Eugene Robinson

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Obama's Mad About VA Scandal? Yeah, Right

This controversy isn't GOP-concocted: Ron Christie and Eugene Robinson

(Newser) - Columnists on both the right and left are fuming about reports of secret Veterans Affairs hospital delays said to have resulted in 40 deaths. Both Ron Christie and Eugene Robinson note that while issues like Benghazi and IRS targeting may have been "witch hunts," this is a genuine...

How Dare We Rail on Russia for Foreign Intervention?

Eugene Robinson on the United States' shaky moral high-ground

(Newser) - Russia is way out of line. How dare a large military power cook up a pretext to invade a smaller, weaker nation? "Is it just me, or does the rhetoric about the crisis in Ukraine sound as if all of Washington is suffering from amnesia?" asks Eugene Robinson at...

We Won! Now Can Someone Tell the Terrorists?
We Won! Now Can Someone Tell the Terrorists?
OPINION

We Won! Now Can Someone Tell the Terrorists?

Eugene Robinson declares victory; PJ O'Rourke thinks that's stupid

(Newser) - In his much-celebrated speech last week, President Obama said that "this war, like all wars, must end," and that al-Qaeda is "on the path to defeat." Well, PJ O'Rourke at the Weekly Standard has a word for that kind of thinking: "Stupid." His...

What the Heck Are We Doing in Afghanistan?
 What the Heck Are We 
 Doing in Afghanistan? 
Eugene Robinson

What the Heck Are We Doing in Afghanistan?

Eugene Robinson says Obama's strategy is incoherent

(Newser) - "Show of hands: Does anybody really understand the US policy in Afghanistan?" asks Eugene Robinson in his Washington Post column today. Because he sure doesn't, even after hearing Obama's speech from the war zone earlier this week. His big question: Why are we still there? We've...

Cain's Policies Are the Real Scandal

 Cain's Policies 
 Are the Real 
 Scandal 
Eugene Robinson

Cain's Policies Are the Real Scandal

Eugene Robinson finds them 'unworkable' and 'goofy'

(Newser) - Herman Cain hit the first major crisis of his campaign in Politico’s sexual harassment story , and "far-right blowhards immediately played the race card," writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post . Ann Coulter said liberals were "terrified of strong, conservative black men" while Rush Limbaugh said Cain’...

Man, I Love Occupy Wall Street
 Man, I Love Occupy Wall Street 
Eugene Robinson

Man, I Love Occupy Wall Street

Eugene Robinson on why the protests are perfect for the moment

(Newser) - Eugene Robinson agrees that the Occupy Wall Street protesters “are inept, incoherent, and hopelessly quixotic." And yet? “I love every little thing about these gloriously amateurish sit-ins,” he gushes in the Washington Post . “I love that they are spontaneous, leaderless, and open-ended. I love that...

Why the GOP Is Winning the Debt Fight: It Has a ('Very Bad') Big Idea
Why the GOP Is Winning:
It Has a ('Very Bad') Big Idea
EUGENE ROBINSON

Why the GOP Is Winning: It Has a ('Very Bad') Big Idea

Democrats need a big idea to win the debt fight: Eugene Robinson

(Newser) - The Democrats are getting their butts kicked in the debt debate because conservatives have a big, easily communicated idea and Dems don't, writes Eugene Robinson for the Washington Post . The GOP's idea—which is, in Robinson's opinion, a terrible one—is that "taxes are always too...

Is It Really Okay to Kill Terrorists With Robots?
Is It Really OK to Kill
Terrorists With Robots?
Eugene Robinson

Is It Really OK to Kill Terrorists With Robots?

Eugene Robinson worries that we've crossed an ethical line

(Newser) - The war on terror is increasingly being fought by robot assassins. President Obama has stepped up the use of drones to kill terrorists, taking out targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, and Libya. “I am convinced that this method of waging war is cost-effective but not that it...

1st Openly Gay Bishop to Retire
 1st Openly Gay Bishop to Retire 

1st Openly Gay Bishop to Retire

Eugene Robinson says the experience has taken its toll

(Newser) - Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopalian whose election to bishop reverberated through the religious world, will take early retirement in 2013, reports the Boston Globe. "The last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family, and you,” Robinson told an annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese...

GOP Should at Least Try With Black Voters
GOP Should at Least Try
With Black Voters
Eugene Robinson

GOP Should at Least Try With Black Voters

Nixon's Southern strategy still haunts Republicans

(Newser) - If there’s one thing we can predict with confidence about the upcoming election, it’s that black voters will overwhelmingly vote Democrat. “This is perfectly rational political behavior—but in many ways it’s a shame,” writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post . Yes, Robinson believes in...

Eddie Long: Confused Hypocrite

 Eddie Long: 
 Confused 
 Hypocrite 
Eugene Robinson

Eddie Long: Confused Hypocrite

Pastor should forgive himself—and homosexuals everywhere

(Newser) - There are a lot of ironies in Bishop Eddie Long’s sex scandal. For example, in his sermon Sunday, Long said he feels “like David against Goliath.” Really? On the one side we have one of the most powerful clerics in America, and on the other four allegedly...

Newt's Doing a McCarthy Impression
Newt's Doing
a McCarthy Impression
Eugene Robinson

Newt's Doing a McCarthy Impression

Rants against sharia, 'stealth jihadis' are Red Scare-esque

(Newser) - Don’t you wish American judges would quit imposing harsh Islamic sharia law? Eugene Robinson, for one, thinks all these stonings and beheadings are really getting out of hand. Where did he get the crazy idea? “Why, Newt Gingrich told me,” he writes in the Washington Post . This...

Newt's Gone Nuts

 Newt's Gone Nuts 
Eugene Robinson

Newt's Gone Nuts

'Kenyan' quip proves ex-Speaker has lost it

(Newser) - Has Newt Gingrich really gone crazy, or is he just pretending? Eugene Robinson is starting to think it might be the former. “It’s one thing to be a rhetorical bomb-thrower,” he writes in the Washington Post , “and another to lob damp squibs of pure nonsense into...

Charlie Rangel Is Innocent
 Charlie Rangel Is Innocent 
OPINION

Charlie Rangel Is Innocent

The guy's an ego maniac, but not a crook

(Newser) - Charles Rangel isn’t a crook, and the ethics charges against him “range from the technical all the way to the trivial,” writes Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post . The only mildly juicy allegation is that Rangel failed to declare rental income from his Dominican villa on his...

BP's CEO Isn't Fired Yet? Really?
BP's CEO
Isn't Fired
Yet? Really?
OPINION

BP's CEO Isn't Fired Yet? Really?

Tony Hayward has cheerily blundered through disaster

(Newser) - BP CEO Tony Hayward wrote an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal in which he advocated that the oil industry improve its technology and change its practices. Sure, sounds great, Tony. But Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post has just one question: Why do you still have a job? “...

On 'Don't Ask,' Even Dick Cheney Sees the Light
On 'Don't Ask,' Even
Dick Cheney Sees the Light
EUGENE ROBINSON

On 'Don't Ask,' Even Dick Cheney Sees the Light

Ex-VP says it's time to reconsider policy

(Newser) - Opponents of repealing the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy should realize that even Dick Cheney thinks they're stuck in the past, writes Eugene Robinson. The former veep—in a miraculous moment of sense during an interview with This Week filled with the usual fear-mongering—said it's time to reconsider...

Senate Doesn't Need Another Messiah
 Senate Doesn't Need 
 Another Messiah 
EUGENE ROBINSON

Senate Doesn't Need Another Messiah

Scott Brown is part of the problem, writes Eugene Robinson

(Newser) - Victory appears to have gone to Scott Brown's head and that's bad news for Washington, writes Eugene Robinson. The senator—who has already hinted at a 2012 presidential run—is calling himself a Scott Brown Republican and promising to chart his own course, but the last thing the Senate needs...

Prez Must Get Tough, Not Just Talk Tough
 Prez Must Get  
 Tough, Not 
 Just Talk Tough 
EUGENE ROBINSON

Prez Must Get Tough, Not Just Talk Tough

Obama will never make a great populist, writes Eugene Robinson

(Newser) - President Obama is going to have to recapture the political initiative with substance instead of style, writes Eugene Robinson. Obama—despite his modest upbringing—is never going to have the guy-next-door touch George W. Bush had, so he should focus on making his actions match his words instead of trying...

Obama, Give Us Something to Cheer About
Obama, Give Us Something to Cheer About
Eugene Robinson

Obama, Give Us Something to Cheer About

Prez right not to panic, but needs to hurdle the vast enthusiasm gap

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s 50% approval rating is the worst first-year score of any postwar president save Ronald Reagan, but things worked out pretty well for the Gipper, so the White House isn’t panicking. “But serenity isn’t the same as complacency,” warns Eugene Robinson in the Washington ...

Cuba Doesn't Belong on New Screening List
Cuba Doesn't Belong on New Screening List
EUGENE ROBINSON

Cuba Doesn't Belong on New Screening List

Al-Qaeda in Havana? This is just a 'big waste of time'

(Newser) - The terrorist threat from Cuba “can be measured at precisely zero,” Eugene Robinson writes, so why did it make the list of nations whose residents will get extra screening at airports? The answer is simple, and ridiculous: The US persists in considering Cuba a “state sponsor of...

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