WASHINGTON — The political battles raging in states across America are cast as about whether big labor retains its considerable clout. Republican governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Chris Christie of New Jersey say public employees are fleecing taxpayers, causing fiscal chaos. It’s an inhere...

After the article in this paper last week, it seems apparent that there needs to be an attempt to clarify a couple of points regarding the “Who’s My Neighbor” meeting at the Arboretum. I believe a couple of quotes were offered here in this paper without adequate context. One of the quotes “W...

WASHINGTON — “He’s not one of us.” That phrase, uttered in the fourth minute of what Scott Walker believed to be a private phone conversation, reveals quite a bit about the rookie governor of Wisconsin. Walker believed he was talking to a patron, conservative billionaire David Koch, but than...

Four days after the Tunisian people overthrew their dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the Swiss government ordered its banks to seize Ben Ali’s suspiciously acquired funds. A few days after that, the European Union froze Ben Ali’s assets in Europe....

Mocked for the timidity of his proposed 2012 budget, President Obama appeared before reporters last week to insist that he is open to serious deficit reduction beyond what’s laid out in his plan. People in Washington are so impatient, he complained. Why would anyone think that his 2,403-page fisca...

NEW YORK — Now would be a very good time to be a cartoonist. Or perhaps not. As the late cartoonist Doug Marlette frequently lamented, “How do you cartoon a cartoon? We’re living in ‘Toon Town.’“ On the other hand, sometimes only a cartoon character will do. There’s hardly any way to t...

Shortly after being appointed to the Cabinet in 2003, I sought the advice of one of my predecessors. He cautioned me to be prudent in exercising the considerable regulatory power Congress had granted these offices, noting: “The place has more power than a good person needs or a bad person ought to...

WASHINGTON — New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s first big speech in Washington was titled, “It’s Time to Do the Big Things,” and, sure enough, it didn’t take him long to make a fat joke.   Recalling that his predecessor, Democrat Jon Corzine, slept on a cot in the office wh...

WASHINGTON —“So be it.”  That was House Speaker John Boehner’s cold answer when asked Tuesday about job losses that would come from his new Republican majority’s plans to cut tens of billions of dollars in government spending this year.  “Do you have any sort of estimate on how...

WASHINGTON — It’s a week late to be writing about Ronald Reagan, except controversy continues to swirl around the late president after the commemoration of his 100th birthday. Political conservatives accuse liberals and Democrats of trying to hijack his legacy; some resent President Barack Obama...