In the annals of White House press history, Bill Clinton’s press secretary, Mike McCurry, will forever be remembered for opening the briefing to television cameras. It worked well initially from his perspective. There was just one cable outlet (CNN)...
In what became famous last words, lawyer Lanny Davis told President Clinton he would be leaving his post in a month as special White House counsel because his wife was pregnant, he needed to be at home, and besides,...
With the White House’s initial batch of 11 nominations for lifetime appointments—with most of the names taken from lists compiled by the conservative Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation—before the U.S. Senate, Republicans there are warning that they may change...
Progressive groups are banding together in an effort to defeat the judicial nomination of John Bush, a Kentucky attorney who took pot shots at liberals and others while blogging under the pseudonym G. Morris, and once cheered a sign...
The ad caught my eye. Research analyst wanted for Moscow Project, proficiency in Russian preferred. The employer? CAP Action Fund, an arm of the liberal think tank, Center for American Progress. Why is a think tank launching an investigative...
The story of loyalists versus outsiders is one that plays out in the West Wing of every administration I’ve had the privilege to cover, beginning with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Polish-born national security advisor thrust into Jimmy Carter’s inner circle...
John F. Kennedy—born 100 years ago on May 29—pioneered the live, televised, no-holds barred press conference that became a staple of the modern presidency. His approach provides both lessons for, and a stark contrast with, the way that President...
It was billed as an “Ideas” conference, a chance to take stock of where Democrats stand post-Obama and four months into the Republican takeover of Washington. Speakers talked broadly and idealistically about how to take down the anti-worker economy...
It’s 2016 all over again in the Virginia gubernatorial primary, as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are backing populist and super-charged campaigner Tom Perriello while the state’s two senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, are with Ralph Northam, the...
Firing the FBI director leading the investigation into his campaign’s possible collusion with an adversarial foreign power is big stuff, the biggest shock President Donald Trump has delivered in his short, shock-filled presidency. “It really does have the smell...