Newsday

Is there anything redeeming about the tabloid news? Any justification for being preoccupied with the doings and dallyings and dyings of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Anna Nicole Smith?

And how ‘bout that O.J. Simpson? Or Phil Spector? As their cases remind us, sometimes the issue is not the damage that stars do to themselves, but rather the damage they do to others.

A society functions only as long as it maintains a common moral standard. So if the rich and famous… more

Let’s hope that the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the next attorney general proves to be good news for the country -- but it’s already good news for Rudy Giuliani.

Indeed, the Republican ex-mayor turned presidential candidate has had a great week. More on Rudy in a moment -- but first, Mukasey.

In a time of continuing terror, as well as a crime rate that is once again rising, the American people naturally hope that the Department of Justice will provide… more

It’s beginning to look a lot like 1971.

For this baby boomer, the current mixture of popular culture and an unpopular foreign war brings back memories. Memories of an odd-numbered year before a presidential election, when Hollywood moved left -- and the country moved right in reaction. And it was over-the-top anti-war protesters who cemented the conservative majority.

The war back in ‘71, of course, was in Vietnam. In that year, most Americans had concluded that the war was a failure, at… more

The emerging narrative from Iraq is threefold, leading us to a further conclusion about the future of American politics. Hint: Watch Gen. David Petraeus.

Any narrative -- the agreed-upon storyline -- is a mixture of truth, fiction and poetry. In politics, narratives make sense of the past, guiding us into the future.

The first piece of the narrative is familiar from all our wars, won or lost: Our warriors did what we asked them to -- and more. The Iraq war, as… more

Nearly six years after 9/11, what’s striking is how little has changed in America -- and in its war effort. And yet if we can’t change ourselves, what are the chances that we can change others?

When President George W. Bush declares that the Global War on Terror is "the concentrated work of generations," one has to wonder if he really means it. Certainly there’s been little concentration on effective war mobilization, and other countries have noticed.

As we look back to… more

Should we in the media be virtuous? That is, should we consciously set out to do good -- and to be good? The American people, especially the young, say "yes." And yet most in the media say "no" -- for various reasons that are worth exploring.

Needless to say, most journalists, like most people, wish to think of themselves as virtuous. But still, it is not the normal language of journalism to speak of virtue as a goal.

For news reporters, the… more

Obviously Larry Craig should resign his Idaho Senate seat. It’s the only way he can begin the process of reclaiming his honor.

And his fellow Republicans should push Craig out -- not just out of his committee leadership assignments, but out of the Senate altogether -- if this confessed criminal won’t go. In the wake of former Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s alleged pedophilia -- and confirmed inappropriate contact with boys -- and in the wake of an additional string of sexual… more

Let’s stipulate, up front, that there’s plenty of blame to go all around on Katrina.

Two years ago this week, and ever since, a Republican president, a Democratic governor and a Democratic mayor have all seemed to be competing for the prize of "most incompetent." And also, let’s just say it and get it out of the way: During the hurricane and its aftermath, some of the people of New Orleans haven’t acquitted themselves very well, either.

But the real lesson of… more

Are we Rome? Is America like the Roman Empire -- you know, Declining and Falling, and all that?

No less than the comptroller general of the United States, David Walker, answers yes, citing "striking similarities" between America today and Rome then. And while it’s tempting -- at a time of falling bridges, faltering currencies and failing foreign wars -- to spot ominous parallels, one huge difference exists, which happily is still in our power to control.

Walker, head of the federal-watchdogging Government… more

The former governor of Arkansas is not as rich or handsome as fellow Republican Mitt Romney, nor is he as heroic and tortured as John McCain. And he’s certainly not as intense and operatic as Rudy Giuliani.

As for the top Democrats, Huckabee is not nearly as careful and calculating as Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nor is he as dashing and Bobby Kennedy-like as Barack Obama. And he’s nowhere near as shiny and pretty as John Edwards. And he certainly doesn’t talk… more