Tea party activists are learning fast, generating “earned media,” staying on message, turning out the faithful. In fact, they’re acting almost mainstream, of all things. And don’t think the mainstream political world hasn’t noticed. Both major parties — in somewhat ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

Chautauqua, N.Y. — My kids think of it as nerd camp, that place Dad goes every summer. Like almost every description of Chautauqua, it falls well short of the mark. It’s not a serious effort, of course, and yet it ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

Political leaders, ideally, would find a way to show voters the realities of governing in a complex world. A certain amount of truth telling would be part of the equation. But if teaching and truth telling were the standards, this ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

My, my just look at the emperor’s new slots machines! What taste, what élan, what a guy! We, of course, are bankrolling the deal. We just laid out $50 million for 1,000 machines — $46,542 per. We were led to ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

When he left The Sun five years ago, he admitted to a certain loss of enthusiasm. The “Hey, Martha!” reflex had gone a’ glimmering. (This refers to the idea that a newspaper reader or reporter, learning something new, calls out ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

I feel like we’re drowning: in oil, in debt, even in (gulp) opinion. I give you these examples: BP and the Gulf of Mexico; Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore budget, and this column. As to the oil, I’ve been ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

Democrats were exultant last week as Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski announced her campaign for a fifth term. Many of the usual Democratic suspects turned out to wish her well in what is expected to be a cakewalk. Gov. Martin O’Malley ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

Hope lives. Despite the drumbeat of talk radio dystopia, despite the job-resistant economic recovery and despite often venomous political language, the can-do spirit of America endures. And election season can bring with it a burst of patriotic risk-taking. As a ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

Campaign 2010 and a real stock-taking are — or should be — upon us. Having tiptoed around reality for 90 days, the General Assembly left the heavy lifting to the men who are offering themselves as governor for post-recession Maryland. ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

The General Assembly of Maryland finds itself in a scuffle with its highly regarded law school, defenders of academic freedom around the country and a handful of environmentalists. Unhappy about a clean-water suit lodged against a contract chicken farm near ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith