There’s nothing to celebrate about the sad conclusion of Denny Hastert’s public life. The tragedy, the pathos, the abuse of teenage boys over whom he exercised so much control. A broken, disgraced man in a wheelchair, ending his career in government housing: sentenced to 15 months for illegally structuring bank withdrawals to funnel money to […]

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  Image Credit: Edel Rodríguez Six months ago, The Washington Spectator’s newly hired National Correspondent Rick Perlstein made a bold prediction. Donald Trump was not the momentary political curiosity most media outlets described. Trump was, in fact, a growing political force that most reporters and political pundits didn’t understand because they were completely disconnected from the […]

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Photo Credit: Mike Rastiello Singer-songwriter Gary P. Nunn sometimes closes his shows with a ripping rendition of “You Ask Me What I Like About Texas.” Ah, Texas! The Lone Star Beer, the barbecue, the boots, the bullshit, the batshit-crazy candidates routinely elected to public office. Among the elected officials is a Republican attorney general so religiously homophobic […]

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Photo Credit: Toby Marks I was covering a committee hearing in the Texas House 25 years ago when a legislator asked a witness an interesting question: “Are there any unintended consequences we’re not anticipating?” At the time, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, swept into office by evangelicals and Tea Partiers in 2014, was the host […]

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Ben Carson was on the ropes at the last Republican debate. But it didn’t matter. By that time, his improbable run for the presidency was all but over. In fact, the campaign was already on life support the last week in December, when campaign manager Barry Bennett was sent packing, along […]

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