Full Court Press—The Supreme Court’s last week of the summer began with decisions upholding the death penalty in Kansas, overturning strict campaign-finance laws in Vermont and largely approving Tom DeLay’s redistricting power-grab in Texas. Conservatives seemed to be getting everything they wanted from the new Roberts-Alito court until the end of the week. Then the […]

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Hold the Hybrid—A picture may be worth a thousand words, but three pictures can provide priceless publicity. That’s why Senate Democrats recently held a press conference at a local Exxon station a block from their offices on Capitol Hill, where gas is $3.10 a gallon for regular unleaded. It doesn’t help that Exxon’s outgoing CEO […]

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At the beginning of January, Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced that he would not attempt to return to his post as House majority leader. After being indicted by a Texas grand jury on money-laundering charges, DeLay had initially said he was stepping down only temporarily. Apparently his simultaneous involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal […]

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In a 1977 interview with David Frost, Richard Nixon made a comment that became seared in the American psyche as a perfect example of how a president must not treat the office. Frost asked Nixon if he believed a president is entitled to act illegally if he believes it is in the best interest of the nation. […]

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With this issue of the Washington Spectator, we bid farewell to our longtime friend and colleague Ben A. Franklin, who died after a long illness on November 19. Ben was only the second editor in the Washington Spectator‘s history, following Tristram Coffin, the veteran Washington reporter who started this newsletter as Washington Watch back in 1971. Ben was a Timesman, […]

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