dick cheney

Mike Pence has outpaced all other vice presidents in casting tie-breaking votes since Alben W. Barkley, President Truman’s first vice president, who broke ties seven times in a 10-month period between September 1949 and June 1950. This is the executive branch run amok.

Gina Haspel says 'enhanced interrogation' should never have happened - finally, proof that a lesson has been learned at the CIA.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is 'uniquely qualified' to become the next president, says Jules Witcover.

There are at least three individuals President Donald Trump could nominate to lead the FBI today who can not only do the job effectively but also end the hysteria, restore the reputation of the FBI and keep the agency hard-charging on truth and justice. Patrick Fitzgerald, Mythili Raman or John Carlin would each instantly bring the type of integrity, independence, experience and leadership the FBI and America need.

Reed Cordish, a Baltimore developer who is now an assistant to President Donald Trump, is tasked with bringing private-sector expertise to some of Washington's most intractable problems.

By John Fritze

Apr 29, 2017

Complaints of Russian involvement in U.S. election miss the bigger picture

Mike Pence appears poised to join the last three vice presidents as an integral member of the president's administration.

Trump is the monster the GOP created

As baseball manager Casey Stengel is reputed to have asked, "Can't anyboyd here play this game?"

No tradition in the history of American political party conventions is more sorely needed than the one abandoned in the mid-20th century — namely, the selection of a vice presidential nominee solely by the convention.

The failure in this country to undertake a serious, no-stone-unturned report on the run-up to the Iraq War, such as Britain has done in its recently released Chilcot Report, exposes an enduring weakness in our system of government and a truly damaging national trait.

If you're sick of all the spin as to how the U.S. so desperately missed the boat on ISIS, you'll want to see Frontline's "The Secret History of ISIS."

By David Zurawik

May 16, 2016

Jules Witcover takes a look at Donald Trump's potential running mates: Messrs. Christie, Kasich and Carson among them.

Ben Carson, the retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon who is running for president, threatened to leave the Republican Party on Friday over a spat about next year's convention ¬— the latest indication of how a splintered electorate is complicating the party's ability to unite behind a nominee.

By John Fritze

Dec 11, 2015

Capitol Hill is back on the budgetary brink thanks to the usual suspect — a bunch of highly partisan, deal-breaking riders

With Joe Biden in the race, Hillary Clinton could more plausibly sell herself as a "change" candidate, says Jonah Goldberg.

Joe Biden's accomplishments in the Senate and as Obama's dependable sidekick have shown him to be fit for the presidency, says Jules Witcover.

Invasion of Iraq at the heart of Middle East problems but Republicans won't acknowledge it

The common view is that the American vice presidency is little more than booby prize awarded to achieve balance on the national ticket, and is a dead end to further political ambition.

By Jules Witcover

Jul 27, 2015

The nuclear deal seems to be a solid start to a different relationship with Iran, says David Horsey.

The GOP is likely to push back on the president's Robin Hood proposal to tax the rich, says Jules Witcover.

In a rare case of editorial initiative, the New York Times editorial board has flatly called for an investigation of former Vice President Dick Cheney and other prominent George W. Bush administration figures involved in authorship of the so-called torture memos, which authorized use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" against suspected terrorists captured in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The editorial was more wish that prediction.

By Jules Witcover

Dec 29, 2014

The question of whether the CIA operatives who used torture techniques should be punished is unlikely to be addressed.

As a former prisoner of war who experienced torture, John McCain has more standing than any of his Senate colleagues when it comes to rendering judgment about the CIA's Bush-era "enhanced interrogation" program.

Failure to punish the CIA torturers means they will do it again

Releasing a report on CIA interrogation techniques in wartime has likely endangered agent lives, writes Cal Thomas.

The latest disclosures of Secret Service breakdowns in the agency's prime mission, the physical protection of the president, are grim reminders of a most disturbing particularly American malady — the assassination of the nation's political leaders.

When you think about it, putting all the Biden-bashing aside, his candidacy would seem a pretty good alternative for the Democrats, even for all the women so ready for Hillary.

A prediction: Hillary Clinton may be running against Rand Paul come 2016

Rick Perry takes on foreign policy and strikes two birds with one stone: President Obama and Sen. Rand Paul.

Over-the-top outrage over Attorney General Holder's mild suggestion of a racial 'animus' behind criticisms of him and President Obama proves his point

No single American has caused more harm to his country than Richard Cheney

This president, who's spent much of his time pivoting away from former President George W. Bush's wars, now risks accusations of emulating the earlier efforts of Mr. Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, to expand presidential powers in wartime. Mr. Cheney expounded the theory of "unitary power," which holds that the Constitution gives the president as commander in chief unlimited authority to protect the nation as he sees necessary.

Calls for the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki over ridiculously excessive wait times for VA medical appointments and, moreover, for the falsification of data that would have illuminated these and related problems, while understandable, are reactionary — and will do little to address the VA's more deeply rooted problems. These problems are systemic in nature. Their solution will require a long term, strategic approach in addition to some strong-handed

Despite the sneers of MSNBC hosts and the disdainful manner of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, Benghazi matters. And it matters in ways we don't yet even understand -- deep, fractious ways that reveal a major front in the culture war almost no one seems to understand or want to even talk about.

The recently announced U.S. troop cuts are an important step toward right sizing today's forces to meet the current U.S. Defense strategy, which calls for defeating major adversaries by denying their objectives or imposing unacceptable costs, thereby deterring others from following the same path. It also calls for the ability to conduct smaller-scale, albeit highly important, missions such as humanitarian relief and counter terrorism.