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Jennifer Harper

Jennifer Harper

jharper@washingtontimes.com

Jennifer Harper wrote the daily Inside the Beltway column for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jennifer Harper

FILE - This May 22, 2013 file photo shows customer at a Hobby Lobby store in Denver. The Supreme Court has agreed to referee another dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law, whether businesses can use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees. The justices said Tuesday they will take up an issue that has divided the lower courts in the face of roughly 40 lawsuits from for-profit companies asking to be spared from having to cover some or all forms of contraception. The court will consider two cases. One involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees. Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

What Obamacare mandate? The rapidly expanding Hobby Lobby flexes its muscle

Amid the politics, an unfriendly news media and the complexities of Obamacare, the Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. have a big announcement. The Oklahoma-based, family-owned arts and crafts retailer soon will open 70 new stores around the nation, bringing the number of retail locations nationwide to 626 - including its first stores in Oregon and Vermont.

February 6, 2014
President Ronald Reagan appeared hip in the sense that he was of good cheer, canny and young at heart, minus annoying attitude. (THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Inside the Beltway: Happy birthday, Ronald Reagan

Three cheers, hip-hip hurrah. Those who fret that the 103rd birthday of Ronald Reagan on Thursday would come and go without much ado can take heart. There's big, cheerful doings planned in the tenth year since his passing.

February 5, 2014
Former President Bill Clinton was the butt of 4,607 jokes from late-night host Jay Leno between 1992 and 2014, according to a new study. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Inside the Beltway: The dawn of ‘integrated conservatism’

Common sense could be the operative motto for the Grand Old Party as it seeks to articulate a viable message and identify appropriate standard bearers while the 2014 midterm season fires up and rattles down the campaign trail. The clock is ticking. But the thinkers are thinking.

February 4, 2014
President Ronald Reagan appeared hip in the sense that he was of good cheer, canny and young at heart, minus annoying attitude. (THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Inside the Beltway: Does America need a hip GOP?

What with all its social media and excruciatingly current references, the whole world appears to know the White House is hip, and very skilled at being hip. Does this mean the Grand Old Party should up its pop culture factor as two big elections approach, and proverbial "big tent" thinking beckons?

February 2, 2014
Actress Tea Leoni plays Elizabeth Faulkner McGill, the lead character in the CBS TV pilot "Madame Secretary." (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Inside the Beltway: State of the Union — a $40 billion tab

Lofty rhetoric with a lofty price: the National Taxpayers Union has conducted a line-by-line analysis of President Obama's lengthy State of the Union address to discover that the actual price tag for all those words would add $39.995 billion a year to the deficit.

January 29, 2014
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, will deliver the tea party's response to President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night. (Mike Lee for Senate)

Inside the Beltway: State of the Union — just another re-run?

Let's hope the nation witnesses talk of substance rather than skimpy political theater when President Obama steps before the nation for his fifth State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Yes, let's hope so, considering that only about a fourth of Americans definitely plan to tune in, says at least one major poll.

January 27, 2014
The White House is promoting "enhanced livestream" viewing of President Obama's State of the Union address and a follow-up "Big Block of Cheese Day" as a symbol of the administration's transparency. (WHITE HOUSE)

Inside the Beltway: White House culture gets even odder

Gravitas and serious-minded strategies at the White House appear to be giving way to entertainment as the State of the Union approaches. Though the American public is eager for straight answers on many topics, behind-the-scenes creative folk on President Obama's staff have crafted jaunty promotions for the annual primetime speech on Tuesday night.

January 26, 2014
** FILE ** This March 15, 2013, file photo shows former Massachusetts Gov., and 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Inside the Beltway: Miss Mitt yet?

This will be the week when a cross section of Americans will re-evaluate and possibly even rediscover Mitt Romney. They'll get some Mitt nostalgia. In 24 hours, the much ballyhooed documentary "Mitt" publicly premieres on Netflix, produced and directed by one Greg Whitely, who spent much time with Mr. Romney during the best and the worst moments of the 2012 presidential race.

January 22, 2014