June 29, 2009
Al From and the Founding of Today’s Majority Democratic Party (Lanny Davis)
This column appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, June 29.
Sometimes a private citizen — someone who has never run for office but has a vision and a political idea, someone who is both stubborn and insightful — can change the course of political history.
Thomas Paine is an example of one such person. His words and ideas literally helped change the course of U.S. history. In 1776, his first two of four pamphlets, "Common Sense" and "The Crisis" — the latter beginning with the famous opening line, "These are the times that try men's souls" — have been credited with mobilizing public opinion to help motivate American colonists to fight the British in what was deemed to be an unwinnable war. They reportedly were read by a greater percentage of the population of the American colonies than the percentage that watches the Super Bowl today. > Read More
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What's This June 22, 2009
Obama-Clinton: A Great Team of Rivals (Lanny Davis)
The following appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, June 22.
The positive media and bipartisan praise of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's leadership at the State Department — she is called a "superstar" by the top Republican on the House panel that oversees State and has an approval rating of 80 percent — misses an important point: This is not about Mrs. Clinton alone. This is about powerful synergy between President Obama and Mrs. Clinton. > Read More
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What's This June 15, 2009
Sotomayor is No Reverse Racist (Lanny Davis)
The following appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, June 15.
By now, most people have heard — negatively — about the 2006 case Ricci v. DeStefano, in which 18 New Haven firefighters (17 white and one Hispanic) were not promoted after passing the required tests because there were no blacks whose test scores were high enough to qualify them for promotion. > Read More
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What's This June 8, 2009
Does Israel Need Obama's Tough Love? (Lanny Davis)
The following appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, June 8.
I thought President Obama's speech in Cairo was eloquent and historic and could well be regarded as one of the most important foreign policy speeches ever made by any U.S. president.
Some American Jews do not like Mr. Obama in his speech publicly calling out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to support a two-state solution and a freeze on all settlements. My answer is: Why is this? Mr. Netanyahu is breaking not only with the policies of three prior presidents but of three prior Israeli prime ministers. > Read More
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What's This June 1, 2009
Sotomayor: Great Judge, Strict Constructionist (Lanny Davis)
The following appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, June 1.
Suppose a black female nurse is seriously injured during her work at a hospital and is forced to take a medical leave of absence. When she returns almost a year later, she reapplies for new jobs but doesn't get any offers of comparable salary and seniority. For one of the jobs for which she was turned down, two white women with disabilities are chosen. For another job for which she was rejected, a younger white male is hired. > Read More
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What's This May 26, 2009
Second Thoughts on Cheney Indictment (Lanny Davis)
The following appeared originally in The Washington Times of Monday, May 25.
I began having second thoughts about last week's column urging the indictment of former Vice President Dick Cheney for approving the use of waterboarding and other forms of illegal torture, shortly after it was published and posted last Monday morning — days before the Obama-Cheney back-to-back speeches Thursday. > Read More
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What's This May 18, 2009
The Cheney Dare (Lanny Davis)
This article appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, May 18.
I have written many times in this space that I oppose any criminal prosecution of prior-administration officials on torture or other issues relating to the Iraq War and the war on terrorism, especially those CIA interrogators who relied in good faith on the instructions of policymakers and the legal opinions issued by Justice Department senior officials.
I have agreed with President Obama on the need to look forward, not backward. > Read More
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What's This May 11, 2009
Kemp: True Purple Nation Leader (Lanny Davis)
Note: This column appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, May 11.
It was the second night of Passover, in spring 2007. Jack and Joanne Kemp were with us at our Seder table. The story of the Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt is told, year after year, in a small book called the Haggadah, recited for centuries in one form or another in Jewish homes throughout the world. > Read More
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What's This May 4, 2009
The Specter Switch: The Incredible Shrinking Republican Party (Lanny Davis)
This column appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, May 4.
We are not losing blue states and shrinking as a party because we are not conservative enough. If we pursue a party that has no place for someone who agrees with me 70 percent of the time, that is based on an ideological purity test rather than a coalition test, then we are going to keep losing.
— Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican
When I read Mr. Graham's comment last week regarding the switch to the Democratic Party by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, I was reminded of one of my favorite movies from my preteen years, the 1957 movie classic "The Incredible Shrinking Man." > Read More
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What's This April 27, 2009
President Clinton: Obama Made Right Call on Torture Memos (Lanny Davis)
The following appears originally in The Washington Times of Monday, April 27.
I was planning to write today's column assessing President Obama's first 100 days. But in the middle of writing that column on a quiet Saturday afternoon (I was going to give him an A-minus — surprise), my phone rang and it was former President Bill Clinton, whom I first met in fall 1970, a few months after I graduated from Yale Law School. > Read More
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