Schadenfreude isn’t exactly the right word to describe how I feel watching Republicans flail around on health care reform, but it moves in the right direction. It must be tremendously frustrating to be a Republican Senator, Representative or staffer right now. Your party controls the House, Senate, and the White House. You ran on fixing…
Unsolicited Advice for Republicans: Call Trump’s Bluff on Health Care
Donald Trump is leaning hard on Republicans in Congress to support whatever version of health care reform hits the floor of the House later this week. Members of Congress concerned that the bill might hurt their constituents (and ultimately their own re-election prospects) may be willing to go along with Trump because if they…
I Followed the Rules to Serve the Last President, Those Serving This President Should Too.
As the White House makes headlines for claiming not all government ethics rules apply to them, I thought I would share my own experiences with federal ethics offices. The punchline is that the rules can be a pain to follow, but are important to ensure people don’t take advantage of their position for personal…
Starting a Conversation About Ethics and Politics: What ethical responsibilities, if any, do I have?
This is the first in what may become a series of posts about ethics and politics. No one has ever handed me a bag of cash in an airport parking lot in exchange for taking a political action that I thought was unethical or illegal. I’m sure it happens, it has just never happened…
Funding Patient Advocacy Groups: A case study in agenda setting lobbying
Time and attention are the scarcest resources a policymaker has. The best advocates know that getting a piece of that time and attention, and getting that time and attention focused appropriately, makes their preferred solution likely if not inevitable. It is not the pitch for or against a bill alone that wins the day, but…
Democrats Should Preach That Old Time Civil Religion
Former White House senior advisor Ron Klain recently argued that Democrats should echo “Ronald Reagan’s invocation of the ‘shining city upon a hill’” and “claim…the concept of American exceptionalism — for their own.” I would take Klain’s argument a step further. Democrats should embrace the premise of American exceptionalism – civil religion – as a…
From Hero to Buffoon: Kenneth Burke, Evan Mecham, and Donald Trump
Words and deeds that were considered by many to be anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist, sexist, and pompous to a fault marked [Evan] Mecham’s brief career as governor of Arizona. In stark contrast, others deemed Mecham to be straightforward, honest, and gallant for being able to boldly proclaim their socially conservative doctrine…To many conservatives, Mecham was a hero…
I hope Senator Marco Rubio is pandering.
People whose opinions I respect and who know the Senator tell me he is a good, honorable, caring man. I also hope that’s true. But I mostly hope that he is a clever, calculating, ambitious politician with his eyes on the White House. He could of course be both; the best politicians know that good…
I took Speaker Ryan at his word – I was wrong
Eight weeks ago I wrote a piece for the Independent Journal Review arguing we should take Speaker Ryan at his word, and that if he violated his pledge we should call him out. He did, and I did.
Final Exam
Modern Political Communication and Rhetoric Spring 2016 Final Exam After four years at GW you launch into a successful career as a political strategist. The work is fun and financially rewarding. You help elect some good people, help advance some good policies, and generally carve out a good niche over a couple decades in D.C….