Milbank: Civil liberties under assault by Obama administration
There are various reasons you might not care about the Obama administration's spying on journalist James Rosen and labeling him an "aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator" in an espionage case. Liberals may not be particularly bothered because the targeted journalist works for Fox News. Conservatives may not be concerned because of their antipathy toward the news media generally. And the general public certainly doesn't have much patience for journalists' whining.
Milbank: Recusal no excuse for undermining of Constitution
As the nation's top law enforcement official, Eric Holder is privy to all kinds of sensitive information. But he seems to be proud of how little he knows. Why didn't his Justice Department inform The Associated Press, as the law requires, before pawing through reporters' phone records? "I do not know," the attorney general told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, "why that was or was not done. I simply don't have a factual basis to answer that question."
Milbank: Diplomat's Benghazi attack tale fails to prove damning
They summoned a whistle-blower to Capitol Hill, but instead they got a virtuoso storyteller. Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya the night Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, was to be the star witness for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the man leading the probe of the Obama administration's handling of the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.
Milbank: Obama needs to get off sidelines and back into game
It's never a good sign for a president when he feels compelled to assure the public he still has a pulse. This is the unenviable position President Obama was in Tuesday morning when he held a news conference and faced questions about the stalled pieces of his legislative program.
Milbank: 'Compassionate conservatism' revival lacks passion
Whoever thinks there's no such thing as a free lunch has not been to the Heritage Foundation. After Sen. Mike Lee's speech to the conservative think tank Monday, his listeners didn't rush to the front of the room, where the Utah Republican was greeting well-wishers, but to the back to get in line for sandwiches, cookies and soft drinks provided gratis to the hungry young conservatives who sat through the hour.
Milbank: Cowardice trumps courage as gun control bill goes down
The gun bill was going down, but Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who reached a compromise to try to save it, went to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to give it one more try.
Milbank: NRA favors brawn over brains in gun-control debate
The gun-lobby goons were at it again. The National Rifle Association's security guards gained notoriety earlier this year when, escorting NRA officials to a hearing, they were upbraided by Capitol authorities for pushing cameramen.
Milbank: Quiet Kennedy often casts decisive vote on high court
Imagine how gratifying it must feel to be Anthony Kennedy.
Milbank: Lessons from Iraq inform U.S. response to Syrian crisis
This week's 10th anniversary of the Iraq War passed quietly, and that's not a bad thing. Most Americans have no wish to celebrate the war, fought under false pretenses to a costly and ambiguous end. But in Washington,D.C., this week there are welcome signs that the lessons of Iraq have finally sunk in, among Republicans as well as Democrats.
Milbank: GOP on Cruz control as veterans cede power to newbies
The nation has moved on, but Ted Cruz has pulled his fellow Republicans right back into 2010. Three years ago next week, the Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare -- became law. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the legislation in an opinion written by the conservative chief justice, John Roberts.
Milbank: Republican governors embracing Obama's health plan
'It is not a white flag of surrender," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said.
Milbank: Justices Sotomayor, Kagan take on high court's bullies
For a quarter-century, Antonin Scalia has been the reigning bully of the Supreme Court, but finally a couple of justices are willing to face him down. As it happens, the two manning up to take on Nino the Terrible are women: the court's newest members, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Milbank: Jesse Jackson Jr.'s downfall a too-common political tale
Jesse Jackson Jr. arrived in court wearing a leather bracelet, not the gold-plated Rolex watch he bought with $43,350 in federal campaign cash. The former congressman's head was bare, unadorned by the Michael Jackson fedora, purchased with $4,600 from the campaign kitty. His wife, at his side, eschewed the reversible mink parka, procured with $1,200 in campaign money from Edwards-Lowell furrier of Beverly Hills.
Milbank: Lawmakers party, with little thought about paying bills
There is something entirely appropriate about holding the State of the Union address on the same day as Mardi Gras. One is a display of wretched excess, when giddy and rowdy participants give in to reckless and irresponsible behavior. The other is a street festival in New Orleans.
Milbank: Republicans' happy talk collides with grim realities
Republicans have happened upon a felicitous new strategy for reviving their party from its depressed state: They need only think happy thoughts.
Milbank: NRA spokesman shoots self in foot before Congress
Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's chief executive, arrived for his hearing on Capitol Hill in the organization's trademark fashion: violently.
Milbank: Clinton's commanding testimony quiets GOP critics
They blamed her mismanagement for the death of Americans in Benghazi, Libya. They accused her of a cover-up. Some even suggested that she faked an illness to avoid testifying about the attack.
Milbank: In protecting kids, adults must cease childish behavior
If the gun debate gets any more juvenile, the participants will need strollers.
Milbank: A way out of the wilds for wayward Republican Party
A pair of polls out this week shows the dire state the Republican Party finds itself in -- and a way out of the wilderness, should Republicans choose to take it.
Milbank: On Sandy, Boehner refuses to stir tempest in Tea Party
The end-of-term reviews of John Boehner's House speakership are in, and they aren't pretty.
Milbank: It will be difficult to keep focus on issue of gun control
It was a most audacious application of the Emanuel rule. "Never allow a crisis to go to waste," Rahm Emanuel said when he was tapped to be President Obama's chief of staff.
Milbank: Obama fails to heed calls for swift action on gun control
President Obama says we will change our approach to gun violence — some other day.
Milbank: Lieberman's lonely Senate send-off sad, yet fitting
It was a lonely farewell for Joe Lieberman.
Milbank: Boehner knows Obama holds all cards on fiscal cliff
Speaker John Boehner emerged from his weekly huddle with House Republicans on Wednesday morning to take his place behind a mahogany lectern in front of a brown backdrop. The dark tones provided ideal camouflage for the deeply tanned speaker -- as though he were trying to vanish into the background. Who could blame him?
Milbank: Schapiro transformed SEC from lapdog to bulldog
In the early days of the Obama administration, I sat in a Capitol Hill hearing room and listened to Harry Markopolos, the whistle-blower in the Bernie Madoff scandal, bemoan the toothless Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC, which ignored his warnings about Madoff, is "captive to the industry it regulates, and it is afraid of bringing big cases against the largest, most powerful firms," he said. "The SEC continues to roar like a mouse and fight like a flea. … I gift-wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to them, and somehow they couldn't be bothered to conduct a thorough and proper investigation."
Milbank: Keeper of Republican tax pledge says answer is still no
Some prominent Republicans — among them House Speaker John Boehner, publisher Bill Kristol, and Sen. Bob Corker — have been making noise about the need for the GOP to be flexible about raising taxes.
Milbank: Sorry Obama, but Rice ill-suited to replace Clinton
President Obama had a rare "bring-it-on moment" when ABC News' Jonathan Karl asked him about threats by Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham to block confirmation of Susan Rice as secretary of state. "If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me," Obama said last week, defending his U.N. ambassador from charges she misled the public about attacks on Americans in Libya. "For them to go after the U.N. ambassador … and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous. And, you know, we're after an election now."
Milbank: Romney reveals himself as anything but a common man
It was a victory party fit for the 1 percent.
Milbank: No surprise that Trump's 'October Surprise' just hot air
October Surprises just aren't what they used to be.
Milbank: Romney's job creation claim built on flawed math
Mitt Romney has done a heckuva job with his jobs plan.
Milbank: Seeking to shame Obama, Republicans blow CIA's cover
When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA's cover.
Milbank: Romney gets best of lackluster Obama in first debate
DENVER — Fifteen minutes into Wednesday night's debate here, Mitt Romney politely called the president of the United States a liar.
Milbank: Presidential candidates' make room for 'The View,' banality
As heads of government arrived in New York on Monday to attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama also made his way to Manhattan -- but to see a different group of world leaders: Barbara, Elisabeth, Joy, Sherri and Whoopi.
Milbank: Romney may not be ideal candidate, but he's great copy
'The media wants to beat up Mitt Romney," Sean Hannity told his Fox News viewers this week, "which is driving me nuts."
Milbank: Romney all wet after Obama Mideast criticism
NBC News reported on Tuesday morning that Mitt Romney's campaign was "throwing the kitchen sink" at President Obama. But the problem with throwing the kitchen sink is you might break a pipe — and then you've got a real mess.
Milbank: Obama realizes benefits of basking in Bill Clinton's glow
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Moments before Bill Clinton took the stage at the Democratic Party's convention, word bubbled through the Time Warner Cable Arena that President Obama would join him on the podium after his speech. This made official what was already implicit: The sitting president had come to bask in the former president's glow.
Milbank: Romney campaign exhibits loss of control at convention
TAMPA, Fla. — Delegates were finding their seats on the floor of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday when a commotion broke out in the back corner, near the Maine contingent.
Milbank: Ryan has long shared Akin's views against abortion
When Todd Akin sneezes, Paul Ryan catches a cold.
Milbank: Reid calls out Romney and gleefully watches fallout
For once, Harry Reid held his tongue.
Milbank: Romney skittish when it comes to horse ballet questions
The animal kingdom has been inhospitable to Mitt Romney in this election cycle. First there was the damaging story of Seamus, the Irish setter the Romneys strapped to the roof of their car on a family trip. And now it seems that, when it comes to Romney's political aspirations, Seamus may not be the most dangerous animal in the family menagerie. This past week belonged to Rafalca, the dancing horse.
Milbank: Mitt must choose between defense spending, tax cuts
There have been many mendacious moments in this presidential campaign, but it will be hard to top what Republican Mitt Romney told the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference this week: President Barack Obama is seeking "an arbitrary, across-the-board budget reduction that would saddle the military with $1 trillion in cuts. Strategy is not driving the president's massive defense cuts. In fact, his own secretary of defense warned that these reductions would be devastating, and he's right. … This is no time for the president's radical cuts in our military."
Milbank: Ron Paul to leave office with Fed crusade unfulfilled
Ron Paul ran for president three times, served nearly a quarter-century in Congress, spawned a national movement and saw his son elected to the Senate. But in his singular objective -- to "End the Fed," as the title of his book put it -- the libertarian obstetrician from Texas failed. He didn't even make a dent in it. In a valedictory Wednesday before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee, Paul raised the white flag.
Milbank: Politically petty Senate has taken giant step backward
Four years ago this week, Ted Kennedy changed history with the sheer force of his will. Senate Democrats, battling the Bush administration, needed one vote to maintain a key provision of Medicare. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, then used a lifeline: He called Kennedy, who was in Boston receiving chemotherapy for brain cancer, and pleaded for the liberal giant to return to Washington, D.C., to provide the clinching vote. When Kennedy walked onto the floor on July 9, 2008, senators on both sides erupted in cheers, and some wept. The Medicare bill passed -- with nine Republican senators switching their previous votes to be on Kennedy's side. Among those cheering the loudest that day was Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, Kennedy's longtime legislative partner, who eulogized him at his memorial.
Milbank: Justice Roberts upholds Supreme Court's integrity
John Roberts was the first justice to appear from behind the curtains when the buzzer sounded in the Supreme Court chamber at 10 a.m. sharp. He forced a tight grin and scanned the audience, which, on this historic day, included several members of Congress and retired Justice John Paul Stevens. The only hint of what was afoot came from Antonin Scalia, who, taking his place at the chief justice's right, bowed his head, as if in mourning.
Milbank: Congressional Republicans bend to will of Norquist
All hail Grover Norquist!
Milbank: GOP indignation over Fast and Furious not so righteous
There is something charmingly futile about House Republicans' move to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Even if the full House follows the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's vote Wednesday to hold him in contempt, the decision about whether to prosecute him will be left to a Justice Department run by … Eric Holder.
MIlbank: Competition, cash: Not 2012 election, summer camp
My daughter is only 8 but, being a child in Washington, D.C., she has already felt the cruel sting of rejection.
Milbank: Secret Service director in need of serious reality check
The Secret Circus may soon be looking for a new ringmaster. The prostitution scandal involving a dozen Secret Service agents in Cartagena, Colombia, is spreading into a broader burlesque for the agency, furthered by a Washington Post report that tolerance of a frat-house culture has induced some employees to come up with the "Secret Circus" name.
Milbank: Sen. Paul’s refusal to compromise cynical, hypocritical
‘Call me cynical, but I wasn’t sure his views on marriage could get any gayer,” Sen. Rand Paul said of President Obama.
Milbank: Romney reluctant to stand up to radical Republicans
Almost four years ago, I was watching Sarah Palin rile up a Clearwater, Fla., crowd with anti-Obama broadsides when a spectator let loose a bloodcurdling cry of “kill him!”
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