BY FROMA HARROP Whenever I visit Italy, France or elsewhere in dolce vita Europe, I go: “Oooh! Aren’t these cheeses wonderful? Ahh! Look how fit and well dressed everyone is. Oh! If only America would protect its downtowns the way these Europeans preserve their ancient village centers.” But on the return, something interesting happens when […]

BY JOE CONASON In New York, there is a traditional name for the kind of anonymous cash now cascading into the American electoral process. It’s called sewer money. Political observers in the Empire State know that sewer money is generally nonpartisan, but in the national midterm contest, the largest amount by far is going toward […]

BY RICHARD L. FRICKER Oklahoma politicians have once again managed to put the state atop the Political Buffoon List by placing State Question 755 on...

BY SUSAN ESTRICH Harry Reid should win. I’m not talking about whether he deserves to win, although I think he does. He did exactly what the majority leader is supposed to do: deliver for his president. He did it with little help from the other side, with a president on a downhill slide in the […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER It can be amusing to read the business section of newspapers, because corporate coverage tends to be carefully couched in phrases that either obfuscate what’s really going on or are outright Orwellian. For example, a recent New York Times article on rising airline fares and fees did a rhetorical tiptoe around the […]