John McNamara sized up the new guy.

Leaning in, he delivered unsolicited advice.

"You know, you really don't need the tie."

Maybe a month later, he caught me on casual Friday. This time, the offending article was a lime green polo shirt.

"You buy that in the men's department?" he deadpanned past my desk at our old building on Capital Drive. ...Read more

Half a century ago, one of the big topics of debate in Washington and on this editorial page was: Why don't European nations contribute more to NATO? Only back then, Republicans were the ones arguing forcefully for U.S. sacrifice on NATO's behalf, while Democratic Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield was NATO's fiercest critic. Today, ...Read more

When I was 7, I took a walk around my new neighborhood in Havertown. Back in 1969, kids could do that, and expect to circle back safely to our front steps. Unfortunately, I happened upon a "Do Not Enter" sign at the end of a street not two blocks from my house, and panicked. A precocious and obedient young citizen, I stopped. The options were ...Read more

If Proposition 9, a ballot measure that seeks to break California into three new states, is passed by voters in November, it would throw the entire state into upheaval and uncertainty for months, if not years, during which the battle over the state's fate would continue in the courts and in Congress.

Residents would have to live with the ...Read more

President Donald Trump's pardon of two Oregon ranchers this week for willfully destroying federal property establishes a new level of impunity for anyone who is mad as hell and thinks it's OK to take the law into his own hands. In Trump's America, that's no problem as long as the vigilante is white, prone to carry guns and whose fashion ...Read more

An editorial by the Capital Gazette

The funerals are over.

We said goodbye to John McNamara on Tuesday at the University of Maryland. In the days since the rampage in the Capital Gazette offices that killed John, Rebecca Smith, Wendi Winters, Gerald Fischman and Rob Hiaasen, family, friends and colleagues have gathered to say a final farewell....Read more

The record-breaking heat that baked Southern California and prompted mass power outages last weekend was just a taste of what is to come. Summers in SoCal have already been getting hotter over the last century. Climate change is expected to produce more frequent and more blistering heat waves in the coming years that will put unprecedented ...Read more

It's becoming more likely that this fall's elections will go very well for the Democrats. I haven't looked for a while at how the House is shaping up, so here's what we know now: The margin of error in any prediction about the House is large, and it's certainly very possible that Republicans will retain a small majority there, but Democrats ...Read more

John McNamara sized up the new guy.

Leaning in, he delivered unsolicited advice.

"You know, you really don't need the tie."

Maybe a month later, he caught me on casual Friday. This time, the offending article was a lime green polo shirt.

"You buy that in the men's department?" he deadpanned past my desk at our old building on Capital Drive. ...Read more

When it comes to international diplomacy, President Donald Trump is no milquetoast mumbler. He can be undiplomatically blunt, even rude, but that doesn't automatically mean he's wrong. Take, for instance, the longstanding dispute between the United States and its NATO allies over how much everyone contributes to the collective defense of Europe....Read more

After a buildup worthy of a master of reality TV, President Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's retirement. This continues a run of almost 50 consecutive years when the court has had a majority of Republican appointees.

Many commentators will rush to cast this ...Read more

In the new superhero movie "Incredibles 2," the baby, Jack-Jack, freaks out his family when he morphs into a destructive demon. NATO members who have been on the receiving end of Donald Trump's blasts as he prepared for a summit in Brussels -- "we're schmucks for paying for the whole thing" -- seem to view the president with similar emotions.

...Read more

Just as people would be outraged if the tobacco industry claimed that September were "National Cigarette Month" or if dog breeders declared December "National Puppy Mill Month," we should be appalled that the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council has deemed July "National Hot Dog Month." Apparently, the council thinks cruelty to animals, ...Read more

No sooner did President Trump arrive at the NATO summit in Brussels than he launched a tirade at one of our closest allies, declaring, "Germany is totally controlled by Russia."

That ludicrous charge is based on a usual Trump stew of fake facts mixed with demagoguery. But it raises an unavoidable question prior to Trump's meeting with Vladimir ...Read more

President Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court is a disaster for the technology industry and the users of tech products.

The D.C. Circuit Court judge's positions on such critical issues as net neutrality, privacy, executive power and immigration are serious threats that could set back the tech world for decades. It's ...Read more

For as long as there has been a Capitol Hill, a secret list has circulated informally among staffers there bearing the names of the most difficult members of Congress to work for. Any staffer today who has worked on the Hill long enough is familiar with the list and the names that perennially appear there. They are exchanged in hushed whispers ...Read more