Good morning, it’s a rainy Monday in the nation’s capital. A federal holiday, too, although I’m not sure what to call it anymore. On Capitol Hill, some federal employees will be on the clock, however, including those on the Senate Judiciary Committee. As I write these words, that dependably partisan panel is opening hearings into the contentious Supreme Court nomination […]

Good morning, it’s  Oct. 2, 2020. Last year, the Washington Nationals (or the Washington “Internationals,” as Tom Boswell dubbed them) pulled off a win so thrilling that baseball fans in this area will be talking about it for years. On paper, the Nats are better than the Milwaukee Brewers, especially when the visiting team was without its best player. But […]

Good morning, it’s Oct. 1, 2020. On this date in 2015, distinguished New York-based classical music conductor Michael Barrett posted a classic Christian hymn as his “song of the day.” The singer was Jessye Norman, who passed away in 2019 at age 74. The song, “Let Us Break Bread Together,” is much older. An African American spiritual first put on […]

I’m sure that many of you shared my frustration that President Trump had not yet designated Antifa as a domestic terror group.  Well Trump finally did that yesterday, and I think I know why. It has been widely reported that the DOJ has been looking at charging certain elected officials in Portland, OR with crimes for refusing to take the […]

Good morning, it’s September 18, 2020. Forty-seven years ago today, the governor of a mid-sized Southern state filed a two-page, hand-written report with an Oklahoma City-based organization called the International UFO Bureau. In that brief memo, the governor claimed that he had personally seen an unidentified flying object. At the time, the UFO spotter was an obscure Democrat with large […]

Good morning, it’s Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. On this date in 1901, President William McKinley died after being shot by an unhinged gunman. It was the third time in 36 years, beginning with Abraham Lincoln’s murder, that a popular U.S. president had been assassinated. Both McKinley and James A. Garfield had survived presumably more dangerous duty in the service of […]

Good morning. It’s September 5, 2020. On this date in 1847, the Rev. Robert S. James and his wife, Zerelda, welcomed their second son into the world. The infant’s older brother was named Alexander Franklin. The baby was christened Jesse Woodson. The world would come to know them as Jesse James and Frank James — or, sometimes, just the James […]

Good morning. It’s August 20, 2018. On this date in 1804, a U.S. Army sergeant in his early 20’s named Charles Floyd died and was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River in present-day Sioux City, Iowa. The first U.S. military man to give his life in service to his country west of the Mississippi, Floyd was laid to […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. At 74 (his birthday is today), Bill Clinton is not the “Comeback Kid” anymore. And because he went vegan a decade ago after open heart surgery, a generation of journalists who have come of age since then wouldn’t even get Hunter S. Thompson’s hilarious sendup of Clinton snorting french fries in a Little […]

Good morning, it’s Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020. On this date in 1898, the U.S. flag was raised over Manila, ending the Philippines theater of the Spanish-American War. The day before, a cease-fire in Santiago had brought independence to Cuba. The fighting between the United States and Spain, which began in April of that year, brought Spain’s reign as a colonial […]

Capitol Hill in D.C. Is an Occupied Protest Zone, Too. Democrats’ behavior during William Barr’s congressional hearing last week prompted some comparisons for Frank Miele. “Peaceful Riots”? Journalism Bows to the Woke Mob. Mark Hemingway takes issue with news outlets tempering their descriptions of violent riots that have broken out repeatedly in cities nationwide. Biden: Transition to What? Steve Cortes […]

Good morning. It’s Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. On this date in U.S. history, the presidency passed in the middle of the night to Calvin Coolidge as he slept in his family’s Vermont farmhouse while on summer vacation. Coolidge’s father had eschewed getting a telephone even after his son had become vice president, but as Warren G. Harding drew his last breaths in a San Francisco hotel […]

Good morning, it’s Friday, August 3, 2020. On this date in 1981, America’s 13,000 air traffic controllers went on strike. Four hours later, Ronald Reagan walked into the Rose Garden flanked by Attorney General William French Smith and Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis to announce that any controller who did not return to work in 48 hours would be fired. […]

Good morning, it’s July 27, 2020. Fifty two years ago today, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey delivered a stump speech at the state Democratic Party convention in Utah. Although not particularly newsworthy, even at the time, reading it half a century later is instructive for reasons I’ll discuss in a moment. But to offer a teaser, I spotted rhetorical precursors […]

Good morning, it’s July 25, 2020. On this date in 1943, the United States Navy launched a new ship, a destroyer escort named USS Harmon. The warship was the first in the nation’s fleet to be named after an African-American. His name was Leonard Roy Harmon, a native of Cuero, Texas. Harmon enlisted in the Navy in June of 1939, […]

Good morning, it’s July 23, 2020. One hundred two years ago today, a letter from a U.S. Army captain stationed in France began making its way to his girlfriend in Missouri. The officer’s name was Capt. O’Truman — at least that’s what his military adjutant half-jokingly said it ought to be, since he was the battery commander in an artillery […]

Good morning, it’s July 18, 2019. On this date 80 years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the third time. His reelection wasn’t assured, and even running for a third term was an extraordinary break with American history. But the times, as one beloved Democrat reminded Americans, were not ordinary. The United States was in the […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, July 17, 2020, the day of the week when I reprise an instructive or inspirational quotation. Today’s concerns Joe DiMaggio, whose amazing 56-game hitting streak ended on this date in 1941. Yankees came to town. But most baseball aficionados know what happened that day: Joe DiMaggio was robbed twice by sure-handed Indians’ third baseman Ken Keltner, […]

Good morning, it’s July 16, 2020. Fifty One years ago today, at 9:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Canaveral atop a 34-story Saturn V rocket. The destination for Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins was, as the entire world knew, the moon. If NASA could return the astronauts safely to Earth, it would […]

Good morning, it’s July 11, 2020. Thirteen years ago today, a great woman died of natural causes at age 94. Although christened Claudia Alta Taylor, we knew her — the whole world knew her — as “Lady Bird.” Lady Bird Johnson served as first lady of the United States from November 1963 until January 1969 before returning home to Texas […]