James Thurber

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama appointed a defense contractor's lobbyist Thursday to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, a choice that appeared to break with his self-imposed rules to keep lobbyists at arm's length....

California Democrats will assume pivotal roles in the new Congress and White House, giving the state an outsize influence over federal policy and increasing the likelihood that its culture of activist regulation will be imported to Washington. In...

Bookmarks are about as low-tech as you can get. They are superbly utilitarian. They are there to do a job, not to dazzle or otherwise draw attention to themselves. They hardly ever require a service call. Bookmarks can be born that way—that is,...

We here in Washington are anticipating a stampede of lobbyists, influence peddlers, media consultants, paid "experts" and self-styled crusaders. Who brought us this onslaught of special pleaders? Why, it's Barack Obama, the man who vowed to "change" how...

by Mark Silva Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh is viewed as a possible do-no-harm running mate for Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. But the corporate work that Bayh's wife has done could be cause for doubts in the running-mate vetting department.......

WASHINGTON--In selecting little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has underscored his determination to run as a reformer intent on ending the cozy deal-making of big-money special interests in Washington. But an architect of...

WASHINGTON - Pay a lobbying firm $15,000 a month for several years to do no lobbying. Pay a former campaign aide to John McCain $30,000 a month for five years following the senator's failed bid in 2000 for the presidency. At any other time, it would be...

You don't hear much about James Thurber (1894-1961) anymore, and it's not just because the glory days of the New Yorker as a humor magazine are many decades in the past. His work is perennially in print, and his "Writings and Drawings" have merited a...

Republican John McCain said more domestic oil drilling is needed as a solution to both high energy prices and a sluggish economy, as Democrat Barack Obama accused his opponent of offering ideas that have been tried and failed. The presidential...

Like a veteran showman, the former president sauntered in an hour late but quickly warmed the crowd as he called his wife a better candidate than he was, took careful swipes at her rivals and engagingly imagined taking her orders as first gentleman in the...

Mike Myers is the latest star to think he has what it takes to explore "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." The industry trade reports that the "Austin Powers" star will take the title role in "Mitty," currently set up at 20th Century Fox. Samuel...

In the mid-1970s, the writing of Tom Stoppard had a great deal in common with the writing of Monty Python. A much-ignored connection, that. Sure, Stoppard's "Travesties," the subject of a very funny, savvy and spirited revival at the Court Theatre from...