Technological innovation means that in the coming decades, driverless vehicles will flawlessly move people on highways, never getting lost,…

Rand Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, has won this year's CPAC straw poll. Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida, came in second.

Congressman Mike Rogers writes:

Are we watching Hezbollah closely enough these days? Probably not. Given events in Syria and the Balkans, it appears that we’re in for a whole new set of problems to be presented by Iran’s favorite proxy.

There are times when the absence of really, really bad news passes for good news. This is such a time here in America, at least for those who worry that our fiscal deficits of over about $1,000,000,000,000 per year will soon have historians referring to the glory that was Washington.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Michael Warren, live from CPAC. Will conservatives find a new way forward? Hosted by Michael Graham.

Jay Dardenne, Louisiana's Republican lieutenant governor, says he won't be running for the Senate against Democrat Mary Landrieu next year.

President Obama joked about the budget cuts known as the sequester, suggesting that seats had been take from his event because of the cuts:

Mitt Romney expressed regret at not being the next president of the United States in a speech today at CPAC:

During his speech at CPAC on Friday, Mitt Romney acknowledged that he'd made "mistakes" during the 2012 campaign and confessed that "as someone who just lost the last election, I'm probably not the best person to chart the course for the next election." The former GOP presidential nominee didn't…

Mitt Romney, giving his first speech since he lost his election for president of the United States:

Full prepared text of Mitt Romney's CPAC speech:

White House spokesman Jay Carney told Fox News anchor Jenna Lee that "if you did a little reporting," you'd know why the White House was open for the Easter Egg Roll but not for White House tours:

The White House announced that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi will be representing America at the pope's inaugural mass. Both Biden and Pelosi are Catholics and pro-abortion.

The reading fell to 71.8 from 77.6 in February, as Bloomberg reports.  Almost as disturbing as the actual decline is the gap between what the experts predicted and what actually came to pass.  This was, according to Zero Hedge, "the biggest miss on record."

In a report on its website, the credit rating firm Moody's pushes for Medicaid expansion. The firm warns that states who do not expand Medicaid will face "political and budgetary pressure."

Mitch McConnell, the leader of the GOP minority in the Senate, struck an upbeat tone in his Friday morning address to the conservative activists gathered at CPAC. “Friends, this is a moment of renewal. I truly believe it,” he said. In this era of new beginning, McConnell is seeking his sixth Senate…

Prices are rising. As  Reuters reports:

Forget the sequester. If you're Chuck Schumer, there are ways around it. Consider the recent example of a U.S. Marine Corps band cancelling its scheduled performance at a St. Patrick's Day parade due to the "sequester"--and Chuck Schumer's successful "push" for the band to come anyway.

An odd exchange at the State Department press briefing, via the official transcript:

Mary Eberstadt writes at Time online: 

The Democratic budget, released yesterday by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray, passed out of committee this evening on a party line vote, 12-10. In response, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions, released this blistering statement:

President Obama revealed a fantasy of his in an interview with an Israeli television station.

Justin Amash is considering running for Senate in Michigan.

Should the Republican party abandon social conservatism? Take a turn toward non-interventionism? Moderate on taxes and spending? While a number of pundits and politicians have said 'yes' to one or more of these questions, especially since Mitt Romney's loss in November, Marco Rubio answered with a…

When President Barack Obama visits Israel later this month, he plans not to visit two important places: the Western Wall and the Knesset. 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Fred Barnes. Hosted by Michael Graham.

Before Rand Paul even arrived at the Gaylord National Harbor convention center in Maryland for his Thursday afternoon CPAC address, the stage was set for his raucous reception. Outside the convention hall, a team of eager young volunteers began passing out t-shirts, stickers, and posters emblazoned…

The closer we get to the launch date for full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the more it appears to contradict its own, essential premises.

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal introduced his plan to eliminate income taxes, his office announced. 

As conservatives wrestle with the question of their movement’s commitment to national security, one young war veteran made the case for a strong national defense and Ronald Reagan’s entreaty that America pursue “peace through strength.” Speaking Thursday morning at CPAC, freshman congressman Tom…

Ted Cruz and Dianne Feinstein had this explosive exchange at a Senate Judiciary Hearing on guns earlier today:

In the first major address of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli presented the gathered activists with an unusual charge.

Allen West today picked up a standing ovation at the CPAC, the conservative conference. West lost his reelection last go around, but he's still got a following. 

At the New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes,“Paul Ryan has released his new budget proposal, ‘The Path to Prosperity.’ It looks almost exactly like his old budget proposal.” Cohn continues, “That tells us a lot about Ryan’s priorities — and how little interest he and his allies have in moderating…

President Obama is feeling good about America's prospects. He made that clear last night in remarks to Organizing for Action, the group his reelection campaign transformed into since the last presidential election.

The Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee claims the budget released today by Senate Democrats will raise taxes by $1.5 trillion. Before being released today, it had been reported that the Democrats' budget would raise taxes by $1 trillion, but number appears to have been far enough. 

Pope Francis has one lung.

Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Budget Committee, finally released a budget today. Year over year, in this proposed budget, spending jumps dramatically. 

President Obama released this statement on Pope Francis:

Today Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the Egypt Accountability and Democracy Amendment, legislation blocking “economic support funds and new foreign military financing” “unless economic reforms and human rights safeguards are adopted, while also initiating a more thorough, longer term reevaluation of…

Four of the most lamentably omitted words in American politics are the following: "in this present crisis." Conventional references to Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address note his declaration that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Reagan actually said,…

Jay Carney contradicted President Obama today by admitting the White House in fact cancelled tours of the White House, not the Secret Service:

There will be no grand bargain.

The White House announced that it intends to nominate Deborah K. Jones to be the next U.S. ambassador to Libya. If confirmed, she'll be the first ambassador to that country since Chris Stevens was murdered in Benghaz, Libya on September 11, 2012.

CNN reports:

Eric Edelman, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, and Dan Senor, all board members of the Foreign Policy Initiative, released the following statement this morning: 

Mitt Romney may have tied his dog’s kennel to the top of his car and made him ride in it, but at least he didn’t make it harder for everyone else’s dog to get to the vet.  The same cannot be said of President Obama and his signature legislation. 

Barack Obama is fond of saying that “the majority of Americans” agree with him on his “balanced approach” to deficit reduction—which these days seems to mean increasing tax revenues through rate hikes and big defense spending cuts with relatively insignificant cuts elsewhere. At the beginning of…

President Obama says he's not the one who canceled the White House tours. He made the comments in an interview with ABC News.

In an interview that was released this morning with former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos on ABC, President Obama talked a little about his view of the debt.

In an interview that aired this morning, President Obama was asked whether he'd have too much influence over an American pope. He didn't answer the question, but he did say he hopes the next pope carries the "central message of the Gospel":

In the aftermath of Mitt Romney’s defeat in last fall’s election, and the defeat of a myriad of Republican Senate candidates (establishment and Tea Party alike) in Romney’s wake, Republicans are getting no shortage of free advice.  The quantity of that advice, however, is more apparent than its…

In an interview with ABC News, President Obama says his budget won't be balanced:

Is your burger more expensive? Thank Obamacare.

The Washington Post reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with John McCormack on his story, Congress Goes AWOL. Hosted by Michael Graham.

At a Virginia townhall for Congressman Jim Moran, a woman asked, "I know you're pro-choice, but why aren't you pro-choice when it comes to self-defense for women?" The crowd applauded. "For example, why don't you guys listen to the young rape victims in Colorado when they said that if they had a…

Perhaps by the end of the day Michael Wolff will tell us it was all a joke, like Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." And that he couldn't have possibly been serious when he wrote in British GQ, "You likely wouldn't have sex with someone who took you to the wrong restaurant (or at least wouldn't…

First Lady Michelle Obama's social security number and credit report have been leaked online, the Associated Press reports.

Washington, D.C. police claim a sinkhole has been spotted in the city, a Politico reporter says on Twitter:

New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand is asking Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano not to allow knives to be brought on airplanes. 

President Obama welcomed Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei to the White House today, and said that while he's in America he should "do some shopping" here to "strengthen the U.S. economy." The sultan is estimated to be worth more than $20 billion. 

President Obama has often talked about the need to reduce the budget deficit. Before his run for the presidency, Senator Obama was rather harsh in his criticism of George Bush's deficits. And in July 2011, during the debt ceiling crisis, the president even addressed Congressional leaders in a talk…

Republican lieutenant governor Bill Bolling of Virginia will not run as an independent for governor. ABC's Rick Klein reports:

Lines to get into the Capitol today are “ridiculous” and a “disaster,” according to staffers who work in members’ offices on Capitol Hill.

An anonymous White House aide says that the president reaching out to Republicans is a "joke," a waste of time, and stunt for the media.

CNN reports that the commandant of the Marine Corps is ordering the personnel under his command to:

What’s the purpose of Barack Obama’s “charm offensive?” And who is the target?

Rand Paul's siren song.

Adam Kredo reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Matthew Continetti on his cover story, The Double Bind. Hosted by Michael Graham.

Admiral Samuel Locklear of the United States Navy identified "climate change" as the biggest security threat America faces in the Pacific.

A judge ruled today to halt Michael Bloomberg's so called soda ban in New York City. Here's the text of that ruling:

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is indicating that freshman Republican congressman Tom Cotton of Arkansas is on the group's radar. From Politico's Alexander Burns:

Senator Claire McCaskill tweets about her experience today at an airport:

White House spokesman Jay Carney roasted reporter Mara Liasson who asked whether entitlement reforms would be in the president's budget:

Jay Carney, speaking today at the press briefing:

Preparations continue for Barack Obama's first visit to Israel as president.  The U.S. embassy in Israel, through its American Center in Jerusalem, is planning "the Obama-ba Festival," which will run all this week, preceding the president’s visit later this month.

The story is so depressingly familiar that you just read it and shrug it off.  According to a CBS report:

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson granted an interview this weekend to the online magazine Salon, in which he discussed his most recent vacation to Pyongyang. Richardson calls for “out of the box” diplomacy toward the regime, and lauds Dennis Rodman’s recent visit there as “healthy.” He…

On Friday, the United States Department of Agriculture quietly released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average…

From CNN:

President Barack Obama will speak to donors to Organizing for Action, the group that was formerly his reelection campaign, this Wednesday in Washington, D.C. "President Obama will speak to a Wednesday-night dinner for donors and grassroots supporters at the Founders' Summit of Organizing for…

This magisterial three--volume biography of Winston Church-ill, begun by William Manchester nearly 30 years ago, has at last reached completion, though the path to its finale took a circuitous trip through the wilderness, reminiscent of Churchill himself. The Last Lion is doubtless the most popular…

The Scrapbook doesn’t pay too close attention to the Academy Awards—we’re still recovering from the Indian maiden, Sacheen Littlefeather, who accepted Marlon Brando’s Oscar for the Godfather in 1973 and tried to read his 15-page mani-festo on national television—but we do have a weakness for the…

During a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center on April 30, 2012, John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, discussed “The Ethics and Efficacy of the U.S. President’s Counterterrorism Strategy.” Brennan explained that President Obama has “pledged to share as much information with the…

At a celebration at UCLA of the career of Eugen Weber, the Romanian-born historian of France, I made the mistake of describing Eugen as an exile. In his response to the tributes paid him, Eugen corrected me, remarking that he had never considered himself an exile. “From the moment I attained…

Italy has long been the political laboratory of the West. From Roman republics and tyrannies through the city-states of the Renaissance, into the Counter-Reformation and on to fascism, Eurocommunism, and homegrown terrorism, the Italians have provided us with advance looks at our future. We should…

As a general rule, movies about electoral politics are so awful we should all be glad there are so few of them. Elections are wildly dramatic events, but the drama unfolds over a long time. Thus, naturally impatient moviemakers insist on stuffing them with transparently absurd melodramatics or…

But who do you say that I am? 

Canberra 

Nonprofit organizations (NPO), often referred to as the “independent sector,” are an essential part of America’s vibrant, pluralistic civil society. Their activities span a wide range of public and private purposes​—​philanthropic, cultural, religious, professional, educational, scientific. The…

I was in second grade when I first became convinced that things fall apart.

"Make sure,” Elliott Abrams told me, “that you have the better idea, and then push for it aggressively.” 

A few years ago, the Democratic party bragged that it had adopted new rules barring corporate and individual donations over $100,000. Because of these rules, Democrats called their convention in Charlotte last year the “people’s convention.” However, just to make sure they had the money to fund the…

Everyone knows the line about how, "If it wasn't for bad news, there wouldn't be no news at all."  Well, today seems to be the exception.

On CBS this morning, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg made the case that handguns are more deadly than "assault weapons."

Nancy Pelosi sat down with Candy Crowley for an interview:

During remarks last night at the Gridiron Club at a hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., President Obama flattered the press. "[T]he truth is," Obama told the club of journalists, "our country needs you and our democracy needs you."

President Obama is meeting the press tonight in Washington, D.C. He'll be having dinner tonight at the Gridiron Club, an organization of journalists, at a downtown hotel.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador the United Nations, is being considered to be the next national security adviser to the president of the United States, according to media reports. 

A new poll measuring public opinion of gun control measures being considered in Colorado finds the issue could be politically dangerous for Democrats. And most don’t think “sweeping gun control measures will make them any safer,” according to the pollster.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed concern that private jet owners could clog up the city's homeless shelters.

Get ready for Senator Ashley Judd.

In a speech today at George Washington University, First Lady Michelle Obama laid out her dream for a healthier-eating America. The vision, she said, requires greater "product placement."

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham. 

As reported by Joseph De Avila in the Wall Street Journal, Connecticut, legislators are being pressed to consider something called, "An Act Concerning the State Polka."

Since Samuel Tadros first reported for THE WEEKLY STANDARD on prospective International Woman of Courage Award winner Samira Ibrahim’s anti-Semitic, pro-9/11 tweets Wednesday afternoon, some observers have argued that the State Department, as Jeffrey Goldberg writes, “narrowly averted a moral and…

Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

John Brennan was sworn in today at the White House. He was confirmed as the new CIA director yesterday.

Earlier this week, a listing entitled "Parking Spaces at Democracy Blvd." appeared on the Federal Business Opportunities website. The contract was awarded on February 19th before the sequester took effect, but the timing could still prove embarrassing for the Obama administration.  

In advance of Senator Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, releasing a budget next week, which is expected to happen Wednesday, Republicans have written a letter to ask for sufficient time to read, debate, and amend the budget. The letter is signed by all ten Republicans on the…

Will be getting higher. As reported by Chad Terhune in the Los Angeles Times:

Since the hacking of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, etc., and the Mandiant revelations about China’s PLA Unit 61398, the media and Internet have exploded with talk of our reaching a “tipping point” in cybersecurity (or not, depending on the point of view). We’re,…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports on the latest jobs numbers:

Louisiana’s showing up a lot on cable TV these days. There’s the History Channel’s Swamp People, a hit series documenting the lives of Cajun alligator hunters in the swamps of coastal Louisiana. Over on A&E, you can watch Duck Dynasty, which features a self-professed family of rednecks who turned…

For someone who aggressively campaigned on the notion that the Republican party cares disproportionately about the rich, President Obama’s economic scorecard is rather illuminating.  Since March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average — which tracks the stock prices of 30 large blue-chip companies —…

On Wednesday, the body of Venezuela’s late president, Hugo Chávez, was transported through Caracas in a formal procession that drew a crowd of weeping millions, accustomed to calling him, among other epithets, "the Example of Permanent Battle," and "the Christ of Latin America's Poor." Those that…

Yesterday, THE WEEKLY STANDARD first reported that the State Department was about to bestow an International Woman of Courage Award on an anti-Semite and 9/11 fan. Egypt women’s rights activist Samira Ibrahim had left a record on her Twitter feed of statements quoting Hitler, celebrating the murder…

Did Rand Paul end Obama's monopoly on "romance"?

Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, announced he will retire at the end of this term. Here's his statement:

The AP reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Stephen Hayes:

Yesterday, Sam Tadros reported that Michelle Obama and John Kerry were planning to award the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award to Samira Ibrahim, a woman who the State Department says “was among seven women subjected by the Egyptian military to forced virginity tests in…

Israeli media is reporting that President Obama will pressure Israel on his upcoming trip to Israel, which is scheduled for later this month.

Eric Holder responds to Rand Paul's filibuster with this letter:

The world continues to experience much turmoil and angst over the possible proliferation of nuclear arms, particularly relative to North Korea, Iran, and even Russia.  Just today comes word that North Korea made its most provocative statement yet, threatening a preemptive nuclear strike on the…

Terry McAuliffe, who is running for governor in Virginia, recently traveled down to Florida for a political fundraiser. And in an interview yesterday, the host of that Florida fundraiser, John Morgan, mocked Virginia as "a state that some of us have never heard of, it’s off the coast of D.C."

It’s good to be a government worker in Portland, Oregon. And not just because of the subsidized sex changes. It seems that city workers’ salaries are also ample enough to support a family and . . . finance a little terrorism on the side.

When it comes to deficit reduction, President Obama and the mainstream press seem to have a fascination with the figure of $4 trillion.  During last year’s first presidential debate, Obama falsely claimed, “I've put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan,” even though he’d done…

From the Hill:

Senator Ted Cruz, joining Rand Paul's filibuster on the floor of the Senate:

Senator Ted Cruz, joining in support of Rand Paul's filibuster, said today was the first day he had the chance to speak on the Senate floor. "It don't get no better than this," Cruz said, quoting a beer commercial:

The White House will not comment on Rand Paul's ongoing filibuster on the Senate floor of President Obama's nominee to be the next CIA director. A Huffington Post reporter remarks on Twitter: 

ABC News reports this evening that the White House is saving $18,000 per week by cancelling tours:

Backup material for Rand Paul's filibuster.

On Friday March 8, Michelle Obama will join John Kerry at a special ceremony at the State Department to present ten women the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award. The award, says the press release, is given to “women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Jim Swift on Senator Rand Paul's filibuster of John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA..

Senator Ted Cruz praised Senator Rand Paul on the Senate floor today for his filibuster. "Your standing here today like a modern Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," said Cruz, referencing the famous film, "must surely be making Jimmy Stewart smile."

One can expect a fair amount of exaggeration, spin, and dissembling regarding the effects of the sequester.  No claims, so far, that Americans are chewing hides and lacing their boots with the sinews of game they have killed and eaten in order to survive.  President Obama did warn, however, that…

President Obama has grown fond of saying that he’s “not a dictator,” “not a king,” and “not the emperor,” but is instead “the president.”  Whether his tendency to clarify a seemingly obvious point reveals his inner desires or not, his actions in a variety of ways suggest that he doesn’t think the…

Rand Paul, who is currently on the Senate floor filibustering President Obama's pick to be the next CIA director, invoked Hitler: 

Higher education is expensive and getting more so, as Ruth Simon reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Attorney General Eric Holder said today at a Senate hearing that he believes he once shot an AR-15, a so-called assault weapon:

Attorney General Eric Holder said this morning at a Senate hearing that the federal "government has no intention" of carrying out drone strikes in America:

ABC reports that most folks support spending cuts, as long as defense budgets aren't slashed:

President Obama will meet Senate Republicans for lunch next week, Mitch McConnell's office announced today. The lunch date was initiated by Obama. 

The Times of Israel reports: 

With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it's worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually.

The federal government in the Washington, D.C. area is closed today. Here's the announcement, by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management:

Former President Jimmy Carter released the following statement on the passing of Hugo Chavez:

Obama's curious Pelosi, Part II, strategy.

President Obama's statement on Hugo Chavez's death: 

Congressman Tom Cotton of Arkansas released the following statement to mark the death of Hugo Chavez: 

New York congressman Jose Serrano, a Democrat, posted a message on his Twitter page celebrating the death of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez:

The AP reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Ken Grubbs on his cover story, Paradise Lost.

President Obama arrived with his personal photographer earlier today at Walter Reed National

Buildings in the same complex as Vice President Joe Biden's official residence in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Naval Observatory, will be closing doors to tour groups due to the mandatory budget cuts of sequestration.

The White House sent out this email earlier today, announcing that it's close for sequestration:

John Kerry knocked Dennis Rodman in an interview today with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. Kerry suggests that Rodman should stick to basketball, not diplomacy. 

Senators have been promised "full access to documents outlining the President’s authority to conduct targeted killings of Americans in counter terrorism operations," according to Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine). In exchange, President Obama hopes the…

Americans have long had to fight City Hall, but now they have to fight an almost endless list of government bureaucracies at both the state and federal levels.  Occasionally, however, the little guy still wins.

The Hill reports:

Stephen D. Abney, the chief public affairs official for the Army’s Joint Munitions Command, recently sent a message to all 6,000 employees he speaks for: Don’t criticize President Barack Obama or any political party to members of the press. The message was received by civilian contractors as well.

In the days leading up to sequestration, President Obama and other administration officials often singled out Head Start as one of the vital programs that would be severely impacted by the automatic spending cuts. Phrases like "70,000 kids get thrown off of Head Start" and "70,000 young children…

Moe Lane has a theory:

More transparency at the EPA, please.

Democratic representative Bruce Braley is running for the Iowa Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Harkin, but he might want to learn how the upper body functions first. In an interview on a local news station, Braley was asked about why the Senate has not passed a budget in nearly…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Bill Kristol:

The Hill reports:  

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Sunday the release of a quarter of a billion dollars in aid to Egypt. The Associated Press reports:

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking this morning at the AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C.:

When Chris Wallace asked Mitt Romney on Fox News Sunday why he lost the election, one of the reasons Romney gave was, “Obamacare was very attractive, particularly [for] those without health insurance, and they came out in large numbers to vote, so that was part of a successful campaign.” Like much…

Inside the beltway, there is a pervasive sense of impending doom. The rest of the country may not much care, but sequestration is here. According to warnings by the Obama administration, failure to avert these automatic spending cuts will lead to planes falling from the skies, bridges collapsing,…

It isn't quite blood in the streets ... yet.  But it is starting and who knows where it might end.  Washington might even have to endure falling real estate prices and widespread unemployment and, well, what every other part of the country has been going through.

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports:

Leo Strauss wrote of the “all men are created equal” sentence in the Declaration of Independence, “The passage has frequently been quoted, but, by its weight and its elevation, it is made immune to the degrading effects of the excessive familiarity which breeds contempt and of misuse which breeds…

Intellectual error is not necessarily bad. It is sometimes the price of imagination and bold thinking. But it may also be the result of sloppy reasoning, wishful thinking, or the venal desire to sell copy. So it is not necessarily good, either.

After Pope Benedict XVI’s surprising announcement that he would resign from the papacy, leading adherents of diverse faiths immediately began to evaluate his legacy. Catholic theologians have emphasized the enduring import of the thought of the man who spent most of his life as the theologian…

‘Matisse: In Search of True Painting” is a smallish but superb show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It focuses on pairs and series of related paintings, and the sheer loveliness of its best pieces resounds through the huge building and out onto Fifth Avenue. But it is sad that this small-scale,…

The ol’ double standard was alive and well last week, as former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Democrat of Illinois, pleaded guilty in a Washington federal court to stealing three-quarters of a million dollars from campaign funds.

The next pope will be Christoph Schönborn, cardinal archbishop of Vienna. The principal editor of the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church, Schönborn was among Benedict’s favorite students back when the current pope was a theology professor, and he stands as one of the few high clerics to act…

Following the Republican shellacking in the recent election, David Brooks highlighted some voices shaping center-right conversation on the Internet. One of his more surprising choices was that of a Republican Study Committee staffer who had penned a (quickly withdrawn) memo for the caucus of…

Someone living in Barack Obama’s America, circa 2013, says these words to you: “I’m so behind.” In previous epochs—say, the Age of Lewinsky, or of disco—this might mean any number of things. A person might have failed to collate the year’s receipts for his accountant. Another might not have…

The death of Robert Bork this past December brought forth tributes to a man bearing no resemblance to the grotesque caricatures that emerged during the long debate over his 1987 nomination to the Supreme Court. Widely noted were his unswerving loyalty to friends and principles, his seminal…

Among the guns I own, my favorite is a Pennsylvania long rifle made for me by an old friend. It is a flintlock, shoots a .50 caliber ball, and uses black powder. The wood is rich, sinuous, curly maple. The trigger guard and butt plate are brass. It is a beautiful piece, and only the most ardent…

Last week, James Martin, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator for Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, announced his intention to resign for “personal reasons.” The more likely reason for his resignation is that Martin is currently under a microscope for…

President Barack Obama recently went to Chicago to promote his poverty and gun violence initiatives and actually spoke a good deal of truth. “There’s no more important ingredient for success, nothing that would be more important for us reducing violence than strong, stable families, which means we…

Pakistani national Shahawar Matin Siraj and a friend, Irish-Egyptian-American James Elshafay, went to the Herald Square subway station on 34th Street in New York City on August 21, 2004, shortly before the quadrennial Republican National Convention was scheduled to begin nearby. Siraj and Elshafay…

Two years after the self-immolation of a street vendor protesting police corruption in Tunisia, the promise of the Arab Spring remains unrealized. Instead of ushering in an era of stable self-determination, much of the Middle East remains in disarray. Syria is in flames, Egypt almost ungovernable.…

On February 17, some 35,000 people showed up for a march outside the White House to protest construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The environmental lobby is going all out to stop the pipeline, which will transport oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries near Houston. In its ongoing…

An old journalistic axiom holds, “If it bleeds, it leads.” This means that stories of violence—of murder and arson, tornadoes and hurricanes, floods and carnage—always get primary attention in newspapers and on radio and television news. They still do, but coming up fast on the outside, especially…

In September 1993, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin received a request from the U.S. commander in Somalia for extra tanks, armored vehicles, and AC-130 Spectre gunships to support U.S. operations in Mogadishu. Aspin refused the request. The White House was not involved in the decision. Days later, 18…

Vice President Joe Biden traveled today to "Selma for the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee, honoring the 48th anniversary of the events of Bloody Sunday," according to the pool report. 

Eccentric former basketball player Dennis Rodman sat down on ABC's This Week to defend his visit last week to North Korea: 

White House economic adviser Gene Sperling admits that, yes, in fact, the sequestration was President Obama's plan:

Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, said this morning that the media is at least in part to blame for her husband's failure to win the last presidential election:

In a late Friday afternoon email, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano notified staff that her chief of staff was leaving. 

Since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, more than $6 trillion dollars has been added to the national debt.

Poor kids to go without lunches and vaccinations, meat sold without being inspected, firemen and cops laid off, illegal aliens released from prison, 17,200 teachers fired, airports closed, long lines at airports, and 700,000 workers laid off. Egypt in ferment? Syria at war? Austerity-ridden Greece?…

President Barack Obama orders sequestration. Here’s the text of the executive order:

Why the White House will regret treating the press poorly.

In a phone call today, President Barack Obama told Vladimir Putin that he "looks forward to visiting" Russia in September, according to the White House. Here's the readout of their call:

The White House announced that President Barack Obama has pardoned 17 people. Here's the official release:

With New Jersey governor Chris Christie's announcement that he would accept funds for Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, the number of Republican governors accepting Obamacare Medicaid expansion money rises to eight: Jan Brewer (Arizona), Rick Scott (Florida), Rick Snyder (Michigan), Brian Sandoval…

Connecticut state representative Ernest Hewett, a Democrat, made a lewd comment toward a 17-year-old girl in the middle of a hearing. Here's the story, via Political Wire:

In a sharply written statement, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama blasts President Obama for campaigning and not governing. He calls Obama's response to the sequestration "the most cynical behavior I have seen during my time in Washington."

While American environmentalists focus primarily on saving field mice and frustrating development and energy production on the home front, there’s a growing need for genuine conservation and stewardship to protect the natural habitats of the world’s grandest animals.  Take the cases of the rhino…

President Barack Obama suggested today he'd be able to negotiation with the opposition better if they didn't "paint horns on [his] head":

President Obama warned that the pain from the sequestration cuts "will be real":

President Obama said today, "I am not a dictator. I'm the president."

The latest edition of the al Qaeda English-language magazine Inspire is out today. A digital copy of the magazine, provided by MEMRI (the Washington D.C. based Middle East Media Research Institute), shows a "Wanted: Dead or Alive" feature on page 10 of the new issue:

Today is a good day for the Democratic National Committee. Duke Energy, which helped bankroll the Democratic convention in Charlotte last year with a $10 million loan, announced it would forgive the Democratic party of its massive debt.

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell released a statement this morning saying that "there will be no last-minute, back-room deal and absolutely no agreement to increase taxes." McConnell's statement came out before he, along with other congressional leaders, is scheduled to meet with…

(SPOILER ALERT) The season finale of Top Chef didn't involve iditarods, tonging for oysters, or a roller derby. Instead, finalists Brooke Williamson and Kristen Kish, with the help of eliminated competitors, cranked out their own menus for the judges and a select group of guests—including the…

Mark J. Perry of AEI tweeted: