Charles Pierce

I’m following with some interest the argument about which adjective we’re going to hang on the president’s plans for Social Security. (I have yet to hear from the White House communications shop on my suggestion — “The Let Granny Eat Grass Act Of 2005” — and, I confess, I am not optimistic.) It appears that […]

It was the cheese that most worried me. In fact, in the USA Today story about the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general — the guy who was named after Superman but who won’t be returning to his post because he kept leaping into phone booths and emerging as Paul O’Neill — you might even […]

(Being a transcript of an Oval Office meeting in regard to the vacant position of secretary of homeland security, the president and Alberto Gonzales, White House counsel, being present.) “Alberto, we need a new one.” “Yes, sir. A new what, sir?” “I’ll get to that, but first, would you please go into the Lincoln Bedroom, […]

Let’s talk about sex. (OK, so that’s not exactly your run-of-the-mill American Prospect topic sentence. It’s nothing at all like, say, “Let’s talk about the trade deficit.” Or, “Let’s talk about Kofi Annan.” Or even the one that became so popular in the first week of November, “Let’s talk about slagging Bob Shrum with a […]

This is my own true tale of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and why it owes me a dinner. In January of 2003, I wrote a piece for The Boston Globe Magazine ruminating on the 40 years that Edward Kennedy has been in the United States Senate. At one point early on, I decided to […]

I think it’s time that we removed beer from certain parts of the political culture. Not literally, god knows. There are a number of people involved in the political culture whom no thinking person would ever want to encounter entirely sober. But perhaps it’s time to stop using beer as a rhetorical beverage. Perhaps it’s […]

Just recently, I decided to be a little more flexible about being obstinate. When I was growing up, we were taught that it was not such a good thing to be obstinate. In fact, I first heard the word “obstinate” from a nun who was telling me that I was obstinate, and for a while […]

A little more than 20 years ago, back when I was a baby reporter for an alternative newspaper in Boston, we had an election for governor. The Democratic side was a true bloodletting, a rematch between former Governor Michael Dukakis and the incumbent, Edward King, who had pretty much Atwatered Dukakis out of the Corner […]

Things have gotten a bit tangled on the old electric television set these days. All sorts of strange critters seem to be wandering around inside the cathode’s glass. Chris Matthews’ political libido, for example. Last time I saw it, it was sitting in the Prospect Buffet, staring down at a spot between its hands, the […]