ArcaMax

"...sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything." -- Abraham Lincoln, Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois.

Excuse me. I never promised you a Rose Garden, right, folks?

Oh, what a life, until the pandemic happened to me. We have a fantastic economy, a bull stock market, unbelievable crowd ...Read more

Washington -- Rep. John Robert Lewis of Georgia was living proof that nonviolent resistance is not for the faint of heart. Short and stocky, he carried scars of a fractured skull, from billy club blows on a bridge in Selma, Alabama -- scars visible to the multitudes he met. He was 25 back in 1965.

The story of those scars is told in his memoir,...Read more

President Donald Trump tells us he's an ace at cognition and intellect tests, never mind cheating on the SAT.

No president ever bragged about burning bright as a "genius" before, but you know our guy. He doesn't kid, especially about himself.

As a diversion from the country convulsed in contagion and turmoil, let's look at the big picture of ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Statues are all the rage as the house of American history came under fire from street protests for racial justice.

Statues do more than honor the dead. Stone speaks to us, the living, about privilege, power and place.

Statues are not always reliable narrators of "history."

Confederate statues are defiant symbols of white male ...Read more

A monologue overheard on Air Force One:

What a rush. My greatest speech, on the Fourth of July. Trump, loud and clear. Better than that Frederick Douglass. Everybody's talking about me. South Dakota, you made America great again!

I said to myself, Donald, it's showtime -- a season finale. I had to clear the field of my enemies, America'...Read more

Pen pals in the sunsets of their lives, they wrote between Massachusetts and Virginia until they both died on the same Fourth of July. It's an extraordinary rhyme in American history, which has extra meaning for our hard times.

"I loved Jefferson, and I have always loved Jefferson," one wrote about the other, after a long silence separated the ...Read more

Please pass the schadenfreude. How sweet it is. Let me count the ways.

On this side of the Civil War, we're reveling in the summery rose garden of President Donald Trump's utterly failed few days. We hope to see many more.

Schadenfreude is a German word for pleasure at another's pain. True to his Teutonic roots, Trump is a master. Never have ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Eleven Confederate statues still stand tall in the Capitol. Let the ghost of the "Lost Cause" be gone for good as the nation undergoes a wrenching racial awakening.

Oh, no, says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He refuses to "airbrush the Capitol."

Call me a Yankee, but I have no love for men who praise men who took ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- In June light, the American president waged war against the people. In a mass mobilization, the people won a peaceful victory, wresting the nation's meaning from the maw. Two female leaders made all the difference.

I heard it first from a fighter pilot named Smash. Active duty military must never be deployed at home. That's un-...Read more

WASHINGTON -- It was the worst of times. But the best of times are far from here. President Donald Trump is veering toward martial law, as announced in the Rose Garden the very moment peaceful resisters were tear-gassed in nearby Lafayette Square. Mounted police were a nice touch, too -- part of the plan. Flanked by the president's men, Trump ...Read more

Political wisdom says the 2020 election is simple: a referendum on President Donald Trump, even if he ran against the village idiot. It's about the strong feelings he stirs up.

You have your unforgettable Trump moments. I have mine. The nation's would fill a salty sea. Memorial Day in Baltimore made me see red, white and blue.

Baltimore's ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- I went to the House to hear the noise of democracy. It might be my last chance. Amid the pandemic, members met for a day and rewrote the rules of American politics, perhaps for good.

Within the Capitol walls, the marble halls were hushed. The plush Speaker's Lobby, where we do press interviews under chandeliers, was dark. That ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The vice president's refusal to wear a mask in the Mayo Clinic began a big reveal: his pattern of exposing others to COVID-19, including the nation's top doctors and a close aide.

Vice President Mike Pence unmasked his true character that April day in Minnesota, and again every day in May since. He put vulnerable patients at risk,...Read more