'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Like a bad restaurant, the Obama administration attracts scathing reviews from Republicans and conservative critics who are tired of what's on the policy menu, and repelled by the signature "culture" of White House operations. The trio of scandals centered on Benghazi, the IRS and the Justice Department has ramped up the tirade, and until facts and conclusions emerge, the talk of the moment is culture-centric.
Broadcast debut of note Monday: that would be CNN's "The Lead," showcasing the he-man talents of Jake Tapper, who has managed to sidestep the land mines of broadcast to emerge with his own show, credibility intact.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner did what Washingtonians call the "full Ginsburg" on Sunday. The term refers to Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, William H. Ginsburg, who was the first to appear on all five network Sunday interview shows in one day.
The mutating "Petraeus affair" has conveniently filled the media vacuum left after the presidential election ended, providing press, pundits and assorted officials a veritable gold mine of material.
Talk about your irony. Democrats, who have declared that Republicans are engaging in a "war against women," will be led at their national convention this week by Bill Clinton, whose list of reported transgressions against women is, well, let's say, long.
Take the dog days of August, add a presidential election. What do you get? Time for the mainstream media to roll over like Fido for the Democratic candidate.
Staffers for the District's embattled mayor have sought the advice of a crisis-management expert who advised Monica Lewinsky and inspired the television drama "Scandal," according to emails obtained by the Associated Press.
William F. Buckley Jr., addressing the issue of complaining in 1961, wrote: "When our voices are finally mute, when we have finally suppressed the natural instinct to complain, whether the vexation is trivial or grave, we shall have become automatons, incapable of feeling." How apt his words are for Joan Rivers, a woman whose complaints are trivial and whose body is almost in the grave.
This is not what Barack Obama expected for a coming-out party. The "historic" revelation that he is now fully evolved, as from tadpole to frog, and now grooves on same-sex marriage, was meant to be marked with quiet ceremony. No music, no flowers, no kiss, no dancing, not even a cupcake.
When you have a young woman screaming in a hallway about some sort of grievance she has with you, you have a problem. Even a Secret Service agent, surrounded by his buddies, has a problem. I know about this sort of thing from my work in the archives pursuant to my researches as a presidential historian.
Bob Livingston, a successful D.C. lobbyist who served in Congress under then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and is one of the biggest boosters of his presidential campaign, said he and Mr. Gingrich have grown since their days in the House, when both of them were accused of marital infidelity.
Eleanor Mondale, the vivacious daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale who carved out her own reputation as an entertainment reporter, radio show host and gossip magnet, has died at her home in Minnesota. She was 51.
Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the nomination of Goodwin Liu for an appeals court judgeship, accusing him of being a liberal activist and handing President Obama his first judicial defeat of the year.
Vilification has set in: Arnold Schwarzenegger's marital infidelity was politicized the moment the news he fathered a love child with a household employee hit public radar.
Ah, the few, the proud. That would be the 65 Gridiron Club members who have finally drawn President Obama to their annual dinner Saturday night at the Renaissance Washington Hotel.
"The vote to sustain the filibuster relied almost exclusively on dishonest and distorted attacks on Professor Liu's record and character," she said.
She told me: 'There will never be another man in my life that could make me as happy as he did.'
