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Ruth Marcus / Politics

A Trifecta with Little Payout

WASHINGTON -- Folks, deep breath time. This is not the end of the Obama presidency. It's a bad stretch with an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events. None of which will make the first paragraph -- not even the first page -- of the account ...

The IRS' Mirror-Image Scandal

WASHINGTON -- Sputtering adjectives -- outrageous, appalling, intolerable -- can scarcely do justice to the fiasco involving the Internal Revenue Service's reported targeting of conservative groups.

But the current scandal obscures -- and, ...

Getting It Wrong on Plan B

WASHINGTON -- As a mom, I can't help but cringe. As a thinking adult, I can't help but reconsider.

I'm referring to the continuing controversy over making emergency contraceptives available, without a prescription, to -- and here is the standard,...

Substitute Teacher in Chief

WASHINGTON -- To be a good president requires the combined skills of chess master and middle-school teacher.

The chess master president possesses the ability to think several steps ahead. To take one recent example: asserting that the use of ...

Close the Book of Firsts

WASHINGTON -- I am so looking forward to the end of firsts. We live in an era of firsts, which is a good thing. The first female Secret Service director. The first African-American president. Most recently, the first openly gay man in a major ...

A Gimmick to Cure Sequester Pain

WASHINGTON -- How predictable was that? Sequestration starts to pinch -- and pinch the middle class -- so the restrictions are loosened. Why cure the disease when treating the symptom is so much easier? Why lose weight when you can let out the ...