ArcaMax

In new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's, R-Calif., own words: "She reminds me of my friends from high school, that we're going to stick together all the way through."

That's an operative quote from the man of small-town Bakersfield, California. He refers to despicable Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a Donald Trump loyalist whom he embraced --...Read more

WASHINGTON -- So, what city gave America the only woman House speaker, the most senior senator and the first woman vice president?

San Francisco, of course, that fair city.

But here in Washington, nobody knows this.

Few give props to San Francisco for making -- or breaking -- American history. But a trifecta of Democratic women in high places...Read more

WASHINGTON -- A full House for four days and four nights felt like 40 in the political wilderness.

Pumping his fist like a frat bro, California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy eked out a victory for House speaker.

Even then, the man from Bakersfield showed no gravitas.

Look it up, Kevin.

Brooklyn's Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the new Democratic ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- They thought they'd fool the grown-ups and get away with it all.

George Santos and Sam Bankman-Fried are arrivistes in their 30s. A coincidence? I think not. Yet it's not only that they witnessed Donald Trump's "lie, boast and insult" presidency, with few consequences until this moment in time.

These fellas were also formed by ...Read more

The People's House to Senate: hello, we are what American democracy -- and demographics -- look like. The upper Capitol chamber is more country, while the House is more city.

The Senate, the "world's greatest deliberative body," is growing old -- literally. It does not deserve all the credit when the House does all the work.

Diverse House ...Read more

Light sweet justice cascaded over me when the Jan. 6 House committee found former President Donald J. Trump the "central cause" and instigator of the deadly mob attack on the Capitol.

This was personal for me and hundreds trapped inside the stone wall siege. Suddenly, we saw a surreal gun standoff in the House chamber and fog in the hallowed ...Read more

The noise of democracy fills the Capitol, while across First Street, the sound of silence rules at the Supreme Court. "The Nine" members are cloistered from all that.

Excuse me, I mean the Extreme Court, with no checks on power and no code of ethics.

Six of nine members are Republicans. In June, they sold reproductive rights down the river. ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- It's beginning to look a lot like...Washington. After years of trauma, the capital feels back to itself for Christmas.

The holiday ball for Congress just happened at the White House. The storied Willard Hotel, where Abraham Lincoln stayed days before he was inaugurated, revived the tradition of Christmas carols in the evening.

In...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Journalists don't cry. It's in the code of conduct. Yet tears welled in my eyes in the House press gallery when Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her farewell speech as Speaker, though she will stay on in Congress.

Reader, the stem-winder at high noon brought down the house. Clad in gleaming white, like a modern suffragette, Pelosi ...Read more

The country came to its senses last Tuesday, after a seven-year famine in our politics. The worst in our nature showed up in vulgar, violent and virulent former President Donald Trump.

The hard-fought congressional midterms are a turning point in our civil strife. Election Day delivered a crystal-clear verdict from the American people: ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Amazingly, I slept well on Election eve and missed the eerie lunar eclipse. I awoke to the sound of schoolboys playing on a bright beautiful fall day. The capital city was tied in knots over the national divide.

Still, I took the sound night's sleep as a good sign, women's intuition. Perhaps the day would pass in peace with no ex-...Read more

How social is social media?

Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, gives a clear answer to that question. Musk made the platform -- a public square -- his own boiling cauldron of hate just in time for Halloween.

Double blows to American democracy occurred overnight, within hours of each other. It seems a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

Enter ...Read more