In mid-March, Washington Post reporter Jonathan Weisman made a startling confession on media columnist Jim Romenesko’s Web site. Weisman acknowledged that he changed a quote in a story about R. Glenn Hubbard, President Bush’s departing economic adviser, after receiving pressure from the White House. He admitted that the switch violated journalistic ethics, but he also […]
Mary Lynn Jones
Mary Lynn F. Jones is a Washington-based writer. Her work has also appeared in The Chicago Tribune, National Journal, the Washington Business Journal, and Barron’s Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges. A native Washingtonian, Jones has been a regular political commentator for WMAL-AM and has made numerous radio and television appearances, including on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” and Fox News Channel. Mary Lynn received her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.
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Empty Promises
One of the more useless means of measuring support for the presidential candidates is now underway: the race among candidates to win endorsements from members of Congress. It carries little if any weight with voters — most of whom probably don’t even know it’s happening — and doesn’t mean much for the candidates or the […]
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Lightning Twice
George W. Bush’s presidency is looking a lot like his father’s. The same people serve in his administration, another economic downturn has hit American workers and Iraq is again the target of a U.S. military campaign. Add another similarity to the list: George W. Bush is likely to be a one-term president, just like his […]
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Money Matters
Washington has been abuzz the last few days about the $7.4 million Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) raised for his presidential campaign in the first three months of this year. Granted, it’s an impressive number and a good start to the campaign. But it’s nowhere close to the amount of money the party’s eventual nominee will […]
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Channel Changer
There was good news last week, and it came from an unusual source: CNN. After months of staffing up on such big names as Aaron Brown, Paula Zahn and Connie Chung, CNN decided to let Chung go. And television news will be the better for it. Chung — whose big accomplishments on other networks have […]
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Senator’s Senator
There have been few great public intellectuals in the Senate in recent years. The chamber has more than its share of show horses, of course. It has workhorses, too. But very few men and women stand out for their ability to shape and move the nation’s debate forward based on intellectual merit. Former Sen. Daniel […]
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The Republican Railroad
In July of 1994, just four months before Republicans swept the elections and won control of Congress, then-Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) blasted the Democratic leadership for trying to ram health-care reform legislation through Congress without giving the minority party a chance to be heard. “It is fundamentally wrong for America,” he said, “for people who […]
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Oil Slick
Buried under all the war coverage last week was a piece of news damaging to the Bush administration’s domestic agenda: Its plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was defeated narrowly in the Senate. ANWR drilling, of course, was the central plank of George W. Bush’s energy platform. He’d even […]
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Rule Breaker
When most people don’t like the rules of a particular game, they either complain that the rules are unfair or they quit the game altogether. Not President Bush. He just changes the rules. Consider a few recent examples. Bush and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer didn’t like some of the recent questions and comments […]
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Primary Focus
When Bill Clinton left the White House in 2001, a lot of people predicted that he would have a hard time making the transition from being the most powerful man in the world to being a former most powerful man in the world. They were right. Clinton may have faded from view right after George […]