David Keene
Columns by David Keene
KEENE: Gauging Hillary’s fitness for the presidency
Outraged posturing over Karl Rove's recent inelegant injection of Hillary Clinton's age and health into the discussion of whether she is up to a national campaign for the presidency predictably dominated the weekend news shows. PBS' Gwen Ifill and Mark Shields, for example, disdainfully dismissed "Dr." Rove's comments, Mr. Shields calling them the political equivalent of "injecting heroin into the bloodstream." Published May 19, 2014
KEENE: Ukraine: Repeating a perilous history
Though the now trite-sounding quote is often attributed to George Santayana, it was actually that old conservative Edmund Burke who first warned that "those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Published May 12, 2014
KEENE: High stakes in the GOP primaries
As the spring primaries approach, Republican voters in dozens of states and congressional districts are going to be asked to choose between incumbent senators and congressmen and their challengers. Published May 2, 2014
BOOK REVIEW: ‘All Fishermen Are Liars’
John Gierach is something of a legend among fly fisherman. His books are eagerly devoured by his fans because he tells a good story, knows his craft and seems to his readers to be living a life that they dream they could live. Published April 23, 2014
KEENE: A better way to help the dangerously mentally ill
Following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., more than a year ago, Republicans sought out and asked the only clinical psychologist in the House to look into the connection between the sorts of mass shootings that have plagued the country in recent years and the state of the nation's mental health care system. Published April 21, 2014
KEENE: Familiar refrains from Britain’s ‘Tea Party’
Americans have the Tea Party, which isn't a party at all, but British establishmentarians are worried about a similar movement that is an actual party. Published April 17, 2014
KEENE: The Balkans, Ukraine and the law of unintended consequences
The answer George Will gave several years ago when asked what he thinks of "neoconservatives" has stuck with many ever since. Published April 15, 2014
KEENE: Villainizing the Koch brothers
Back in the late '70s, Alan Baron, a liberal, labor union-loving McGovernite; Ken Bode, then of the New Republic; and I hosted a biweekly poker game that regularly included three Republicans, three Democrats and one journalist. Published April 7, 2014
KEENE: Schumer media shield law is license to censor
When President Obama and New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer join forces to ostensibly protect freedom of speech and the press, it's time for believers in the First Amendment to take to the battlements. Published March 31, 2014
KEENE: Obama needs foreign policy from Jimmy Carter
Most Americans still believe the nation is in recession, massive numbers say the United States is on what pollsters call "the wrong track," and President Obama's signature health care program is in what in polite company might be referred to as "disarray," but compared to his foreign policy, he's doing a smashingly good job here at home. Published March 24, 2014
KEENE: Explaining David Jolly’s win in Florida special election
Now that the smoke has cleared, it's time to look at the lessons to be learned from the Republican victory in last week's 13th Congressional District special election in Florida. Published March 17, 2014
KEENE: At CPAC, rebuilding that shining city upon a hill
The 41st annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, closed on Saturday evening after having dominated the political news for three days. Published March 10, 2014
KEENE: How CPAC has grown over 4 decades
The first Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, convened in Washington 41 years ago drawing a little more than 100 conservative activists from around the country who found themselves enthralled by a keynote address delivered by California's Republican governor, Ronald Reagan. Published March 3, 2014
KEENE: Taiwan and Mainland China forge uneasy coexistence
Taiwan or, more correctly, the Republic of China on Taiwan, is a sort of Asian Israel. Published February 25, 2014
KEENE: Free speech for me, but not for thee
Liberals back in the day liked to champion free speech and the First Amendment rights — even of those with whom they disagreed or found obnoxious. Published February 17, 2014
KEENE: CBS News’ Marty Plissner was a pioneer in exit polls
Marty was the man who invented modern political coverage and developed a formula using sample precincts, and later, he created sophisticated exit polls to "call" elections even before the votes were counted and, more controversially, sometimes before the polls had even closed. Published February 12, 2014
KEENE: The deja vu of the lame duck
Presidential confidant David Axelrod last week suggested that many Democratic candidates running this year will want to distance themselves from President Obama. Published February 10, 2014
KEENE: Driving jobs, investment to greener pastures
Last week, it was announced that the Argentine peso has collapsed, that Beretta is expanding (not in Maryland, but is moving much of its operation to Tennessee), and that foreign investment in France has fallen some 77 percent since that nation's socialist government declared war on the country's rich and successful. Published February 4, 2014
KEENE: Obama turns authoritarian, rather than working with Congress
Not long ago, reporters asked White House spokesman Jay Carney to react to Iran's new "moderate" president Hassan Rouhani's tweet that as a result of his negotiations with the United States, "world powers surrendered to Iran's national will." Mr. Carney, speaking for the Obama administration, had an answer, "It doesn't matter what they say. It matters what they do." Published January 28, 2014
KEENE: Sen. Tom Coburn, a tireless foe of wasteful spending
As the bipartisan omnibus budget bill was being signed into law last week, Oklahoma's Sen. Tom Coburn announced that he will retire without finishing his term. Mr. Coburn's decision had nothing to do with the bill, but its authors — those who stuffed it with goodies, and senators and congressmen who will have to defend it to the press and their constituents — probably wish he was already winging his way back to Oklahoma. Published January 20, 2014
