is a Washington Monthly contributing editor, a columnist for Roll Call, a fellow at the Brennan Center, and the author of a new book on his con-man great-uncle, Hustling Hitler: The Jewish Vaudevillian Who Fooled the Führer.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The Unintended Consequences of Electoral Reform
California and Maine show how well-meaning efforts to encourage moderation can undermine political parties.
Tilting at Windmills
A Trump by any other name … Mitt Romney: An overdue appreciation … Confessions of a hopeless book hoarder
The Campaign-Industrial Complex
Political reform will never happen until candidates and donors realize they’re being ripped off.
The Running Men
During my quarter century of covering presidential campaigns, I have found that the most telling glimpses of the candidates have come when they were just beginning to step into the cauldron of ambition. This is the time when their lines were still unscripted and their public veneers hung loosely like a suit that they had… Read more »
Young Gun
In truth, Kerrey could never have been elected president. Not in 1992 when he ran a diffident and unfocused primary campaign against Bill Clinton, not in 2000 when he yielded to the realities of political fund-raising, and not in 2004 had he stayed in the Senate. For Kerrey, who had lost part of a leg… Read more »
