ArcaMax

When former President George W. Bush broke down and briefly cried near the end of his eulogy to his father, former President George H. W. Bush, I felt more than sorrow for him. I felt connected.

I was reminded of when I got up to deliver a eulogy at my own father's funeral. "Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together ...," I silently ...Read more

Could former President George H. W. Bush have defeated current President Donald Trump? In a way, it already happened -- in 1992 -- although nobody would have known it at the time.

Trump did not run in that year's Republican primaries, but his ideas did. You can hear them in the fiery speeches of Patrick J. Buchanan, the conservative author, ...Read more

When a caravan of Central American families seeking asylum in the United States was almost a thousand miles away, President Donald Trump called it a "national emergency" on Twitter and ordered more than 5,000 troops to protect the border.

But by the time the first group of migrants arrived at the port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico, near San Diego...Read more

Thank you, Mr. President.

In this season of giving thanks, I want to express my gratitude to President Donald Trump for softening his longstanding knee-jerk lock-'em-up attitude toward criminal justice, whether he admits to softening or not.

The president has vigorously endorsed a proposed criminal justice bill that doesn't stink. That's ...Read more

To those who complain that I never seem to have anything positive to say about President Donald Trump, now hear this: I appreciate his lack of ability to hide his sexism and racism, among other odious -isms. Or maybe it's simply a lack of interest.

I try to use the S-word and the R-word sparingly. The words spark so many different reactions ...Read more

Did anyone expect at least a hint of humility from President Donald Trump after Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives? If so, they don't know our transactional president.

Almost lost in his occasionally hostile exchanges with reporters Wednesday at his first news conference after the midterms was the olive branch he offered to ...Read more

Like other so-called "incels," Scott P. Beierle's complaint about women who failed to see how wonderful he was, might have been simply funny, were it not so pathetic and, in the end, tragic.

Beierle, 40, was identified as the gunman who posed as a customer to go on a killing spree in a Tallahassee, Fla., yoga studio Friday. He shot two women to...Read more

Blacks and Jews need to get along, my father used to say, or we bring joy to those who have neither group's interests in mind.

That useful bit of wisdom came to mind as synagogues across the country invited guests to join them this weekend. Some would light 13 candles in memory of two tragedies: The politics/fromtheleft/clarencepage/s-2142297">Read more

In her first formal press briefing after a mail bomb plot against more than a dozen prominent Democrats and a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders responded in a fashion characteristic to her boss: she went on the offense.

After delivering a prepared statement denouncing anti-Semitism, she denounced...Read more

When will they ever learn? Megyn Kelly is by no means the first white person to get into trouble over blackface imitations of black people. But she's the first I can recall who may be punished not for doing it but just for talking about it.

NBC confirmed Friday morning that Kelly was negotiating her exit from the network. She went on hiatus ...Read more

Knowing President Donald Trump's fondness for needless provocations, I actually felt somewhat relieved when he made news by declaring that he wants to be called a "nationalist."

At least he didn't insert a troubling adjective to call himself something like "ethno-nationalist," "economic nationalist," "cultural nationalist" or -- heaven help us ...Read more

As midterm elections approach, which frightens you most: Fear of Latin American refugees marching in a "caravan" toward our southern border? Or loss of your medical coverage for preexisting conditions?

Such are the dominant themes that have boiled up for Republicans and Democrats, respectively, in their national contest to win control of ...Read more

Two weeks after Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared, President Trump said he believes the Saudi-born journalist is dead, that high-level Saudis played a role and the consequences will "have to be very severe" for such "bad, bad stuff."

Then the president flew to Montana where he praised Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte, calling ...Read more

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to reclaim her Native American heritage, but President Donald Trump doesn't appear to be done with it yet.

Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been behaving like someone who is seriously considering a presidential run, surprised the political world on Monday by releasing DNA test results to back up her long-held...Read more

Maybe Donald Trump really believes his hype about the "lying media." That might explain why his effort to produce a commentary longer than a tweet contains enough falsehoods to have fact checkers working overtime.

His op-ed published Wednesday by USA Today mostly recycles old conservative attacks against government-run health care, spiced with ...Read more

"Are you scared?"

I asked my unmarried and almost-30 son that question as we had a sushi lunch.

"Working on a column?" he responded.

Guilty. My son plays hard to get. In the fashion of his fellow millennials, he doesn't want to be quoted unless the interview is being podcast.

I assured him that I was only seeking a grassroots response to ...Read more

It must be terribly frustrating for Kanye West to see a Supreme Court confirmation fight in Washington elbow his new album out of the national spotlight. But that's show biz.

His latest wave of newsmaking appearances and tweets makes me wonder whether, at best, we're watching a genius at work or,...Read more

In a darkly amusing irony, Bill Cosby's menu for his first week in prison includes pudding.

No, it's not the pudding of the Jell-O Pudding Pops that Cosby memorably hawked in television commercials back in his 1980s heyday.

Locked up last week for three to 10 years as a convicted sex offender, Cosby is receiving plain off-brand prison-style ...Read more

This is not a trial. We constantly were reminded of that as the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh escalated into a bitter partisan brawl.

But the reality amounted to two trials. The credibility of California university professor ...Read more

As the heated debate over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court boils down to a simple question of which tribe will win, it's an excellent time to revisit Abraham Lincoln's reaction to signs that his nation was coming apart.

It would not be "some trans-Atlantic military giant" that threatens our political institutions, he said in a ...Read more