Biden and Harris Broke the Suffocating "Washington Consensus" on Economics. They put a stake through neoliberalism. Now, the vice president has to convince voters that her antitrust, trade, and public investment policies, unlike Trump’s, will improve their lives. The post Biden and Harris Broke the Suffocating “Washington Consensus” on Economics appeared first on Washington Monthly ..read more

Is it too late to fix the Congressional Research Service, Congress’s in-house think tank? On March 20, interim director Robert Newlen described encountering a staffer balancing her cell phone on a door jamb in the repurposed Washington, D.C. book depository that houses CRS. When asked why, she explained that it was the only place she could get cell service and be responsive to calls from congressional offices. When called, she would answer, hang up, and call back from outside the building. Newlen relayed the grim anecdote at a hearing held by the House Modernization Subcommittee on revitalizi ..read more

It was October 27, 1994, and a day earlier, Israel and Jordan had signed a peace treaty in the desert expanse that straddled the once-warring nations. It was just a year after the Oslo Accords. Bill Clinton and his press corps were on the road to Damascus, where he would be the first president to meet strongman Hafez al-Assad in Syria in almost 20 years. When our charter flight touched down at Damascus International Airport, amid propaganda posters of Assad and plenty of menacing Syrian security forces, my friend Walter Shapiro asked me to snap a few photos. One Jewish kid from the New York s ..read more

Charlie Peters, my original mentor in the magazine world, used to say that the hardest talent to find among aspiring writers was a true, light, instinctive comic touch. Lots of people could work hard, write fast, and stay up late. Lots of people were politics nuts or history buffs. Many people were willing to ask questions and do research and go through the repeated self-education that is the reporter’s life. But somebody who had an innate sense of the one-liner, of the observation that would crack up a too-serious gathering, of the set-up joke that didn’t seem set-up at all—and who could do ..read more

Earlier this month, in Milwaukee, as Republicans gathered to nominate Donald Trump for a third time, there was plenty of demonizing to be seen and heard on the convention floor. Signs that said “Mass Deportation Now” were passed out to and displayed by delegates. Many speakers targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and espoused divisive rhetoric. Armed with polling data, Republican candidates and operatives believe angry buzzwords will energize their supporters and sway parts of the electorate. However, many polls pose questions with “negative fr ..read more

At age 81, President Joe Biden finally threw in the towel. He will not be the Democratic party’s nominee. He was quick to tap his Vice President Kamala Harris to head the ticket, and if the Democrats rally around her, as Biden urged, she will be a formidable candidate. Biden was too old to run for another four-year term, and I believe Donald Trump, in addition to his other disqualifications, is too old, too. I am 84, three years older than Biden and five years older than Trump. I am a retired trial lawyer. I was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York at the beginning of my ..read more

Any incumbent president running for re-election tells some variation of this basic narrative: We are better off than we were four years ago. Voters can be confident our policies are working and will help solve the remaining problems.   The 2024 election was unusual because two incumbents were running, each selling his version of that narrative. But the current incumbent, Joe Biden, had lost his ability to communicate coherently, while the former incumbent, Donald Trump, was selling a romanticized-at-best, mendacious-at-worst, version of his tenure.  Now that Biden has withdrawn and ..read more

This story was originally published on October 24, 2020. California is waiting to be welcomed back into the national conversation after four years of disrespect and neglect from the White House. In a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, not only will California’s favorite daughter bridge the widened — and widening — federal-state divide, she will team with a President Biden to rebuild America’s powerful role in the world. In fact, Harris could be key to building new strategic global relationships and alliances. (Disclosure: My wife and I are Harris’ longtime friends.) While Biden shores up ..read more

The painful circumstances of the end to Joe Biden’s candidacy will soon be forgotten, but the accomplishments of his presidency will be remembered for generations. Biden will be seen by historians as the most consequential one-term president in American history, with trillions in investments in infrastructure, technology, and green energy that will propel the United States forward. And his exit will be in the selfless tradition of Cincinnatus and George Washington, who originated the peaceful transfer of power that is the sine qua non of our republic. As I reviewed why Biden definitely had to ..read more

The Supreme Court is out of the news, and reporters are focused on the presidential election, including whether Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, the despicable attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and the nomination of J. D. Vance for vice president. But no one should take the summer off from what the Court is doing. America is facing an assault on our democracy, carried out by the Court’s supermajority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, and lower court judges. Democrats must respond to this attack, no matter their nominee, even if the Court is out of the headlines with its term ..read more