Other Writing
A Review of “The Rough Rider & The Professor” in The Washington Post
A Review of “The Rough Rider & The Professor ” in The New York Sun
Presidents Have Learned How to Avoid Surprises from their SCOTUS Nominees – The Washington Post
Tribute to David McCullough – Letter to the New York Times
David McCullough, who was known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America’s past, died on Sunday at his home in Hingham, Mass., southeast of Boston. He was 89.
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Trump and Andrew Jackson – History News Network
A few days before Donald Trump was scheduled to take the oath of office as the forty-fifth president of the United States, he attended a celebratory dinner honoring his Vice President, Mike Pence. In what the New York Times called “a free-flowing speech,” Mr. Trump not only praised Pence’s political acumen, but also compared the GOP electoral victory to the movement that swept President Andrew Jackson into the White House.
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Fox News, Trump & Reagan – Washington Post
Unsurprisingly, President Trump’s first two interviews after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be with Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. This comes just after Trump hired former Fox executive Bill Shine as a senior aide, strengthening already robust ties to the conservative network.
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Nixon and Trump’s Re-election – Washington Post
During the course of Pat Buchanan’s campaign for the 1992 GOP presidential nomination against incumbent George H.W. Bush, the former speechwriter to Richard M. Nixon ran on a platform titled “Putting and Keeping America First.” Buchanan’s themes included such issues as the construction of a wall on the Mexican border, taking a more aggressive position in the negotiation of trade deals and convincing America’s global allies to take greater responsibility for their own defenses.
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Trump, Kushner & COVID – Washington Post
On Wednesday, seeing the administration’s coronavirus response floundering, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, with no relevant experience, asserted himself, going so far as to have his “supermodel sister-in-law’s father, Kurt Kloss, an emergency room doctor,” crowdsource “suggestions from his Facebook network.”Kushner’s role in the coronavirus response is a reminder of his immense power in the Trump administration — power that caused serious friction with former Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. Kelly’s rocky, short-lived time in the White House began with high hopes, with observers believing the general would bring a grown-up sense responsibility to the administration’s reported disorder.
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Trump, Congress & FDR – Napa Valley Register
Sitting next to Sen. Dean Heller, an opponent of the Senate Republicans’ bill replacing the Affordable Care Act, at lunch on Wednesday, President Donald Trump mused: “He wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?”During the luncheon, Trump also issued a veiled threat that he would campaign against Republicans who obstructed his agenda.
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Reagan & His Favorite Magazine – National Review
On October 23, 1980, William F. Buckley Jr. wrote a confidential note to the Republican presidential nominee, Ronald Reagan. It was twelve days before the election that Buckley and other conservatives believed would result in Reagan’s becoming the 40th president of the United States.
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John McCain – Letter New York Times
Senator McCain was a remarkable man. The courage, optimism, humor and dignity he displayed throughout his life should be an inspiration to all of those who aspire to public service. During the many decades he spent in Congress, Senator McCain never forgot that our political system was based on compromise and thoughtfulness.
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Bypassing Congress to Build a Wall – Letter New York Times
I continue to be amazed by the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. In 2014, when President Obama stated he would take executive action to protect four to five million immigrants from deportation, the House speaker, John Boehner, referred to the president as “an emperor” who had exceeded his constitutional authority.
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Biden and COVID – Letter and New York Times
Dear President Biden,
We are writing to you ahead of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to urge that you take on a global leadership role and fulfill your promise of addressing COVID-19 around the world. We understand that during the UNGA, you will be hosting a global vaccine summit with the participation of other world leaders where you will be announcing an admirable target of 70% of the world’s population to be vaccinated within the next year.
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The GOP – letter and New York Times
Now that Republicans have lost the presidential election and the party’s leaders have failed to achieve their stated priority, to make Barack Obama a one-term president, debate has begun over the reasons for their failure and over the party’s future. This failure seems partly due to the party’s inability to cultivate credible or inspiring leaders and its commitment to tac policies that benefit mainly the rich at the expense of social services that most Americans support.
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The Presidency – Letter New York Times
Our constitution–and the political system it created–is one of the remarkable creations of man. It justly deserves our reverence, but not slavish orthodoxy.
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