The implied criticism of President Barack Obama comes not from Rush Limbaugh or Fox News but from the AFL-CIO in a newspaper ad last week letting the president and congressional Democrats know unions’ “bottom line for health care reform.”

The unions are calling in their chits. If health care legislation doesn’t include a public option, they won’t support it. And if it does include a tax on so-called gold-plated plans, they’ll oppose it.

No wonder White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been meeting behind closed doors with Democrats trying to craft a final bill....]]> Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 More prescient words were never spoken by a politician than Barack Obama's to the American people Wednesday evening on the issue of health care reform: "I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last." For 60 years, Democrats have been trying to force a government health care system on a deeply skeptical American public, without success. And if President Obama fails this time, it's unlikely we'll see another attempt anytime soon. But despite the president's recriminations, he has only himself to blame.

The president could have used his primetime public address to search for a moderate compromise. Instead, he chose to call those who disagree...]]> Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 This week I was asked to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Here's what I said.

I testify today not as a wise Latina woman, but as an American who believes that skin color and national origin should not determine who gets a job, promotion, or public contract, or who gets into college or receives a scholarship.

My message today is straightforward. Do not vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I say this with some regret, because I believe Judge Sotomayor's personal story is an inspiring one, which proves that this is truly a land of opportunity where circumstances of birth and class do not...]]> Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 If you don't think this reflects media bias, contrast this insatiable prying into Bristol Palin's life with the press's lack of curiosity about the behavior of another 17-year-old -- one whose story would seem to have more relevance to this year's presidential election.

In his memoir "Dreams from My Father," Barack Obama describes his troubled teenaged years. "Pot had helped, and booze, maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack though," he recalls, though he admits he came close to trying heroin at the urging of a friend who shot up in front of him. He was deterred by the image "of an air bubble, shiny and round like a pearl, rolling quietly through my vein and...]]> Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500 It's true, Germans are our largest ethnic group today -- numbering 43 million in the last decennial Census -- but so what? Despite German language schools -- which enrolled as many as 600,000 students in 1900 -- and even some efforts by German emigres to form a German ethnic state in Texas or Wisconsin in the 19th century, Americans of German ancestry all speak English today and are entirely integrated into the American mainstream.

Similar worries emerged in the early 20th century, when millions of southern and eastern Europeans flooded our shores. Madison Grant, a Yale-educated lawyer and leader in the eugenics movement, predicted, "... in large sections of the country the native...]]> Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500