Michael McGough
Globe Gazette
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Past articles by Michael:
Commentary: The NRA is many things, but it's not a terrorist organization
The National Rifle Association richly deserves criticism for its role in preventing the enactment of sensible gun control legislation. The Los Angeles Times put the matter bluntly in an editorial → Read More
Commentary: Jill Biden to voters: 'Swallow' your principles and back my husband
Pick your political cliche. Jill Biden was either saying the quiet part out loud or committing a Michael Kinsley gaffe (that is, speaking the truth) when she suggested that her → Read More
Commentary: Joaquin Castro's list of Trump donors wasn't a hit list. But was it fair?
On Monday, Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who represents part of San Antonio in Congress and whose twin brother, Julian Castro, is running for president, tweeted out a list of → Read More
Commentary: John Ratcliffe is just the latest Trump nominee to get yanked unceremoniously
John Ratcliffe now joins the ranks of others who have been named by President Donald Trump to high (and not-so-high) office only to have their appointments yanked back. On Friday, → Read More
Commentary: Trump says he wants to talk to Iran; then he targets its top diplomat
The Trump administration imposed sanctions this week on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for doing his job. That's not a joke. The first sentence of the Treasury Department's announcement → Read More
Commentary: Mourning Justice Stevens — and the process that put him on the Supreme Court
Obituaries for retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens are reminding us that there was a time - several times, in fact - when presidents chose nominees for the high → Read More
Commentary: Trump's hostility toward immigrants isn't just Twitter trolling
President Donald Trump's Twitter tantrum calling for four female Democratic members of Congress to "go back" to the "crime-infested places from which they came" was ugly and ill-founded. Only one → Read More
Commentary: A court rules (unpersuasively) that Trump can't block critics on Twitter
A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump violated the 1st Amendment by blocking some critics from access to his Twitter feed. The decision by the U.S. → Read More
Commentary: Is Robert Mueller finally ready to spill some tea?
The announcement that former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will testify before two House committees next month is significant only if Mueller goes back on his word. You'll remember → Read More
Commentary: Supreme Court clerk isn't a lowly position. It's a pathway to power
The Supreme Court ended its 2018 term on Thursday. All nine justices, barring death or an unexpected retirement, will be back on the bench in October. But their most intimate → Read More
Commentary: Kamala Harris wants to 'prosecute the case' against Trump. What does that mean?
During one of his debates with Hillary Clinton in 2016, Donald Trump threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the former secretary of state if he were elected. "Lock → Read More
Commentary: Giving Congress a pay raise is politically radioactive. It shouldn't be
A plan by House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) to engineer a pay raise for members of Congress - whose salaries have been frozen at $174,000 since 2009 - → Read More
Commentary: Don McGahn has already told on Trump. But Democrats want him to do it in person
The demand of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee for live testimony by former White House Counsel Donald McGahn reminds me of the questions from college students that drive professors → Read More
Commentary: Is the pope Catholic? Not according to some cranky church conservatives
"Is the pope Catholic?" used to be a sarcastic rhetorical question that could only be answered "Yes." But now, in the latest spasm of what might be called Francis Derangement → Read More
Commentary: We heard from William Barr. Now it's Mueller's turn
The first round of Attorney General William Barr's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday reinforced two propositions that were already obvious. One is that, in commenting on special → Read More
Commentary: The Supreme Court needs to lift its cone of silence on oral arguments
On Tuesday the Supreme Court heard arguments in one of the most momentous cases it will decide this year: whether Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross violated the law by insisting → Read More
Commentary: Barr spoke too soon
On Wednesday, Democrats in Congress complained that Atty. Gen. William Barr would be holding a news conference about special counsel Robert Mueller's report before the document was actually released. Several → Read More
Commentary: Can kids wear black armbands to school but not MAGA hats?
This week marks the 50th anniversary of Tinker vs. Des Moines School District, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of students who had been suspended for coming to → Read More
Commentary: A Supreme Court justice would open up the libel laws – but he's not a Trump pick
Few of Donald Trump's pronouncements inspired such fear and loathing among journalists as his famous campaign pledge to "open up our libel laws" to make it easier for aggrieved public → Read More
Commentary: John Roberts isn't ready to 'jolt' the legal system on abortion. Yet
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has done it again - disappointed conservatives, that is. On Thursday night, Roberts joined the Supreme Court's Democratic appointees in blocking enforcement of a → Read More