"Why aren't women coming to her defense?" they asked.

"Why are the media being so rough on Sarah?"

Having been enjoying a self-imposed moratorium on all things Palin, declining numerous interviews to discuss her latest self-promotional tour, I was surprised by the questions. My thoughts lately have drifted toward the sense that, though Palin is very much a celebrity, she's no longer running for public office, at least officially. Ergo, radar gets a rest.

As for her book ... right after I finish "Ulysses."

But the...]]> Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 WASHINGTON -- Growing concern about incivility is one of America's more appealing trends. Increasingly, individuals and institutions are seeking ways to burnish the Golden Rule.

The concern isn't new -- professor P.M. Forni started the Johns Hopkins Civility Project 12 years ago and published a book in 2002: "Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct."

Civility even has a Facebook page called "The Civility Initiative," where Forni and visitors exchange thoughts on the subject.

But recent events and trends -- from rowdy town-hall meetings to sideshow rants on television to the outburst of South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson -- have brought vague...]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 WASHINGTON -- One of the few incontrovertible assertions one can reasonably make is that no one supports forced abortion.

Yet, coerced abortions, as well as involuntary sterilizations, are commonplace in China, Beijing's protestations notwithstanding. While the Chinese Communist Party insists that abortions are voluntary under the nation's one-child policy, electronic documentation recently smuggled out of the country tells a different story.

Congressional members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission heard some of that story Tuesday, two days before President Obama was slated to leave for Asia, including China, to discuss economic issues. Among evidence provided by two...]]> Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 WASHINGTON -- The so-called "newsroom brawl" between an editor and a writer at The Washington Post recently has been a fine distraction for the health-care-weary.

The two men apparently came to blows over, of all things, words. Not ad hominems necessarily, or at least not exclusively, but words as in the quality of writing. So began the argument that led to a punch being thrown.

Be still my fibrillating heart.

The pugilist was one Henry Allen, a renowned writer and an editor with the Style section. On the other end of Allen's fist was Style writer Manuel Roig-Franzia, co-author of a "charticle" (an appetizer-sized combination of words, images and graphics) that Allen...]]> Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Each time another report surfaces about the decline of newspapers, I feel like a death row inmate counting the warden's footsteps.

The latest echo of doom arrived a few days ago: U.S. newspaper circulation dropped 10 percent from April through September, compared to the same period last year. The largest decrease recorded thus far, the decline was attributed to the usual -- advertising and readership lost to the Web. Industrywide, ad revenues, which constitute newspapers' main source of income, have dropped $20 billion from three years ago. Even so, most newspapers remain profitable and circulation is astoundingly good, all things considered.

That's the...]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- As if President Obama didn't have enough on his plate with health care and Afghanistan, he's now faced with the problem that can't be solved: Women.

Sorry, Mr. President, but we coulda toldja.

But no, Barack Obama courted the girls, promised them equality in all things, and now has excluded them from an all-male game of basketball.

Sorry, ladies, but we coulda toldja.

Not all women are upset, of course. Some on his estrogen-rich staff have shrugged off the faux-scandal about the now-infamous game and point to Obama's inclusion of women where it matters most.

Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett noted the several high-level female appointments,...]]> Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Picking one's battles has never been trickier, especially if you're a member of the benighted Republican Party.

So the question is this: Do you support rape?

And, of course, no one (except a rapist) does, right?

Yet, 30 Republican members of the U.S. Senate have been getting phone calls lately from people asking, "Why do you support rape?"

These callers most likely are familiar with the mock Web site "RepublicansForRape.org," which recounts the recent skirmish over Sen. Al Franken's so-called "anti-rape" amendment to the Senate defense appropriations bill.

For something so un-funny, the subject has become an exercise in the...]]> Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- In an act of merciful sanity, the Obama administration has made good on its promise to stop interfering with states that allow the medical use of marijuana.

Clink-clink, hear-hear, salud, cheers, et cetera, et cetera.

The announcement from Attorney General Eric Holder surely comes as a relief to the many who rely on cannabis to ease suffering from various ailments. This new, relaxed approach doesn't let drug traffickers off the hook. It merely means that 14 states that now provide for some medical marijuana uses no longer need fear federal raids on dispensaries and users operating under state law.

It's a good move, long overdue. But is it enough? Not...]]> Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- As the war of words escalates between conservative gabmeisters and the White House, Americans might pause to wonder: Have we lost our minds?

On any given day, life in the nation's capital feels like being trapped in an "Animal House" sequel -- with less-funny people. If we all take off our sunglasses, can we play grown-up for a while?

The names on the right are by now familiar, thanks in part to columns like this. We in the media can't stop talking about them. But Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh can't be ignored. Not only do they have sizable audiences and loyal followings, but the president of the United States acknowledges them. Thank you notes would seem to be...]]> Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- As the Republican Party continues its pilgrimage through the desert, its leaders may be missing the oasis for the vale of tears.

The answer to the party's woes isn't a revamped Web site (GOP.com) offering -- wowser! -- really cool social networking platforms.

The answer won't be found in the sudden realization that 83 percent of young people 18 to 24 have an online profile -- or other late-breaking revelations that merely reinforce the perception of the GOP as woefully behind the curve.

The answer is ... drum roll, please ... women.

If the GOP is really serious about expanding the party, it's time for the men to hush and let the pros...]]> Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Virginia women have plenty of reason to feel offended by their state's gubernatorial race, though not because the Republican candidate once wrote a dissertation observing that the American family had suffered as a result of women joining the work force.

Who didn't know that? The fact that we've worked hard to juggle jobs and kids doesn't change the reality that families, especially children, have suffered from the strain.

No, the greater offense is being perpetrated by the Democratic contender, Creigh Deeds, who can't stop talking about the dissertation that Robert McDonnell wrote 20 years ago. This, and the fact that McDonnell is pro-life.

In an...]]> Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- For those whose lives revolve primarily around real people in real time and real space, hurry, go hide.

Here's what you missed in the social networking universe the past few days: the twittered miscarriage.

The banality of twittery just out-twitted itself.

Yes, the tweet that gave even the virtual world pause came from one Penelope Trunk, 42-year-old CEO of a blog called "Brazen Careerist," where women can find advice about balancing work and family.

Trunk tweeted while in a board meeting that she was having a miscarriage -- and how great is that? Beats the abortion she was planning to have, which would have meant missing two days of work since...]]> Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- In a 24/7 media world, one would have expected the story of Roman Polanski to last, oh, about 9 1/2 minutes. He raped a girl, admitted it, fled the country before sentencing, was caught again, and now faces justice.

On what planet is this controversial?

We might shrug and say, "Only in France," where the culture minister called the arrest evidence of "a scary America that has just shown its face." Or, perhaps, we say, "Only in Hollywood," where more than 100 filmmakers and actors have petitioned for Polanski's release.

What's more likely is that we have reached the point, identified by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, at which deviancy has been...]]> Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- In keeping with his campaign promise to talk to America's enemies without precondition, Barack Obama plans to turn his charms on Burma's military junta.

Slowly, we're beginning to understand what hope and change were all about. Translation: Sure hope this change works.

It may be too soon to pass judgment on Obama's new foreign policy strategy, but early returns on his gamble that talking is the best cure are less than reassuring. Each time Obama extends a hand to one of the world's anti-American despots, he is rewarded with an insult (Venezuela's Hugo Chavez) or, perhaps, a missile display (North Korea and Iran).

One may view these episodes as...]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- No one was more delighted by the recent ACORN pimp 'n' prostitute, hidden-camera sting than Marcel Reid, the former ACORN board member who was booted in summer 2008 when she tried to examine the organization's books.

"If we'd known all it took was a half-naked 20-year-old, we'd have done this a year and a half ago," said Reid from the rented desk in a church that she calls her office.

By now most Americans are familiar with the acronym, ACORN -- the un-pithily named Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- and all its attendant problems: charges of voter registration fraud, embezzlement, tax arrears, corruption and, now, accusations of aiding...]]> Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Charges of racism these past several days, from op-ed pages to Jimmy Carter's interpretation of Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst, are proving ... complicated.

Strangest was Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson's comment that, without a House resolution censuring Wilson, America would see "folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again, and riding through the countryside intimidating people."

Whew. That was a close one.

Racism is nothing to laugh about, of course, and I wrote about my own concerns during the presidential campaign. But some of the commentary lately has been so overwrought as to be laughable. It is profoundly irresponsible, for example,...]]> Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Not so long ago, Rep. Joe Wilson's verbal assault on the president -- "You lie!" -- might have produced a much different outcome.

Instead of the U.S. House rebuking Wilson, we might be entertaining the prospect of a duel.

In early America, calling someone a liar wasn't a childish insult, but a direct challenge to one's honor, an appropriate response to which varied by region. Where dueling was common -- as in Wilson's home state of South Carolina -- so were insults.

Here's how an 1882 New York Times article described the thinking of the time as it related to a Mr. John Goode, who had called a certain Mr. Bailey a liar.

Writing that "Nothing but...]]> Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson seems to have set a precedent Wednesday night when he called the president a liar during a joint session of Congress.

That's the official word from House deputy historian Fred Beuttler, who says that though cheering and jeering between parties are commonplace, a single individual seldom steals the floor.

Yet, there was Wilson, red-faced and alone, jabbing the air with his index finger and shouting to Barack Obama, "You lie!!!"

As we say down South, "What in tarnation?"

Much of the post-Wilson harrumphing has focused not only on his outburst, for which he has apologized, but also generally on "heckling" by...]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Just when you thought things couldn't get any stupider, schools across the nation decided to censor President Obama's speech urging kids to work hard because "being successful is hard."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the terribly scary bit of propaganda that prompted certain Americans to cry "socialism" and "indoctrination," and force some schools to opt out of hearing the president's message Tuesday.

When and how did we become so ridiculous?

As it turns out, we've been this way for a while now. Such protests aren't new, a review of which follows shortly. The difference is that now, the masses are technologically enabled, amplified by a twillion...]]> Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- As President Barack Obama prepares to address Congress on health care reform, America's pro-life movement is gassing up.

If Obama hasn't liked the tenor of town-hall meetings, wait until he meets pro-lifers at full throttle. They're planning a major drive (to exhaust the metaphor) next week to try to stop federal funding of abortion as allowed under proposed health care legislation.

Obama has partly invited this havoc by not being completely forthright about how health care reform, as currently proposed, would provide taxpayer funding for abortion.

The president may have decided that a thorough explanation was too complicated -- and the subject is not...]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 COLUMBIA, S.C. -- When people think of South Carolina, they think of ... I know, Comedy Central. Really, shouldn't Jon Stewart send South Carolinians a cut of his pay?

What people do not typically think of is black Republicans, a perception that could change soon if a young man named Marvin Rogers has his way. This 33-year-old, Spanish-speaking former aide to South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis has a plan for the GOP: He wants to change its complexion.

Until 2008 when he ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives, Rogers may have been better known in Latin America, where he was an itinerant preacher for several years, than in North America....]]> Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Reaction to Sen. Ted Kennedy's death suggests that there really are two Americas.

One side sees in Kennedy a liberal lion who fought for the greater good, the other sees a sinner lionized by the morally blind.

How can one man be viewed so differently? Is there no objective truth, or is all truth filtered through one's own projection of reality? Such, perhaps, is the dilemma in a secularized world bereft of common reference points. You got your gig; I got mine.

Even before Kennedy's motorcade had come to a stop in front of the JFK Library Thursday, conservatives were busy circulating an old GQ profile written by Michael Kelly, the beloved columnist and...]]> Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- When Oscar Wilde observed that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, he could not have imagined the Internet.

The wild frontier we now know and (mostly) love called the Blogosphere is a not-always-OK corral where Free Speech is armed and often dangerous.

The latest showdown is between two women -- a Vogue model and an anonymous blogger -- at odds over what is permissible in the name of free expression. After the blogger called Liskula Cohen a "skank," among other things, the model demanded her identity from the blog host, Google.

Outraged, the blogger, revealed as Rosemary Port, is launching a $15 million...]]> Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Midway through the month's town hall meetings on health care, it seems the shark has jumped the shark -- and even Hitler must be sick of himself.

The terrible tyrant can't get a rest these days. For eight years, he was George W. Bush. Now he's Barack H. Obama. We just can't quit the monster with the fur lip.

His latest appearance is on a poster of Obama with the iconic mustache, which looks more like a missed crumb than a manly punctuation mark. The poster has become a favored accessory among some of America's squeakier wheels.

There is some debate about whether the Hitler resurrectionists are haters or faux haters -- i.e., Democratic Party plants aimed...]]> Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Now is the time for all good capitalists to shop at Whole Foods.

Not only will you get great produce, fresh meat, fish and healthy to-go meals, but you'll irritate those who think that President Obama's health care plan isn't quite progressive enough.

It seems that John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. -- green missionary and exemplar of corporate compassion -- has riled hard-core reformers by endorsing free-market principles over government-managed health care.

Well, knock me over with a wakame frond. (That's seaweed for you tofu-averse.)

In an op-ed article for The Wall Street Journal, Mackey not only insisted that personal...]]> Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Oh, for those halcyon days when our biggest worry was whether the federal "faith-based" office might encourage a homeless person to find Jesus.

Remember that?

Hardly anyone talks much about the faith-based initiative begun by President Bush and expanded by President Obama. Nor was there hardly a murmur about Obama's appointee to head the program, Joshua DuBois, a 27-year-old Pentecostal preacher.

A comparison of how the media have treated the two presidents and their faith-based programs during the first six months of their administrations (2001 and 2009) is the subject of a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and...]]> Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin was right, the second time.

We do need to turn down the rhetorical heat lest we miss important issues in the proposed House health care bill.

Unfortunately, Palin's more thoughtful comments followed a made-for-the-tabloids Facebook post suggesting that under President Obama's health care reform, a "death panel" would kill her elderly parents and her Down syndrome baby.

Once upon a time, radical reformers could only dream of such helpful enemies. Now that the world is chasing hyperbole, we indeed risk overlooking troublesome language in the end-of-life section of the House health bill, aka Section 1233 of HR 3200.

For purposes of civil...]]> Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Maybe it's the dog days, but three friends recently got in touch within a 24-hour period to catch up. Or more like it, to catch their breath.

One reported the onset of panic attacks. Another is seeking treatment for depression. The third began an e-mail asking for help with: "Reports of my employment have been greatly exaggerated."

The first two were women, 40-something and 50. The third is a man in his 50s. They all have one thing in common: No job.

No one is starving yet, but "yet" seems less remote than it once did.

"What if I can't find a job? Ever?" asked "Sandra." She laughed, but it was nervous laughter. Sandra isn't at all sure things...]]> Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit.

"Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians," he once explained to an interviewer. "So, what's wrong with making smart-aleck remarks about Ohio? Nobody puts Ohio down. Why shouldn't I put Ohio down?"

Percy, the genial genius, laughed at his own remark.

Now, apparently, it's the Buckeye State's turn to poke back. In a fusillade of pique, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich charged that Southerners are what's wrong with the Republican Party.

"We got too many Jim DeMints (South Carolina) and Tom Coburns (Oklahoma),"...]]> Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- What's in a name? A bit of deception when it comes to the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

A more accurate title might be: the American Clean Energy and Less Security Act.

To get to the bottom of what's wrong with the 1,400-page energy bill passed by the House of Representatives, you have to dig deeper than Canada's tar sands. And what you find there is just as sludgy -- and taxing to process.

Crudely refined: The greener we are, the less secure we're likely to be.

Meaning, we either can be green or we can be less dependent on oil from terrorist-sponsoring states. But under the current energy bill, we can't be...]]> Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- People say: Why are we still talking about Crowley and Gates? And then they commence to talk for 15 minutes about Crowley and Gates.

The reason we persist is because the confrontation between a black professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and a white cop, Sgt. James Crowley, is a mother lode of metaphor.

Cambridge -- axis of academia and symbol of American elitism -- is suddenly the Blombos Cave of American culture, exposing millennia of human behavioral history in a pinpoint of light.

And, of course, the president of the United States inserted himself into the mix.

The genie of race was released from the bottle when America elected its first...]]> Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- In a way, it's too bad President Obama tapped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to serve as ambassador to China.

The ambassador-designee promised a Senate panel Thursday that, if confirmed, he would press American values in China. If only the Obama administration would press Huntsman's health care reform values here in the U.S.

As governor, Huntsman has overseen a blueprint for the overhaul of Utah's health care system that could be a model for a more-rational approach to national reform. In one fell swoop, Obama effectively eliminated one of the most qualified Republicans to challenge his health care reform, as well as a leading contender to spearhead a Republican coup...]]> Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- There was something about Uncle Walt. He was so ... avuncular.

Cronkite became the most trusted man in television precisely because he seemed so grown up. The CBS anchor was a pillar of maturity, reliability and unemotional accountability -- just the sort of fellow who could sell you a tin of coffee by simply taking a sip.

During a bumpy time in our nation's history, he filled a psychic need for order amid chaos. By showing up every night at the same time, same place -- speaking simply and without drama -- he conveyed a sense that someone was in charge.

Our nostalgia for his passing isn't only for the death of a familiar and mostly admired individual,...]]> Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Followers of Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearings were witness to a now-familiar phenomenon. Women are treated differently than men in such settings.

To wit: Questions posed to Sotomayor about her temperament -- is she a bully? -- wouldn't likely be posed to a similarly qualified man.

Judicial temperament is a legitimate concern, of course. But watching Sotomayor take questions about her moods from the nearly all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, one couldn't help wondering how those same fellows would hold up under similar scrutiny while a roomful of women took aim at their ... fortitude.

Obviously, we're talking about Republican chaps....]]> Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Doubtless thousands of other women's ears perked up when Sen. Charles Schumer, introducing Sonia Sotomayor at Monday's confirmation hearing, mentioned the Latina jurist's girlhood affection for Nancy Drew books.

The smart, plucky girl-detective was a role model for many women who recognized themselves in Nancy -- including Hillary Clinton, Oprah, Sandra Day O'Connor and Laura Bush, to name a few.

Add yours truly to the list.

My father introduced to me to Nancy Drew when I was in the fifth grade. He and I sat side by side on the living room couch to read the first book together, taking turns to read aloud. Thus began my long love affair with reading,...]]> Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- The sad tale of Michael Jackson will be retold a few thousand times more as autopsy reports and estate details emerge.

Meanwhile, the presumed verdict is that Jackson died of prescription drugs. On CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" Thursday, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, said that Jackson's death was a wake-up call to the country about prescription drugs.

Maybe. Maybe not. We all know that abusing prescription drugs -- taking them for purposes other than prescribed -- is bad for our health. Potentially deadly, in fact.

Regardless, people choose to abuse drugs (or smoke cigarettes or drink booze)...]]> Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- When you're up to your waders in barracuda, blame the media.

And quit your job.

And say you did it for the people.

And hire an agent.

And try to keep a straight face.

On your way to the bank.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, H.L. Mencken once said. Terribly elitist fellow, that Mencken. If only he were alive to witness the phenomenon of Sarah Palin, whose biography validates every cynical thought that ever found expression in his prolific prose.

Let's just say, Palin is in no danger of going broke. From her book contract alone, she never has to worry about money again, according...]]> Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- A wise man once said that love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

No one who managed to get through the torture of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's news conference admitting to an affair would disagree.

Yes, I know, shocking. Another Republican affair. Next thing you know, we'll learn that a Democrat hasn't paid his taxes. There does seem to be a pattern of failure in those matters about which people purport to care the most.

If we were feeling charitable, we might say something about man's fallen nature and his attempt to repair himself through public works. Thus, Republicans touting family values can't seem to stay zipped. Democrats...]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Every revolution needs a unifying symbol, and members of Iran's opposition movement now have theirs.

That was one dumb sniper who took out the young woman millions now know as Neda. Or was he?

No one seems to know the identity of the rooftop shooter who pierced Neda's heart with a bullet Saturday. Was he a Basij sniper, as some witnesses have reported? Was it a mistake? Or did the shooter see an opportunity to create a necessary martyr?

The thought is inescapable that the beautiful Neda Agha Soltan might have been selected from the crowd not to scare away protesters, but to unite them.

It is not impossible to imagine that someone had a...]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Rusty DePass, the South Carolina Republican activist who infamously "joked" that an escaped zoo gorilla was probably an ancestor of Michelle Obama's, has learned the meaning of "hell to pay."

His teaching moment has provided multiple curricula on a range of subjects, including what appears to be racism fatigue in the Deep South.

DePass, a former chairman of the state Elections Commission, has all but performed the Stations of the Cross in apologizing for his remark the past several days. Originally made on his Facebook page in what he thought was a private exchange with a friend, the comment was picked up by a local political blogger, Will Folks (former...]]> Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- There's a "new" old name suddenly in circulation that is both filled with ancient history and ripe with a revolutionary spirit for today's game-changing events.

Zahra.

Well-known to Muslims, Fatima az-Zahra was one of four daughters of the Prophet Muhammad. Today, Zahra is also the name of two important, outspoken women of Iran.

One is Zahra Rahnavard, the courageous and charismatic wife of the allegedly defeated Iranian presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi. The other is Zahra Khanum, the equally courageous and charismatic woman portrayed in a new movie, "The Stoning of Soraya M.," about the death of an Iranian woman on trumped-up charges of...]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- One thing we can conclude from David Letterman's bad jokes about Sarah Palin: He hasn't flown commercial in a while.

Letterman's "slutty flight attendant" remark about Palin was in poor taste, we can all agree. But it was a joke and Letterman is a comedian. The joke probably would have been shrugged off and forgotten -- Palin proved her humorous good sportsmanship on "Saturday Night Live" during the campaign -- if not for Letterman's sexually suggestive "joke" about her daughter.

Everyone knows by now that Letterman made fun of the Palin family's trip to New York last week. He quipped that Palin's daughter got "knocked up" by Yankees third...]]> Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and GOP "It" girl, can warm up the Republican base like a hot toddy in a duck blind. But further inside the party organization, the air is a little nippy.

What happened? In a word, bungling.

Everyone seems to have a Sarah Palin story of ignored calls, mishandled invitations or unanswered e-mail. Disorganized is how one might charitably describe the Palin operation.

"Basically, it's just rude," says one political operative, who is a Palin fan. "They've been running the great snub machine. That's the reason the boys in the Republican Party are unhappy with her."

That unhappiness has been building gradually the past...]]> Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- If it ain't broke, the saying goes, don't fix it. And so it was that the Muslim world got to hear the 2009 version of Barack Obama's 2004 Democratic convention speech.

In the first rendition before a swarm of fellow party members, though aimed at a national audience, Obama assured Americans that we are not a nation of Red States and Blue States.

"There's not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

Four years later, Obama was elected president of those United States.

At Cairo University Thursday, Obama delivered essentially the same message on a slightly grander scale --...]]> Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON -- Prior to recent events, I intended to write about the GOP's message problem with the headline: "Shoot the Messenger."

Sunday's murder of abortion doctor George Tiller makes my title inappropriate, but the idea remains relevant.

The adage, of course, is "Don't shoot the messenger," meaning we shouldn't necessarily blame the person who delivers bad news. For the GOP these days, however, the problem isn't so much the message. It's the messenger.

By grotesque coincidence, Tiller's murderer furthers the point.

It has long been a problem for the GOP that some of the party's cherished positions are embraced most enthusiastically by people whose...]]>