Ben Fritz

Alan Colmes knows that progressives don’t like his style. But FOX’s lone liberal talk-show host is just asking for a little respect. He’s proud, in fact, of his reputation as the laid-back half of Hannity & Colmes on FOX News. His on-air persona, he says, is consistent with the style of “a true liberal, someone […]

Does American politics need an injection of American Idol? It may not have been the most intellectual of shows, but the summer’s biggest television hit provides a model that might be just what our ailing electoral process needs. Liberals have long complained that our political system is being destroyed by the influences of big money […]

Phil Donahue is the kind of dying-breed liberal who seems convinced that if we all just really listen to each other, put aside our differences and realize that we have the same values at heart, everyone will get along and the world will be a better place. There’s something admirable about that sort of compassion. […]

In the renewed battle over tax cuts, there’s an emerging logic from Tom Daschle and most of the Senate Democrats: The best policy is to let rates fall dramatically until 2010 when the Bush tax cut expires; rates will then bounce back to their 2000 levels. It’s crazy, of course, but a bizarre form of […]

After President Bush announced in his State of the Union address that he would support and expand the much maligned Clinton-era public service program AmeriCorps, some Republicans shook their heads. Majority Leader Dick Armey remarked that he couldn’t understand “why anybody would embrace AmeriCorps,” labeling it “obnoxious.” And in an editorial last Thursday, The Wall […]

During his second term, Bill Clinton sometimes lamented that he didn’t have any big events to test his mettle and secure a legacy. With the economy booming and the world largely at peace, he was left with no immediate challenges through which to show his leadership, and nothing to push his sex life and investment […]

When a commentator like Ann Coulter calls for the mass deportation of all Muslim non-citizens from “suspect countries,” it is tempting to simply write her off as an extremist light years off her rocker. But as we look deeper at the increasingly venomous tirades of pundits since September 11, it becomes clear that the trend […]