David Keene
Columns by David Keene
Focus on real, not imaginary, problems
Congressional committee chairmen are a pretty turf-conscious bunch and don't like it when their work meets resistance from outside their own committee. Published February 23, 2016
DAVID KEENE: Predicting Iowa
The snowstorm that hit the Washington area last week gave the State Department yet another reason to delay releasing a tranche of embarrassing Hillary Clinton emails, ensnared President Obama's motorcade in the rush-hour disaster that turned half-hour commutes into three-hour nightmares, and revealed how unprepared area governments were to deal with weather they knew full well was on its way. Published January 27, 2016
DAVID KEENE: Remembering Forrest McDonald
Forrest McDonald, perhaps the greatest student of the American founding, passed away late last week at the age of 89. His scholarship and work have had more impact on the understanding of the intellectual and historical context that produced the Constitution and the creation of the United States than most people appreciate. Published January 24, 2016
DAVID KEENE: Returning to an era of gun control error
President Obama is at it again, charging that if we could just extend "background checks" to all firearms sales, the world would be a safer place. Terrorists, armed robbers and paranoid schizophrenics bent on mass murder would be turned away by potential gun vendors and would thus be unarmed and presumably, therefore, unable to do harm to the rest of us. Published January 11, 2016
DAVID KEENE: Republican candidate distinctions with a difference
This year's Republican presidential wannabes are finally engaging on real issues and by doing so, they're giving Republican voters a chance to choose among them for serious policy rather than stylistic reasons. The debate cycle began with everyone focusing on Donald Trump's entertaining outrageousness, Ben Carson's laid-back style, Jeb Bush's lethargy and Ted Cruz's off-putting demeanor. Published December 31, 2015
DAVID KEENE: The voters must choose, anyway
Anyone who has been deeply enmeshed in politics at the presidential level knows down deep that it's a good thing the people who vote in the primaries and caucuses don't know the candidates as well as those who work with them on a daily basis. Published December 27, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Obama misses the mark
As he headed to Hawaii for yet another golf outing, President Obama once again dismissed the "perceived" threat ISIS and radical Islam represents as an overblown reaction to relatively minor incidents hyped by Republicans and their cable television allies. Published December 21, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Most Muslims in Israel want peace with Jews
TEL AVIV -- In many ways these are the best and worst of times for Israelis. A decade ago their main fear was an invasion from and through Syria, but with the Syrians fighting among themselves they are no longer seen as a major threat. Published December 2, 2015
OUTDOORS: Start of deer hunting season always provides a thrill
It may not be quite the same today as it was in the 1950s and 1960s, when the opening of the deer season might as well have been a state holiday, but it's still a special day for many. Published November 26, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Punishing the Obama way
Although the rot has been visible for some time, recent actions by President Obama's Department of Justice and director of national intelligence make it possible to say definitively that the United States we once extolled as a nation of laws and not of men no longer exists. Published November 11, 2015
DAVID KEENE: When ‘hang ‘em’ all meets ‘free ‘em all’
Political demands for an end to what activists and the media like to call mass incarceration are all the rage these days, but the bipartisan willingness to look at what works and doesn't work in today's broken criminal justice system that has emerged in recent years is being overtaken or hijacked by ideological hucksters who seem more interested in making political statements than in finding real-world solutions to serious problems. Published November 9, 2015
DAVID KEENE: John Boehner’s budget legacy
The House Freedom Caucus and conservative outsiders were ecstatic when House Speaker John Boehner decided to throw in the towel out of frustration and a very real fear that he had become, fairly or not, a symbol to millions of Republican voters of just how bad things are in Washington. Published October 22, 2015
DAVID KEENE: House needs articulate leader
The more things change, the more they stay the same. A week or so after Bob Dole resigned his Senate leadership role and Senate seat to run for president in 1996, he joined me and Lyn Nofziger for breakfast. We had all been friends for many years and could be honest with each other. Published October 8, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Remembering Peter Hannaford
It was early 1965. Barry Goldwater had lost to Lyndon Johnson the November before in a landslide that prompted the established media to declare the conservative movement dead in its cradle and the Republican establishment turned its attention once again to moderates. Published September 9, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Donald Trump needs a lesson in the fundamentals of Constitution
Some years ago, the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, honored former Sens. James L. Buckley of New York and Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. Published September 8, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Controlling the debates
His critics keep expecting Reince Priebus to trip up, but it hasn't happened yet. Published September 2, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Idea of Donald Trump may be more appealing than reality
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders are mining the same vein of popular discontent, drawing big crowds in the process, and drawing early support in spite of rather than because of their positions on issues of interest to most Americans. Published August 26, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Remembering Dick Schweiker
Dick Schweiker died over the weekend. The former Pennsylvania senator had been recruited by John Sears, Ronald Reagan's 1976 manager, and Nevada Sen. Paul Laxalt, who chaired Reagan's effort to unseat President Gerald Ford that year as Reagan's running mate. Few of us in the campaign knew the man, but he was, based on his voting record in the Senate, and what everyone said, a "moderate" or even "liberal" senator who didn't seem to many of us a very good fit. Published August 4, 2015
DAVID KEENE: ‘The Algerian’
"The Algerian," an Independent production written, directed and produced by Giovanni Zelko is a film with a message, a compelling story and a talented if unknown cast. In that sense it like most Independent productions or, as they're known in the industry, "Indies." Like their grownup, big budget cousins, some of them are good and some aren't worth watching. Published August 4, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Big government can never have enough money
Maryland, like Illinois, is famous as an integrity-free zone. Former governors, the heads of various school systems in the state, legislators, county executives and law enforcement officials have ended their careers in federal and state penal institutions for confusing serving the public with serving themselves at the public's expense. Published July 22, 2015
