blogging the beltway

(The Root) — There’s a scene in the wildly popular TV show Downton Abbey in which a single mother working as a prostitute to support her son is torn between giving him up for adoption by his wealthy grandparents or raising him herself. A well-heeled, well-meaning social activist encourages her to keep the child, saying…

(The Root) — There have been plenty of second acts in politics, from former President Bill Clinton surviving a sex-turned-impeachment scandal, to former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry returning to public life from a crack-and-prostitute scandal. But rarely do political comebacks happen in the span of a few short months. And yet that appears to…

(The Root) — If there is one woman who has stolen the show from President Obama during his State of the Union addresses, it has been his wife, first lady Michelle Obama. Her attire and arms have previously garnered almost as much attention as his speeches. But during his most recent State of the Union…

(The Root) — Every now and then someone says something so colossally stupid and offensive that the offended party ends up thanking him. The reason? Because the offending remark ends up costing the offender what remaining credibility he or she had, and ultimately ends up benefiting the offended party. One of the most famous examples…

(The Root) — It is possible that this Black History Month could close with a case whose decision could mean a major setback to civil rights, occurring in the age of the first black president and aided by the second black Supreme Court justice. On Wednesday the high court is scheduled to hear one of…

(The Root) — When President Obama gave a speech in his hometown of Chicago in a bid to address the city’s stratospheric gun violence, his remarks drew criticism, but not just from the usual suspects. While his gun-control remarks often spur complaints from the National Rifle Association, this time he also found himself under attack…

(The Root) — Immigration reform has emerged as the most-talked-about domestic-policy issue of 2013. In his first major interview after winning re-election, President Obama dubbed it one of his major second-term priorities. But perhaps more notably, high-profile conservative Republicans have latched onto it as well. Fox News firebrand Sean Hannity announced a political about-face on…

(The Root) — A lot has been made of President Obama’s recent golf session with Tiger Woods. More specifically, a lot has been made of the fact that the press was excluded from the outing. While the president has some surprising defenders on this, among them Fox News Channel’s Charles Krauthammer and, more tepidly, Bill…

(The Root) — Still reeling from its losses in the 2012 election, the Republican Party has begun doing some serious soul-searching. Increasingly that search has led party leaders on a quest to re-evaluate what the party stands for, who it speaks for and, lately, whether or not it needs a little more soul in it.…