SO much for a July Fourth week spent in idyllic celebration of our country's birthday. This year's festivities were marked instead by a debate -- childish, not constitutional -- over who is and isn't patriotic. The fireworks were sparked by a verbally maladroit retired general, fueled by two increasingly fatuous...

DON'T fault Charles Black, the John McCain adviser, for publicly stating his honest belief that a domestic terrorist attack would be "a big advantage" for their campaign and that Benazir Bhutto's assassination had "helped" Mr. McCain win the New Hampshire primary. His real sin is that he didn't come completely clean...

"THE crowd is turning on me," said Charles Gibson, the ABC anchor, when the audience jeered him in the final moments of Wednesday night's face-off between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I can't remember a debate in which the only memorable moment was the audience's heckling of a moderator. Then again, I can't...

It's official: SNL loves politics, and loves being a player in the game. That's my impression from this week's cold open sending up the Petraeus hearings, which were momentarily a big deal on cable but had significantly less viewers than "Idol Gives Back." (Hey, Frank Rich thinks so, too.) Nonetheless there was...

Before they were sidetracked into a new war against The New York Times, the Rush Limbaugh posse had it right about John McCain. He is a double agent. Some Democrats do admire and like him. So does Jon Stewart, and so do many liberal editorial boards and card-carrying hacks in the mainstream American press. So, in...