ArcaMax

WASHINGTON -- Wise women elders are our nation's saving grace at a moment when democracy is in peril from the president. Thankfully, a critical mass has aged gracefully into power.

It's high irony, little noted, that women in high government posts are the principals opposing the forces of President Donald Trump.

A female senator, 70, is ...Read more

The turkey, Benjamin Franklin felt, should be America's national bird.

Philadelphia's dear old sage is making a comeback this holiday for other reasons as we baste the bird for Thanksgiving -- or impeachment.

You can't turn a corner in the Capitol without hearing someone speak Franklin's adage, "A republic, if you can keep it."

That's what ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- On the ides of November, one woman's voice hushed the noise of the House.

An imperfect world rarely gives us perfect opposites. Marie Yovanovitch and Gordon Sondland are such a pair, called on different days to appear in the House impeachment inquiry.

The woman, an expert career diplomat, faced unrest and crossfire in hardship ...Read more

The week in Washington began quietly, but you can feel the rustle of a gathering storm as the public phase of the House's impeachment inquiry opens Wednesday.

All the capital's main players are taking their places onstage for a grave turn of events that harkens back to Watergate. Congress, the White House, the Justice and State Departments, the...Read more

WASHINGTON -- When the country is divided and in crisis, as we are now, it's remarkable how one brave person can point the way forward.

In civil war or Civil War, that person may be unknown or wanted by law. Like the current whistleblower, legendary Harriet Tubman played a major role in saving American democracy.

The Underground Railroad ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- On an October night, we saw a scene straight out of Americana. A president went to a World Series baseball game and got booed by the ballpark. The crowd chanted, "Lock him up," as if to remind President Donald Trump he faces impeachment in November.

The extraordinary third-inning moment was what Abraham Lincoln called a "public ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- You may wonder what the House and Senate, under that good-looking Capitol Dome, are truly like. Here's the way it is: They're like any unhappy American family but multiplied by 535.

In these times of sound and fury, strife and stress, with an impeachment inquiry hanging over the House, divided government is at work in a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- "Room clear!"

This is a new thing, when teacher and children clear a kindergarten room so an angry boy can run rampage over it alone.

The concept arises aptly for our time, place and president, whose wild temper bellows all over the city up to the Hill.

I picture the hapless Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump's acting chief ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Time for the old men in the Democratic presidential primary to bow out -- Joe Biden on the fourth try and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., on his second. Age is an issue in the high 70s, as Sanders' heart attack starkly reminds us.

At 76, Biden is fragile in another real sense: He's shown he can't stand up to President Donald Trump's...Read more

WASHINGTON -- You won't read it in a column by a man -- sorry, guys -- but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has perfect political pitch when it comes to impeaching President Donald Trump. Depend upon it, sir.

Trump knows it, too, which is why he sounds like a desperate man, with dark words like "arrest for treason" and "Civil War" -- when ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- On fall's first day, political seasons changed suddenly. The winds blow differently between the White House and the Capitol. Impeachment has landed at last.

The days are getting shorter now for President Donald Trump; the nights are lasting longer. And "Nancy's House" is getting madder. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights ...Read more

At 76 going on 77, Joe Biden brings his late son Beau Biden into play in the Democratic presidential race as a poignant reason to run for the third time. Let's look again.

Right in plain sight, front-runner Biden is virtually stealing from his son's generation of leaders.

Some strong contenders are Beau Biden's peers, such as Sens. Kamala ...Read more