TweetBy BRAD WARTHENEDITORIAL PAGE EDITORMY GRANDMOTHER used to tell a story about when she was a very little girl living in the Washington area. Her family was from South Carolina. Her father was an attorney working for the federal government. One of their neighbors was a U.S. senator from South Carolina. When her parents […]
Tweet Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was an American running for President, not a Catholic running for President. Like him, I am an American running for President. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor […]
TweetAt least, that (what my headline says) would probably have been the name of this group if I had been the one to start it. Or perhaps, "Catholics Cracking Heads for Civility." But Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is kinder and gentler than I am, so they take a more easygoing approach in […]
TweetI met with a guy from CNN a couple of days ago who says he keeps hearing experienced observers say that it’s ridiculous that John McCain hardly gets mentioned these days in favor of a certain latecomer, and others who are polling well now but will never stand up to scrutiny by the S.C. GOP […]
TweetI was chided by an anonymous poster who claims to be — and who, from the tone and context of the message, I believe is — a U.S. soldier back on this post: I am a US soldier, and Iraq war vet scheduled to go back in 2009, and not a "professional nut job". I […]
TweetExcuse the old-fashioned screamer headline, but this is pretty startling stuff. Mark Sanford, the governor who long ago gave up playing well with others (radical libertarians, being self-oriented, have trouble with that sort of thing, so make allowances) has just taken his first visible step toward dumping the conservative Republicans in the Legislature in favor […]
TweetAfter spending a good bit of time in e-conversation with this reader, I thought I might as well share it with the rest of y’all. This is the message that started it: From: Amy HollemanSent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 9:35 AMTo: Warthen, Brad – External EmailSubject: Edwards and other Candidates Mr. Warthen, I continue to […]
TweetBy Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorSEVERAL MONTHS ago, I observed on my blog that I think John Edwards is a phony — a make-believe Man of The People. It’s not so much that he’s lying when he says he wants to help One America -– the Deserving Poor, whom he wants to vote for him […]
Tweet "I think this is a ridiculous exercise." — Joe Biden Amen. If the frontiersmen who trashed the White House after Andrew Jackson’s inaugural had had YouTube, it would have looked like what we saw out of Charleston Monday night. No, I take that back. The yahoos who had to […]
TweetWe’re having a lot of trouble communicating here. I knew that we would when I started this, but I’m a glutton for punishment. I continue to believe, in spite of years of frustration, that it is possible to reason with people. But that assumes a common language, common terms, and at least the rudiments of […]
TweetNo, seriously. Hold off with the glib, partisan comebacks and think about it. It’s kind of important. Cleaning up my desk, I glanced through a copy of The Economist and saw a "Lexington" column from June 14 headlined, "Vote for me, dimwit." It was about a book called The Myth of the Rational Voter by […]
TweetThere was one thing that Jim DeMint said about the demise of the immigration bill today that was absolutely correct: "The people responded to this issue in a very emotional and just a very engaged way, which changed the minds of many people here in the Senate." Very emotional, indeed. And that is something that […]
TweetLindsey Graham, trying very hard to sell the immigration deal to fellow Republicans, put out this release yesterday afternoon. If he had wanted to put it more succinctly, he could have said, "Bill O’Reilly says it should pass, and The New York Times says it shouldn’t. What more do you people want?" What is being […]
TweetJust to put it where it should be — on the blog — I share this bit of fan e-mail: Re: http://blogs.thestate.com/bradwarthensblog/2007/04/i_get_lectured_.html Mr. Warthen First, I suggest you seek professional help and get your Nazi fetish fixed. Listening to you whine about how you are so pi**ed off because you weren’t born in […]
TweetA new "regular" on the blog, Michael Gass, sent me an "open letter" he wrote to Lindsey Graham in response to his op-ed today. As I explained in reply, we don’t run open letters to third parties in the paper. In weeding the vast number of letters down to a publishable number, that’s one of […]
Tweet "It would make us a more progressive, better state, I think, if the flag was removed. But I’m not going to go on any big campaign to have it removed. That’s not my position." — Steve Spurrier Well, it is my position, and the big […]
TweetEvery once in a while, something good happens over at the State House, and in an overwhelmingly good way. The sort of thing that keeps us trying on all the frustrating issues where it’s hard to make progress. The House Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Committee voted 16-0 NOT to extend the life of the Barnwell […]
TweetAndrew Sullivan just posted something pretty cool. It’s about a computer program that draws far more logical (looking) districts than the madness that political gerrymandering creates. Just imagine — representatives elected by actual, whole communities instead of tortuously carved out to separate people by race and political proclivities, all in the name of partisanship. Go […]
Tweet The return of the professional By Brad WarthenEditorial Page Editor“AMID TAWDRINESS, he stands for honor, duty and decency,” another author once wrote of John le Carre’s fictional hero George Smiley. George was the master Cold Warrior brought back in from retirement to save British intelligence from the liars, self-dealers, ideologues, social climbers and […]
TweetA lot of people believe that one of the problems with politics today is that the press poses unfair, unanswerable questions to politicians. This causes good people just to stay out of politics, rather than be abused so. Such critics have a point. And here’s proof positive, as if we needed any. My colleague Mike […]