Jennifer Harper

Inside the Beltway

Read it and snort. Consider $3.4 million for termite research in Louisiana, $1 million for Hawaiian seafood studies, $1 million for a Rhode Island bike path, $800,000 for a nice little city park in Oregon, $520,000 for blueberry breeding in New Jersey.

December 16, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Broadcasters are a righteously secular bunch, in a very big way.

December 15, 2010

Inside the Beltway

A single Associated Press photograph of Sarah Palin during her recent humanitarian trip to Haiti turned into a bashing bonanza for her press critics.

December 14, 2010

Inside the Beltway

"Yes Virginia, there are limits on government power. Today is a good day for liberty, and a bad day for those who say that Congress is the arbiter of Congress's powers," says Cato Institute scholar Ilya Shapiro, regarding the ruling issued by Judge Henry E. Hudson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that on Monday declared the "individual mandate" in President Obama's 2,801-page health care bill to exceed constitutional boundaries of congressional power.

December 13, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Christine O'Donnell's "I'm not a witch" quote from an Oct. 4 political ad was one of the "top-10 quotes of the year," according to Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School.

December 12, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Uh-oh. Could it be the clash of the titans?

December 9, 2010

Inside the Beltway

"Why is there no record of Michael Savage being banned in the WikiLeaks cables?" asks Mr. Savage himself, who has waged a 19-month battle to have his name scrubbed from a list of "undesirables" banned from Britain, compiled by then-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

December 8, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Lost in the tumult of WikiLeaks press coverage is Daniel Assange, 20, the estranged son of jailed founder Julian Assange.

December 7, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Elusive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has attracted pollsters, fawning journalists and now an oddsmaker.

December 6, 2010

Inside the Beltway

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threatens to release encrypted "doomsday" files, should he be arrested for releasing classified State Department cables. The situation grows more outrageous and now, surreal.

December 5, 2010

Inside the Beltway

The czar roster expands: The White House has created a new position to investigate shortcomings in national security that ultimately led to the WikiLeaks debacle - still destined to be special section, front-page news at the New York Times through Wednesday.

December 2, 2010

Inside the Beltway

OK. Never fear, there is a nativity scene in the White House. Located in the East Room, it's the same one that has been there since 1967, says Semonti Stephens, deputy press secretary for first lady Michelle Obama - whose first words during a press preview Wednesday were, "Happy holidays. All right now, it's Christmas."

December 1, 2010

Inside the Beltway

The New York Times continues to showcase WikiLeaks on its front page, and will continue for the next six days

November 30, 2010

Inside the Beltway

The WikiLeaks docu-dump has been heralded as a "breath of fresh air" and welcome transparency by some journalists, who seem to revel in the breach of classified material.

November 29, 2010

Inside the Beltway

How convenient. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can count on his media partners "El Pais, Le Monde, Speigel, Guardian & NYT," he says in a Tweet, to publish his mischief-making stuff no matter what.

November 28, 2010

Inside the Beltway

"Pioneering feminist" Gloria Steinem is weighing in on conservative women, faulting Sarah Palin's choice of "mama grizzly" as an icon because the bears "are famous for their exertion of reproductive control in their lives."

November 25, 2010

Inside the Beltway

"Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on ye firme and stable earth, their proper elemente."

November 24, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Never home? President Obama has now spent more days out of the country than any other U.S. chief executive during his first two years in office: Fifteen trips to 26 countries, more than 55 travel days. Some hefty gas money, too: Air Force One costs about $181,757 per hour to operate, according to military sources.

November 23, 2010

Inside the Beltway

The ballyhoo over airport pat-downs will be over as soon as we "maximize protection and security and minimize inconvenience and invasiveness," says White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

November 22, 2010

Inside the Beltway

Fed up with 'Godless' trees and other inclusive holiday fare, two Chester County, Pa., commissioners have voted to stop letting groups with multiple political or cultural agendas set up holiday decorations on the courthouse lawn of West Chester.

November 21, 2010