R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR: Hillary Clinton trims the First Amendment

If I were to confess my prejudice for Greek barbers, what would be said of me? Well, it depends on where I said it. If were in Athens when I said that I prefer Greek barbers, my preference would be perfectly understandable. I might even become an instant celebrity.

May 3, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Obama shows contempt for unhobbled Britain

President Obama on Friday at a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron convinced me whether or not the British should stay in the European Union. The vote is on June 23. On Friday our president also penned a column in the Daily Telegraph, Britain's equivalent of The Washington Times and The Wall Street Journal.

April 26, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Bernie Sanders’ missed opportunity

It comes down to this. Crazy Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton because no other Democrat would stick his/her/its neck out. Hillary was billed as "Hillary the Inevitable" and the rest of the gullible Democrats believed it.

April 19, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton denounce 1990s criminal justice reform

Over the last few days former President Bill Clinton displayed one of the salient weaknesses of our famously weak contemporary politicians. He did this even while reminding Americans of one of his rare lapses into true leadership, his 1994 bipartisan legislation to lower crimes rates, particularly in the inner city.

April 12, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Paul Ryan’s road ahead

The speaker of the House, the Hon. Paul Ryan, recently expressed his hope for a "confident America." He went on to say, "We don't shut people down. If someone has a bad idea, we tell them why our idea is better. We don't insult them into agreeing with us." He spoke of the superiority of persuasion to execration.

March 29, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Learning to say ‘President Trump’

People on the left are forever thinking well about themselves when they exalt the lowly poor. When they cry out for world peace. When they declaim over race. As these Americans on the left prattle on about their alleged noble ends -- as opposed to the means to those ends -- some American conservatives have grown downright envious.

March 22, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Crazies seek election-year thrill

I have been an attentive observer of political protests for many moons. You might say I was present at the creation. For me, that would be back in 1968 at Chicago's Grant Park.

March 15, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: ‘The Death of Liberalism,’ updated

I wrote a book in 2011 with the felicitous title "The Death of Liberalism." The book's title pretty much said it all. By 2011, the ideology of Adlai Stevenson, of Hubert Humphrey, of Daniel Patrick Moynihan had expired. In the book I explained why liberalism was dead.

March 1, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Besmirching Antonin Scalia’s memory a costly error

I am certainly glad that The Washington Post reported on a controversy at Georgetown University last week, which was created by the sad death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Thanks to that informative report, I am canceling my million-dollar bequest to old Georgetown and channeling it elsewhere, probably to Donald Trump's super PAC, if I can find his super PAC.

February 23, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR: ‘Hillary the Inevitable’

Recall if you will those unforgettable royal figures from yesteryear with their peculiar cognomens. Some of my favorites are Ethelred the Unready, a famously tardy English king from the Middle Ages. Or how about Charles the Bald, the Holy Roman emperor whose glabrous head was widely remarked in his time and still is to this very day?

February 16, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Republicans offer fast economic growth, not slow or negative

Well, well, the stock market has, of a sudden, caught up with the Obama economy. The spectacle is not pretty. In January the market dropped like a stone. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 8.1 percent. On Friday the Nasdaq shed 3.25 percent points upon hearing the news that payroll additions grew by only 151,000 jobs.

February 9, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: The Clinton Curse returns

In the many decades I have had the pleasure of covering the Clintons I have developed several themes about them that have over the years been validated by fact. One theme is that there is a Clinton Curse.

February 2, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Conservatives takes issue with National Review

In reading Paul Johnson's masterful "Art: A New History," I came across a startling number of art masters who did bodies sublimely, hands and even landscapes brilliantly, but who could not plausibly paint a human face. Some of the artists recognized this and had their subjects look over their shoulder or off to the horizon, or were painted behind a floppy hat. Nonetheless, the artists are esteemed as great, though limited.

January 26, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Hillary Clinton threatened by Bill Clinton sex scandals

Did any of the political cognoscenti consult Real Clear Politics last Thursday? Those who did found that Donald Trump's recent charges that Hillary Clinton was for years her husband's "enabler" while committing "very seedy" behavior is irrefutable. Moreover, the evidence is contained in a book that has been right under our noses for years.

January 19, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Hillary Clinton’s problems multiply

This week, three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton spent valuable time during an appearance on "Face the Nation" swatting down stories that surfaced Friday. Early on Friday morning when most Americans are asleep, save second-story men, the State Department released thousands of Hillary's emails.

January 12, 2016

R EMMETT TYRRELL: Big government has made Chicago ungovernable

Chicago has always struck me as one of the most affluent cities in the world. Growing up in Chicagoland I saw little poverty in the city at the foot of glistening Lake Michigan. I am sure poverty was there, but Chicago in the 1960s seemed rich and abundant with opportunity.

January 5, 2016

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Cataloguing the Clinton lies

To those of us who have followed the ongoing Clinton Saga, which now reaches back almost 25 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton's computer server promises to become as historic as Monica Lewinsky's stained dress. That is to say, that her server may indeed become as significant to her presidential prospects as Monica's dress was to Bill's prospects for impeachment.

December 29, 2015

R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR: Women warriors and the bottle

It is apparently a little-known fact in the Obama administration that girls are weaker than boys and that grown women are weaker than grown men. Moreover, women training for combat positions suffer physical injuries at twice the rate of men, and they suffer significantly higher rates of mental disorders such as depression and anxiety after exposure to combat.

December 22, 2015

R. EMMETT TYRELL: Obama devoid of common sense, leaves no impression

Last week President Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the only one who reportedly leaves no shadow, ventured forth to Paris to join 196 other national leaders on official business.

December 8, 2015

R. EMMETT TYRRELL: Putin pouts about Syria

Truth be known, I once rather admired Vladimir Putin, as George W. Bush rather admired him. I cannot say as Mr. Bush can that I looked into his eyes and "was able to get a sense of his soul." But his nation has suffered so long through a century when the Western world had achieved so much.

December 1, 2015