Americans Elect, a group that’s generously funded by secret Wall Street donors, according to Salon’s Jason Elliot, promises to put a third party on the ballot in fifty states. It should be immediately disowned by every responsible American. The party is obviously designed to appeal to moderates. I know that smart fellows like Peter Hart […]
Charles Peters
Charles Peters is the founding editor of the Washington Monthly.
Posted inJanuary/February 2012, Magazine
The trouble with redistricting
Partisan redistricting of congressional seats has, of course, been a major factor in the gridlock that cripples Washington. Virginia provides a striking example of what it is doing to the states. In its recent general election, only 27 of 100 House of Delegates seats were contested by a Democrat and a Republican. All the rest […]
Posted inJanuary/February 2012, Magazine
The old college fail
A couple of years ago, I wrote about how my son, a teacher in a high school in San Bern- adino, in southern California, had gradually realized that, despite his efforts to persuade his students to go to college, a significant number of them just weren’t interested. They wanted vocational training that would prepare them […]
Posted inJanuary/February 2012, Magazine
Unreasonably Hatched
A Pennsylvania police officer has been told he can’t run for the local school board because his bomb-sniffing dog is funded by the Department of Homeland Security. If that doesn’t make much sense to you, you should support the campaign by Carolyn Lerner, the Office of Special Counsel head previously praised in this column, to […]
Posted inJanuary/February 2012, Magazine
Nothing personal, Mr. Cordray
If the Wall Street reforms enacted under Obama are as weak as many of us thought, why are Wall Street and the Republicans fighting so hard to sabotage them? The latest example of their efforts is the filibuster of Richard Cordray’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Several Republicans conceded that he was […]
Posted inJanuary/February 2012, Magazine
As goes California …
“Since 2004 we’ve seen younger people voting much more Democratic than average and older people much more Republican than average,” concludes Andrew Kohut, in a study by the Pew Research Center, which he directs. I think this trend may have begun much earlier—thirty-three years ago, in fact. That’s when California voters adopted Proposition 13, which […]
Posted inMagazine, November/December 2011
Tilting at Windmills
Hidden capital There is a problem with government accounting that drives me around the bend, but that I rarely see noted elsewhere. When corporations build a factory, it is considered a positive, the creation of a capital asset. But when government builds a road or a school, it’s an expense. It’s simply spending money, treated […]
Posted inMagazine, September/October 2011
The Monkey Wrench Gang… All the take that’s fit to print… Corporate jetting to the Hamptons
The hand he was dealt Liberals’ anger at Obama during the default debate was based on the fact that they actually seemed to think he had the power to do what they wanted him to do. In fact, he did not. The only cards he held were the power of the veto and the Senate […]
Posted inPolitics
God Help the Squeaky Wheel
Scandals like the Thomas Drake affair—documented last May by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker—can make it seem as if government agency heads are, always and everywhere, petty and vindictive in their demands for secrecy and discipline within the ranks. Drake was a public servant who lost his job for whistle-blowing at the National Security […]
Posted inJuly/August 2011, Magazine
Layer cake… The Department of Housing and Unbelievable Delays… God help the squeaky wheel
Layer cake Much of this column will be devoted to a short course on how Washington really works, with special emphasis on truths that are not widely understood. One of these truths emerged in a survey of government workers by Lisa Rein of the Washington Post, asking them for suggestions on how to cut fat […]
