Does anybody buy the good-guy act at this point? America’s favorite fake-moderate was dragged on to NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday, and again tried to promote the dubious idea that Donald Trump and Roy Moore are anomalies in the GOP, as opposed to being an accurate representation of what his party thinks and believes: Ohio […]
D.R. Tucker
D. R. Tucker is a Massachusetts-based journalist who has served as the weekend contributor for the Washington Monthly since May 2014. He has also written for the Huffington Post, the Washington Spectator, the Metrowest Daily News, investigative journalist Brad Friedman's Brad Blog and environmental journalist Peter Sinclair's Climate Crocks.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Truth Needs an Army
This is not a fight to the death. This is a fight against death—the death of our democracy. Even if Donald Trump leaves the White House in shame and dishonor prior to the 2020 election, Trumpism will still be with us. Even though Roy Moore was defeated last Tuesday, Mooreism will still be with us. […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Hot Takes: The Top Climate Stories of 2017
1. Puerto Rico: Donald Trump’s malignant neglect of the American territory in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s devastation is nothing short of a human-rights atrocity, and one of the most significant climate stories of the decade. 2. Paris pullout: Trump’s announcement of his plans to abandon the 2015 Paris climate agreement sparked an international backlash–and […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Cost of One’s Soul
Sometimes people have to be explicitly told they’re not wanted around–and even then, they still don’t seem to get it. Yes, there was plenty of morbid humor to be derived this week from the travails of now-former White House staffer and one-time reality-TV star Omarosa Manigault, ousted from what appeared to be a make-work position […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Who Guards the Guardians?
It’s not like they’re going to stay honest on their own. As atrocious as the actions of Donald Trump and his minions have been, just imagine how much worse those actions would be if there was no entity to hold these people accountable, no voice to call them out on their wanton behavior, no countervailing […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Is Anti-Trump Climate Litigation the New Brown v. Board of Education?
We need not rehash my misgivings about the legal effort by adolescents and pre-adolescents in Oregon to force the Trump administration to implement policies to reduce carbon emissions; opinions on this lawsuit have hardened, and I don’t expect to change anyone’s minds one way or the other about the case. However, I did raise an […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Jones Act: Lessons from Alabama
I was wrong. I didn’t think Doug Jones had a chance in hell. I figured that at the end of the day, the Alabama electorate would give the guy with the (R) next to his name the benefit of the doubt, no matter how corrupt or craven. I figured that too many voters would be […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Will Anyone Really Be Surprised if Roy Moore Wins?
In an infamously bloody scene in The Untouchables (1987), Robert De Niro declared, “I get nowhere unless the team wins.” Three decades later, De Niro’s line is, in effect, Donald Trump’s motto–and if that motto is shared by a majority of the Alabama electorate, then Roy Moore is guaranteed to win the state’s special US […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
McConnell’s New Motto: The Moore, the Merrier
Well, it’s not like he had any principles, anyway. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who once pretended to be outraged about the perceived perversity of Alabama US Senate candidate Roy Moore, made it clear today that he doesn’t think the alleged dirty old man is all that dirty: Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Keith Olbermann’s Famous Last Words
As soon as I heard the news, I thought back to the fall of 1993, when Billy Joel began hinting in the wake of the release of the River of Dreams album that he wouldn’t be releasing any new material, and Michael Jordan announced his retirement from professional basketball. Yes, the Piano Man did return […]
