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Mort Kondracke
Mort Kondracke is the Executive Editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955. © 2007 Roll Call, Inc.
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Recent Articles
- 'Reconciliation' to Pass Health Bill Won't Work - July 2, 2009
- Liberal health reform advocates have talked about ramming a reform plan - including a Medicare-like public insurance option - through the Senate with only 51 Democratic...
- Obama Rides High, But Clouds Gather - Roll Call - June 26, 2009
- Obama Rides High at Five Months, but Clouds Gather - June 26, 2009
- The political verdict on President Barack Obama's first five months in office has to be "so far, so good," but it also must include trepidation about clouds on the...
- Iran Elections Make Nuclear Talks Harder - June 18, 2009
- President Barack Obama went easy on Iran in his big June 4 speech in Cairo so as not to become an issue in last weekend's elections. Some good it did. The ruling powers...
- Medicare Drug Plan Ought to Be Model for Health Reform - June 11, 2009
- As they work on comprehensive health reform, Congress and President Barack Obama ought to look to the most successful model yet: the 2003 Medicare prescription drug...
- Obama Confronts Bush's 'Axis of Evil' - Can He Do Better? - June 5, 2009
- The Obama administration is confronting what's left of the "axis of evil" this week, with the president in the Mideast talking about Iran and top aides in the Far East...
- Congress Should Aid 'Good Death' Like My Mother's - May 28, 2009
- My mother died this month at age 95. This column is a tribute to her example of living - and also a public policy tribute to the manner of her death, in hospice...
- Future Prosperity Depends on 'New Contract' for Kids - May 21, 2009
- President Barack Obama plans to tackle, one by one, the biggest problems threatening America's future prosperity, but he needs to fashion nothing less than "a new social...
- Hurting, Not Dead, GOP Is Working Up Alternative Ideas - May 15, 2009
- With as few as 20 percent of voters identifying themselves as Republicans in major polls, the GOP is in a bad way, for sure. But is it dead? No way. While former Vice...
- Democrats Should Reform Medicare, Not Universalize It - May 8, 2009
- If President Barack Obama really is a pragmatic problem solver and not a liberal ideologue, he will stop pushing for a government-run insurance plan as part of health...
- Obama Should Halt Democrats' 'Torture' Frenzy - May 1, 2009
- If President Barack Obama really meant what he told CIA officers on April 16 - "this is a time for reflection, not retribution" - then he needs to snuff out the...
- Obama, Duncan Need to Succeed on School Reform - April 24, 2009
- President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are dedicated school reformers, and two new reports show how urgent it is that they succeed. The reports, by...
- U.S. Should Help Pakistan's Zardari Become a Maliki - April 17, 2009
- As the peril in Pakistan deepens, the United States has little choice but to bolster that country's weak democratic government to the max. Pakistani President Asif...
- The World Loves Obama, but Does He Get Respect? - April 9, 2009
- Even though every slight and slap at Bush was interpreted by some conservative commentators as Obama's denigrating the United States itself, some of it was legitimate....
- A Three-Way Fix For Health Reform That Saves Money - April 3, 2009
- But, second, "quality of life" treatment should be means-tested, with richer people paying more than poorer people for services such as joint replacements, plastic...
- Will Obama Match Bush for Fiscal Irresponsibility? - March 26, 2009
- Walker said he trusts the Congressional Budget Office's just-issued estimates of deficits and debt more than those from Obama's Office of Management and Budget.The CBO...
- 'Post-Partisanship' Isn't Dead Yet -- but It's Very Close - March 19, 2009
- And he isn't alone. The Senate's No. 3 GOP leader, moderate Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), told me in an interview that, after being one of a handful of Republicans...
- Pakistan Must Be Obama's Leading Foreign Priority - March 13, 2009
- Protecting Afghanistan from Taliban advances is important - and U.S. troop commitments there will be a major domestic concern - but preventing chaos in Pakistan is vital...
- Can Congress Pass All Obama Wants -- and Should It? - March 6, 2009
- He wants Congress to give him -- this year -- a new financial regulatory system so that collapses like the current one don't happen again.It's not remotely clear that...
- Obama Has Good Idea: a Bipartisan Health Summit - February 27, 2009
- To prevent scare tactics and suspicion from torpedoing health care reform before it gets launched, it's a good idea for President Barack Obama to convene a...
- Obama Shouldn't Stick to 16-Month Iraq Pullout Plan - February 20, 2009
- Fred Kagan, the American Enterprise Institute scholar who advocated and helped design the surge, told me that, of 140,000 troops in Iraq now, "as few as possible" should...
- Believe It or Not, Rush Limbaugh Was Right on Stimulus - February 12, 2009
- Which was: President Barack Obama won 53 percent of the two-party vote last year and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won 46 percent, so Obama would dictate the contents of 53...
- There's Room for Compromise on Both Sides - January 29, 2009
- Claiming the moral high ground as he visited with Republicans for three hours on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, he called for them to "put politics aside," implying that...
- In Obama Era, National Service's Time Has Come - January 22, 2009
- The centerpiece of the process will be passage -- its advocates hope, in Obama's first 100 days -- of the Serve America Act, sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)...
- Obama Should Spray the Taliban's Poppies, Rep. Kirk Asserts - January 17, 2009
- In December, Kirk became the second Member of Congress -- and first House Member -- since 1943 to serve on active duty in a combat zone, witnessing parts of a major...
- Reform Is Coming On Immigration, But Problems Remain - January 9, 2009
- President-elect Barack Obama denounced the raids during the campaign, but canceling George W. Bush's policies could open the new administration to charges that it's...
- Obama Should Say 'No' to 'War Crimes' Probes of Bush Team - December 26, 2008
- But now Bush haters are calling for the Obama administration to investigate Bush officials for alleged war crimes and other misdeeds connected with the war on...
- Best Auto Plan: Bankruptcy Terms Minus Bankruptcy - December 18, 2008
- But neither the incoming nor outgoing administration thinks that -- mainly because bankruptcy for General Motors could also result in the failure of companies that...
- Everyone Will Have Health Insurance -- But It Will Be Costly - December 11, 2008
- Health reform plans advanced by President-elect Barack Obama, incoming Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle and Congressional leaders such as Sens. Edward...
- Will Obama Opt For Pragmatism In Energy Policy? - November 26, 2008
- On Oct. 20, Jones made it clear at a panel discussion I was part of that he regards energy policy as "an international security issue of the highest order," which...
- First Steps to GOP Recovery - November 20, 2008
- If one governor would fully implement a widely circulated proposal to transform U.S. education -- based on having most children graduate after 10th grade and using the...
- 'Keynsian Moment' Needed to Fight 'Great Recession' - November 13, 2008
- An emerging consensus among conservative and liberal economists seems to indicate that we'll experience negative growth - 2 percent to 4 percent-through 2009 and into...
- Obama Needs Help in Keeping Promise to Unify Country - November 6, 2008
- But while he may believe, as he said, that "in this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people," other people -- starting with members of his own party --...
- President Obama: We Still Don't Know Who He Really Is - October 31, 2008
- But as Obama delivered his "closing argument" this week, beginning Monday in Canton, Ohio, it remained impossible to tell how far left Obama will tilt on economics or...
- McCain's Slim Hopes Ride on Obama's 'Poor Closer' Record - October 23, 2008
- The same situation prevails in Nevada, where Obama has 49.3 percent; North Carolina, 49.2; Missouri, 48; West Virginia, 43.8; and Indiana, 46.7.Obama has broken through...
- Strategic Pakistan Steps Up Terror Fight, Needs Aid - October 19, 2008
- "The Pakistani army has committed itself, especially in an area called Bajur, which borders Kunar province in Afghanistan, which has been a stronghold for al-Qaida....
- McCain, Obama Again Dodged Priority Questions - October 9, 2008
- A sentence or two later, he proposed a new $300 billion program to buy up distressed home mortgages. "Is it expensive? Yes," he said, but it's necessary to stabilize...
- If Rescue Passes, Here's Who Gets Credit and Blame - October 2, 2008
- It's emphatically true that the House's 23-vote rejection Monday of what was widely tagged as a "$700 billion Wall Street bailout" constituted a massive, bipartisan...
- Bush's Second Term Is Better Than First -- Credit Josh Bolten - September 28, 2008
- That is based largely on the fact that Bush has kept the nation safe from terrorist attack and had the courage not to give up in Iraq during the war's darkest hours, and...
- No More 'Lipstick'-- With Financial Crisis, Politics Gets Seriou - September 18, 2008
- The economy has been Issue No. 1 on the minds of voters for months, but the McCain campaign managed for two weeks -- with some mistaken help from Obama -- to divert...