ted cruz

There was nothing seriously wrong with the Republican debate Thursday night on Fox News. It was lively, somewhat contentious and the moderators were exemplary in maintaining control.But I have to admit, I kept shifting my attention whenever I thought I could get away with it to the screen showing Donald Trump¿s counterprogramming event for veterans.

John Kass: The Iowa caucuses are a week away, and both parties are still spilling blood.

Well, it's déjà vu all over again. Although a new Star Wars episode took the movie world by storm, the 2016 rewrite, retitled "The Establishment Strikes Back," has all the drama. The Republican establishment has not one, but two full-scale rebellions on its hands.

The notion that the Sarah Palin "get" is a kind of coup for Mr. Trump and a setback for Mr. Cruz only underscores the pathetic depths to which this campaign has sunk, with the election year only barely begun. Will Mr. Cruz now even the score by bagging the endorsement of Dan Quayle, who at least was a real vice president for four years?

Jules Witcover: The gloves are off between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz now that actual voting is about to begin.

Supreme Court ruling on Obama's executive actions on immigration could tip the balance in this year's presidential race

With all the focus on the presidential campaign the equally important legislative races are a bit neglected. If Chris Van Hollen wins the vacant senatorial seat then the 8th Congressional District seat will necessarily become vacant.

Less than month before the first votes of the 2016 presidential election are cast in Iowa, both major parties find themselves in the grip of revolution, says Jules Witcover.

What are New York values and why do people hate the nation's largest city so?

Jules Witcover asks whether Jeb Bush a sacrificial lamb, trying to take down Donald Trump for his party.

Donald Trump is perhaps the most divisive, dangerous, racist candidate in our history, says Bill Press.

If I had a leaky faucet I would not hire a tailor. If I needed a new three-piece suit I would not visit a dentist or consult a lawyer. But today's Republican voters seem to value those with little or no experience in public office over those with a solid resume of public service.

The real winner in the Republican debates is Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, says Cal Thomas.

CNN did a couple of things much better this time around than it did in its September Republican debate. As a result, it was, by and large, a more informative telecast for viewers.

Donald Trump may, or at least should, face sharp questioning from two separate quarters in Tuesday night's Republican debate in Las Vegas. His opposing candidates need to target him to salvage their own campaigns, and the CNN moderators need to expose his demagoguery for the sake of the political process' own reputation.

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.

President Obama reassures the nation in the wake of San Bernadino while his critics sow division and hate, so who exactly is soft on terrorism?

Though his support has slipped across the country, retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson maintains a narrow lead for the Republican nomination in Maryland, a new poll for The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore has found.

In line with Republican's efforts to lower participation in elections, presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed election reforms passed by the New Jersey legislature. The reforms would have made registering to vote easier and would have extended the number of days citizens could cast their votes.

Right wing talk radio pours gas on the flames of the Republican civil war, says David Horsey.

The travesty in the first four rounds of Republican debates of relegating some of the candidates to the "undercard" never should have happened, says Jules Witcover.

In Milwaukee, Rubio shows why he may be the best positioned of any Republican candidate running for president

Liberal media is not the problem in presidential debates, glamorized media is, whether left, right or center, says David Horsey.

Strategic patience is a difficult and valuable quality in an era of ever-shrinking news cycles and 24/7 social media carping. The temptation to react instantly to every controversy is hard to resist. So far, Cruz and Rubio have been the Kutuzovs of the race, while Jeb Bush and Donald Trump look an awful lot like the Napoleons.

No one will ever confuse Forbes Magazine for Slate Magazine. Forbes represents conservative, pro-business positions. Slate is somewhat left of center on, well, pretty nearly everything. So it's rather a surprise to see these polar opposites in substantial agreement on anything. But surprise, surprise, after last Wednesday's Republican Candidates' debate, their editorial positions converged on one item – not one of the Republicans have a clue about taxes or the federal budget.

There's an old adage in the newspaper business: Never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel. The Republican presidential debaters in Colorado the other night openly and vigorously ignored it in their desire to tap into the public unpopularity of the folks who bring you the news, in print or on television and the Internet.

For Ben Carson, a former Baltimore County man who still belongs to a Seventh-day Adventist church in Spencerville, Md., faith has long played a central role in his life and his work as a physician. But it has increasingly also worked to his advantage on the campaign trail.

For a party that's obsessed with ever-increasing estimates of the national debt, Republicans sure are willing to punch big holes in the budget with radical tax cutting plans.

John Boehner's sin is that he was a grown-up in a Congress of petulant tea party children, says Leonard Pitts Jr.

Was Wednesday's debate the best Republicans have to offer?

Impasse over Planned Parenthood funding threatens another government shutdown and GOP political suicide mission

Last Thursday, Fox News (aka the Republican Party's media outlet) staged what they called a debate among the 10 leading candidates for that party's presidential nomination. The production was interested only in presenting questions designed to feed red meat to the party's right wing.

C-SPAN's "Voters First Forum" lacked Donald Trump but featured Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul Marco Rubio at St. Anselm's College in New Hampshire.

What will life be like under Obama's power plant rules? Pretty good, if Maryland is any guide.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Donna F. Edwards on Tuesday reissued her criticism of Rep. Chris Van Hollen over the pending nuclear agreement with Iran, arguing in a statement released by her campaign that he is "hiding on the sidelines" on the issue.

Republican squabbling over EXIM Bank ignores the reality of government intervention in the global marketplace

Republicans consider it an article of faith to deny that human activity has anything to do with climate change, largely due to the influence of the energy sector of the economy, and also in part to the issue's association with a very prominent Democrat, Al Gore, and so the responses they offered to the Pope's call were predictable.

In order from most recently announced, here are the announced candidates for the 2016 presidential election.

Republicans fear having Democrats control the White House longer than eight years for the first time since the days of Harry Truman. Above all else, that fear will be the animating feature of the 2016 GOP primary.

Times certainly have changed in the Republican Party. Gone are the times when patience was its own reward and loyal leading members would await their turn in the list of aspiring presidential candidates.

The old adage that anyone can grow up to be president is being put to the test in this election cycle.

The Republicans' three amigos -- Rubio, Cruz and Bush -- look about as phony to many Latinos as the trio of actors-pretending-to-be-Mexicans played by Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short in the 1986 movie, "Three Amigos!"

Only one presidential candidate voted for war with Iraq: Hillary Clinton.

Conservatives like Wayne LaPierre are done being subtle about their desire for a white, male president.

Birthers said Obama couldn't be president because they didn't believe he was born in America, but Ted Cruz was actually born in Canada yet they support him.

Republican presidential hopefuls are at war with each other over the budget for war.

Ted Cruz's quantum leap

Ted Cruz is the first but won't be the last GOP contender for 2016; Democrats should demand the same diversity of choices for their nominee.