Joseph Curl

JOSEPH CURL: Forget Brian Williams, it’s Hillary Clinton’s lie that matters

One rainy evening, three people walked into a bar and sat down. One was grim, another solemn, while the sole woman among them was absolutely giddy. The bartender poured a few shots of whiskey and said to the trio, "Why so grim, so solemn, so giddy?"

February 8, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: The lesson for Hillary Clinton in Mitt Romney’s decision

There's a wonderful scene in "Citizen Kane" in which the intrepid young reporter Jerry Thompson, in search of just what the dying word "Rosebud" meant, tracks down Charles Foster Kane's best friend. Jedediah Leland is an old man now, living in a rundown retirement home in the Bronx. Frail, maybe a bit senile, Jedediah delivers a dramatic insight into Charlie.

February 1, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: At 2016 Iowa summit, some fresh GOP faces — finally

The 2016 GOP nominee is going to have to be a whole new breed of Republican. After back-to-back shellackings — first against a nearly unknown first-term U.S. senator, then to a highly unpopular president — the party has no choice but to go in a new direction, and that path does not lead back into the wilderness. The New Breed were on hand Saturday at the Iowa Freedom Summit.

January 25, 2015

Iowa Freedom Summit: 2016 GOP candidates queue up for speeches

At least nine potential candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination are gathered Saturday in Des Moines for the Iowa Freedom Summit.

January 24, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: Obama — Woohoo! Free stuff for everybody!

There's a new T-shirt out there making the rounds. It says: "I am one of the people who pays for all the free stuff Obama gives you."

January 20, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: GOP learns from 2012 debate debacle, takes control of 2016

The Republican National Committee has finally grown a brain.

January 18, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: I am not Charlie

Shortly after a terrorist attack left 12 dead inside a Paris magazine called Charlie Hebdo, a meme went viral. People posted a new phrase on social media, held signs with the slogan, said it again and again and again on TV: "Je Suis Charlie" — I am Charlie.

January 11, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: John Boehner facing mounting mutiny

The rank and file aren't happy. A minimutiny may be underway in the House of Representatives as another conservative has come out to announce that he will oppose Rep. John Boehner in his re-election bid as House speaker.

January 4, 2015

JOSEPH CURL: Republicans have deep bench for 2016; Democrats have, at best, two …

On Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Daily Beast contributor Kristen Soltis Anderson made an amazing statement. She said Republicans "understand that they need to start cultivating new and fresh talent."

December 28, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: At Christmastime, George W. Bush was Santa, Obama is Scrooge

Every year, in the week between Christmas and New Year's, I think about George W. Bush.

December 25, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Obama needs to wake up and smell the progress

Minutes after a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, announced that it would not bring charges against a city police officer who shot a black teenager to protect his life, President Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to deliver a 65-sentence, 1,255-word statement.

December 21, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Republican strategy for picking a presidential winner

Interview, GOP Headquarters, Early 2015.

December 17, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Republicans lose mandate won in midterm elections, give Democrats their budget

Republicans, who just five weeks ago crushed Democrats in the midterm elections — with Americans finally declaring "enough is enough" — were humiliated before, during and after the vote.

December 14, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: CIA ‘torture’ report release is dangerous act of desperate Democrats

Senate Democrats and President Obama have moved up to a whole new level of desperate. On Tuesday, Democrats in the Senate, who will lose control of the chamber in just three weeks, released a report focused on interrogation techniques — during the administration of George W. Bush.

December 10, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Racism: Can we talk about it? Yes — finally

Shortly after the Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration of America's first black president — which I attended, receiving high-fives from strangers, many of whom were black, and even a free cup of hot coffee from a giddy black woman as I, a white man, strolled through Northeast Washington, D.C., without fear — a friend and I took our teenage daughters to a rock show in Baltimore.

December 7, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Cheap gas prices? Obama’ll fix that

Gas at $2.50 a gallon. $2.25? $2.00? Maybe even $1.59? (FYI, that's what gas was per gallon just before Barack Obama became president.)

December 3, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Be afraid: This is the real Obama

In the weeks after voters cast a vote of no confidence on President Obama and his fellow Democrats, the president has gone on a scorched-earth campaign, unilaterally declaring amnesty for some 5 million illegal aliens, firing the only Republican in his Cabinet and rolling out a new federal rule dubbed "the most expensive regulation ever."

November 30, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Hillary Clinton: This cycle’s Mitt Romney

A fantastical remark by Hillary Clinton went virtually unnoticed last week, especially by the mainstream media. By Monday, when President Obama let Ferguson, Missouri, burn to the ground by failing to deploy national guard troops to the city ripped by racial strife, the remark had been long forgotten.

November 26, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Bill Cosby, campus culture and the politics of rape

Rape. It is a savage act, an act of dominance and violence and, often, hate. And lately, the word is everywhere.

November 23, 2014

JOSEPH CURL: Obama sets off on scorched-earth rampage

President Obama, fresh off a shellacking in the 2014 midterm elections — in which he made himself a centerpiece, much to the chagrin of embattled Democrats — is about to embark on a scorched-earth rampage that will change the face of America forever.

November 19, 2014