Mark Shields from Creators Syndicate

Second-Term Pitfalls for 05/18/2013

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Dan Jenkins, a sportswriter of rare wit, once gave us the Ten Stages of Drunkenness, which include these separate points on the road to inebriation: "Witty and Charming," "Rich and Powerful," "Clairvoyant," "Patriotic," followed by "Crank Up the Enola Gay" and culminating in Stage 10, "Bulletproof."

Re-election to second White H ...

Updated: Sat May 18, 2013

Advice for Graduation Day for 05/11/2013

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Once again, graduation time is upon us. By some iron rule, every graduation must have a graduation speaker, whose role has been compared to that of the corpse at a great Irish wake: His presence is deemed necessary for the event to be take place, but, other than that, precious little is expected from him.

The odds are pretty good that more people could name the U.S.'s last 10 vice presi ...

Updated: Sat May 11, 2013

Story Too Good to Check Out for 05/04/2013

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

As generations of schoolchildren were told, Jamestown in 1607 was the first permanent English settlement on what would become the United States. What we learned this week is that those English settlers, confronted by the most severe drought in eight centuries and unfriendly natives, resorted to the most extreme measures to keep from starving to death during the winter of 1609-10.

They w ...

Updated: Sat May 04, 2013

A Square Deal for the Little Guy for 04/27/2013

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

To listen to the language of American political campaigns, you could reasonably conclude that "big" is bad and "small" is good.

Who has too much power and influence in Washington? Of course, Big Business, Big Banks and Big Money, in general. Some on the right might make a case for Big Labor. Small, by contrast, is good. We honor Small Town values, admire the Small Fa ...

Updated: Sat Apr 27, 2013

One Man Who Gave Politics a Good Name for 04/20/2013

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

There's a hit new movie this spring, "42," the story of how in 1947 Jack Roosevelt Robinson made baseball history and American history by breaking the color barrier to become a Brooklyn Dodger and the first black man to play in the Major Leagues.

It is also the story of Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Dodgers, who in his lonely commitment to desegregate baseball, cho ...

Updated: Sat Apr 20, 2013

The Gun Lobby and States Rights for 04/13/2013

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

According to the Census Bureau, in the year 2020, there will be 214,000 living Americans over the age of 100 and, according to Washington wise-man Mark Russell, all of them will have valid State of Florida driver's licenses.

That line makes fun of two distinct characteristics of the Sunshine State: Because of the appeal of its surf and sun to so many of the elderly, the state qualifies ...

Updated: Sat Apr 13, 2013

Honeymoon for a Pope for 04/06/2013

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

In politics, maybe even in life, perception frequently becomes reality. If enough people see you as a winner, then you will be treated like a winner, which means that your calls, even to important strangers whom you have never met, are promptly put through.

Everything becomes a poll. When other candidates, including former rivals, push to appear on the same platform with you, angle to b ...

Updated: Sat Apr 06, 2013

Two Very Different Questions -- Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion for 03/30/2013

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

In spite of the nearly unprecedented velocity of change in American attitudes on the legality and acceptance of same-sex marriage, according to the Gallup Poll — from 68 percent-27 percent opposition during the Bill Clinton years to 53 percent-46 support after Barack Obama's re-election (a swing of 48 percent of the population in favor of same-sex marriage in just 16 years) — Americ ...

Updated: Sat Mar 30, 2013

A War With No Victors for 03/23/2013

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

"History is written by the victors," as Winston Churchill wrote. But the United States 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq was indeed a war with no victors.

We know the American numbers: 4,488 killed; 31,965 wounded and, because there are truly no unwounded war veterans, nearly one out of two U.S. veterans who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has applied for disability ...

Updated: Sat Mar 23, 2013

Maybe Not the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer for 03/16/2013

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Miraculously, a single government policy initiative has united Washington, D.C. Elected officials who had been either locking horns or crossing swords over drugs, drones or deficits suddenly found themselves on the same side, thus reminding us of the timeless truth that in every political struggle you ever find yourself in, there will always be someone on your side you wish devoutly wa ...

Updated: Sat Mar 16, 2013

Am I Being Grumpy? for 03/09/2013

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Let me stipulate at the outset: I do not qualify for any youth movement. In fact, I first voted in the 1960 presidential contest between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. No conscientious bartender, if I were trying to buy a round of alcoholic drinks for the table, would insist upon seeing my driver's license.

But twice this past week, I fairly bristled when two early 20-something salespe ...

Updated: Sat Mar 09, 2013

Can This Marriage Be Saved? for 03/02/2013

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

From Maine comes this dispatch from a historian friend of mine, Alan Ginsberg, who, like many of us, has become discouraged by the wall-to-wall squabbling that has dominated Washington: "The rhetoric daily seems to grow more bitter, even destructive. The incessant arguing over money, money, money sounds like a bad marriage that is coming totally apart."

Of course, he is right. ...

Updated: Sat Mar 02, 2013

A Maligned Generation for 02/23/2013

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

This past Monday night, along with 680 other lucky people in Washington's historic Ford's Theatre, I was able to enjoy the wit and wisdom of America's dominant political satirist, Mark Russell.

His humor is as timeless as Twain's and as topical as tonight's 11 o'clock news. The crowd, many of them still processing word of the impending retirement of Pope Benedict XVI, heard Russell supp ...

Updated: Sat Feb 23, 2013

The Anti-Washington Candidate for 02/16/2013

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Republicans are seen, and most Republicans see themselves, as the anti-government party. Republican solutions to most of the country's problems begin with, or at a minimum include, shrinking the size, scope and spending of government — unless you're discussing the military budget. Democrats, in stark contrast, mostly believe the government can be and has been an instrument of both social ...

Updated: Sat Feb 16, 2013

The GOP's Lost Youth for 02/09/2013

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Who the president is when we first come of voting age — and whether we see that president as a successful leader — strongly influences our future voting allegiances.

Take the case of Ronald Reagan, who when he first won the White House in 1980 by defeating President Jimmy Carter and third-party candidate Rep. John Anderson was at the age of 69 the oldest president ever elect ...

Updated: Sat Feb 09, 2013

Forgotten, but Not Gone for 02/02/2013

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Last weekend, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, and his wife, Ann, were in Washington, where they met with friends and supporters and attended the annual Alfalfa Club dinner, an exclusive black-tie event.

One of the more memorable lines from last year's closed-to-the-press dinner was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's needling of his most famous sibling, when — wh ...

Updated: Sat Feb 02, 2013

Strangers to Self-importance for 01/26/2013

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

This past week, I sat for an hour-long, one-on-one interview with Brian Lamb, the man who created C-SPAN, where citizens could see and hear, frequently unscripted, the public officials whose decisions shape and touch their lives.

Advised by the show's producer, Mike Holden, that Brian might ask me to name the memorable politicians whom I had met, I tried to figure what, beyond their all ...

Updated: Sat Jan 26, 2013

No Safety in These Numbers for 01/19/2013

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

On April 9, 1968, I was part of the human crush inside of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church not far from six of that year's presidential candidates: Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. Mahalia Jackson gave an unforgettable rendition of Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," and at the widow's ...

Updated: Sat Jan 19, 2013

“Only a Fool or a Fraud Could Sentimentalize War's Cruel Reality” for 01/12/2013

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The death of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, following the voluntary return to private life of Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., along with the expected confirmation as secretary of state of Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., means that three of the four men whose combat wounds in war won each of them a Purple Heart will have left the Senate. The lone Purple Heart recipient remaining will be Sen. John McCa ...

Updated: Sat Jan 12, 2013

College Football Already Has a National Champion for 01/05/2013

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Here are just a few examples of an oxymoron (which, as I was taught in high school, is a phrase formed of seemingly contradictory words): "mild-mannered reporter," "airline food," "humble opinion" and "Internet privacy. "

Too often in our high-pressured collegiate athletics, the term "student-athlete" has constituted an oxymoron. But tha ...

Updated: Sat Jan 05, 2013