Since Patrick Buchanan is such a prominent commentator, who is he and what does he stand for? He is largely a Catholic reactionary who has little use for Vatican II. He grew up in Washington, D.C. As a student at Georgetown University, he was expelled for a year in 1960. ...more

January 24, 2009

That abrupt, cool breeze that gently caressed Pasco County recently, wafting west to east and improbably back again, is the relief in some politically charged quarters that official Republican Party business will no longer reside on Bill Bunting's daily to-do list. ...more

December 21, 2008

Republicans gathered last week to talk about what went wrong in the Nov. 4 election and how to fix it, and the two highest-profile leaders - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - offered sharply different recipes for a comeback. ...more

November 16, 2008

Well, we Republicans have just made history. Not the type of history we wanted to make, mind you, but history nonetheless. Not only did we lose the White House but, after losing our House and Senate majorities in 2006, we followed it up Tuesday night with even steeper losses in Congress. ...more

November 8, 2008

Political parties usually reform in the wilderness. They suffer some crushing defeat, the old guard is discredited and the pain compels turnover and change. John McCain is trying to reform the Republican Party before a presidential defeat, with the old guard still around, and with a party base that still hasn't accepted the need to transform. The central drama of this week's convention was the struggle by reform Republicans to break through the gravitational pull of old habits and create something new. ...more

September 6, 2008

I haven't read Robert Novak's column in 10 years. Back in 1998, he made a comment on CNN - what it was is not material here - that I considered beyond the pale. I decided I could henceforth do without his opinions and insights. He impressed me as a distinctly disagreeable man. And that was well before he outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. ...more

August 7, 2008