Terence Samuel

Among Dick Cheney’s most effective moments in his debate with John Edwards was when he said he had never met Edwards, even though he was on Capitol Hill nearly every Tuesday when the Senate is in session. Using his typical boulder-off-the-mountain delivery he said: “The first time I ever met you was when you walked […]

If John Kerry loses the presidential election, the reasons will be obvious: war, terrorism, compromised on the central issue of the moment (Iraq), a campaign with no pizzazz (John Edwards, we hardly knew you!), loss of the soccer moms, and a high-speed slime machine that began dumping on him immediately after Super Tuesday, If he […]

The tired sighs heard across much of Washington last week captured the general reaction to the news that “Mayor for Life” — and notorious crack smoker — Marion Barry had won a primary election. It pretty much ensured him a seat on the City Council and a voice in the political maelstrom of the District. […]

When the chair of the House Republican Conference put out a statement this week criticizing Teresa Heinz Kerry for not being sufficiently appreciative of the term “first lady,” you knew the season of the Big Blow had arrived. The next three weeks, or however long it takes for Congress to get out of town and […]

NEW YORK — I’m not sure why, because it should have been obvious by now, but one of the biggest epiphanies out of the week in New York has been the fact that while Democrats and detractors are trying to wish George W. Bush away this November, a whole lot of Republicans are thinking about […]

HEDGESVILLE, W.Va. — This is a little town on Route 9, almost directly south of where the Potomac loops around in the mountains and begins its run toward the Chesapeake Bay. There is a big Food Lion grocery store and a 7-11 that sells liquor. Cornfields and apple orchards ripple out from the middle of […]

Ohio schmohio. If you want a real fix on where this election is going to be decided, pay attention to where House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is spending her time next week: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Except for New Mexico, where Al Gore won by a whopping 366 votes in 2000, these are […]

A few months ago I got on an elevator in the Dirksen Senate Office Building with retiring GOP Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, the man whose decision not to seek re-election set off what has been one of the weirdest election contests in recent memory. Lamenting the lack of diversity in his party, and what […]

The next urgent issue facing the Kerry campaign is how to survive August, because it ain’t gonna be no walk on the beach. This is traditionally a quiet time in presidential campaigns, but the Bush camp, still looking for an effective way to disqualify the Democratic nominee in the eyes of voters, will open up […]

BOSTON — At the corner of Summer and Washington streets, a block away from the Boston Common, which by Saturday was already teeming with the Democratic hordes, I saw a man wearing a blue Nader baseball cap, with a blue Nader button to match. Except for the obvious recklessness of the act, the man seemed […]