weather icon 64 °

Columnists

charles hurt

Charles Hurt

Charles Hurt has been D.C. The Post's bureau chief and news columnist since 2007 covering the presidential campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama. He traveled extensively with the campaigns during the long 2008 Democratic primary, the general election and covered both Democratic and Republican conventions. A native of Chatham, Va., Hurt began his newspaper career on the city desk of the Detroit News, covering the city's collapsing public school system, corrupt city politics and disfunctional fire department. Since 2001, he has covered national politics from Washington. Before joining the Post, Hurt followed the 2004 presidential campaign and covered congress for the Washington Times.

  • It's Hope & Change - just not for those oppressed by tyranny

    WASHINGTON -- Hope and Change, it turns out, is all relative. They are a sweet elixir when you are talking about electing as president a smooth-talking street organizer with a fistful of vague promises and no...  

    January 29, 2011 12:00 AM
  • Left to wonder if he's on right

    WASHINGTON -- Stop spending! Cut taxes! Simplify the tax code! Expand free trade! Slice the deficit! Slaughter the pork! No, that was not some Tea Partier or the battle cry of Republicans last night in response to...  

    January 26, 2011 12:00 AM
  • entertainment image

    Chinese Tiger ate US Dove for lunch

    WASHINGTON -- Who did you think would come out on top if you put a tiger and a dove in the same room together to work out their differences? Yes, those were white bird feathers sticking out of the tiger's mouth at...  

    January 21, 2011 12:00 AM
  • entertainment image

    Daley shows O means biz

    WASHINGTON -- President Oba ma's decision to tap Bill Daley as his top consigliere in the White House is a shrewd signal he understands the sober reality that if he does not quickly revive the economy, he will go down...  

    January 07, 2011 12:00 AM
  • Fools fail to Capitol-ize on control

    WASHINGTON -- When this Congress rushed into office two years ago, it rode a swelling wave of high promises and euphoric optimism. Democrats enjoyed virtually unstoppable power in both chambers of Congress. They...  

    December 17, 2010 12:00 AM
  • 'Big Slade' steps into huge void and takes command

    WASHINGTON -- Sometimes in life, no matter how much of a man you may think you are, you just can't get the job done. And that's when, as fans everywhere of the cult classic "Kentucky Fried Movie" know, it is time...  

    December 11, 2010 12:00 AM
  • O's own party is holding people hostage

    WASHINGTON -- Watching House Democrats mount the barricades this week and bare their bloody chests in a crusade to raise taxes on the wealthy would be comical if it were not so terrifying. Carrying all the rage...  

    December 10, 2010 12:00 AM
  • This pact may spell 1 & done for prez

    WASHINGTON -- President Obama made the first decision of his 2012 re-election bid yesterday, but may have done himself irreparable political harm. His decision to swallow the Bush tax cuts for people earning more...  

    December 07, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Playing by the Rules of Rangel

    No matter the situation, one thing always remains the same. There are the rules. And then there are Charlie's rules. When Charlie Rangel appeared before the ethics committee for his trial for a scandalous array...  

    November 29, 2010 12:00 AM
  • 'Charming' betrayal of trust

    WASHINGTON -- The sad, wrenching spectacle we saw yesterday of a grand old man, crumpled in an armchair, his face broken, weeping into his hands, was just another dramatic display of Charlie Rangel's unstoppable charm....  

    November 19, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Freshman lawmakers' 1st lesson in corruption

    WASHINGTON -- For newly elected members of Congress arriving here on Capitol Hill, this week was a little like getting your learner's permit and pulling out onto the highway just in time to watch a horrific accident...  

    November 17, 2010 12:00 AM
  • entertainment image

    Showman gives 'em the old razzle-dazzle

    WASHINGTON -- In this town of showmen, liars and big-time con artists, there has never been a more splendid vaudeville show. It was a comedy of errors yesterday filled with surprise and farce and tragedy featuring...  

    November 16, 2010 12:00 AM
  • entertainment image

    Bam AWOL on Vets Day

    WASHINGTON -- Today is Veter ans Day. Do you know where your president is? With his feeble flame of "hope" thoroughly doused here in the United States by last week's elections, President Obama has set out around...  

    November 11, 2010 12:00 AM
  • His calm assurance exposes hollow O

    WASHINGTON -- He was no rock star. His oratory rarely left us swooning. He never convinced us he could calm the oceans or conjure up world peace. It is probably safe to say that former President George W....  

    November 08, 2010 12:00 AM
  • House is now set to give Bam the red light

    Las Vegas -- Winning control of the House does not put Republi cans in the driver's seat in Washington but will give them just enough of a toehold on power to scuttle any new initiatives from President Obama and...  

    November 03, 2010 12:00 AM
  • The f-word - 'fear' - abounds in Reid's ghost town

    Searchlight, Nev. -- Fear is thriving in this elec tion, at least here in the barren moonscape that is the birthplace of Harry Reid. Beleaguered residents in this impoverished, craggy town have become inured to the...  

    November 02, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Reid challenger Angle gets a 'crazy' bounce

    LAS VEGAS -- Voters across America praying for the overthrow of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid owe a special debt of gratitude to Delaware Republican Christine "I'm not a witch" O'Donnell. If it were not for O...  

    November 01, 2010 12:00 AM
  • A method to O's midterm 'madness'

    WASHINGTON -- President Oba ma's next book -- titled "Nightmares of My Midterm: The Audacity of Throwing Friends Under the Bus" -- is due to hit shelves next week. On Election Day, to be exact. Political...  

    October 29, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Schumer knows when to shut up

    WASHINGTON -- Has anyone seen our senator? No, not the blond one strutting through the pages of Vogue magazine this week in glamorous high-collar get-ups. The other one. The notably unglamorous one who during...  

    October 23, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Changed GOP gets it 'right' this time

    WASHINGTON -- Around the parlor tables and love seats of Washington, gasbag pundits and political hacks are breathlessly speculating about how the upcoming elections might -- clutch your pearls! -- change the...  

    October 15, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Bam job-boost claim a lame shame

    As head cheerleader of the stagnant and stumbling economy, President Obama has lost all the frills on his pompoms. Exhausted, he stood before cameras yesterday and, in dreary cadences of despair, did his best to...  

    October 09, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Obama a partisan hypocrite

    WASHINGTON -- At some point after calming the threatening seas and sprinkling world peace around the globe, President Obama promised us he would find time to bring about a political truce in Washington. On the...  

    October 08, 2010 12:00 AM
  • O's '70% done' boast is 100% bogus

    WASHINGTON -- President Obama made an as tonishing claim this week that he has accomplished 70 percent of all the Hope and Change he promised us during his 2008 campaign. "If you look at the checklist, we've...  

    October 01, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Prez sings an absurd new tune: 'I'm a Li'l Tea-pot'

    If you think that's tea you're sipping there, Mr. President, then it must be seriously spiked, and you have way overserved yourself. Defying the boundaries of political absurdity, President Obama shed his Red coat...  

    September 21, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Party hacks need to taste the Tea or they're toast

    WASHINGTON -- No mat ter how many cups of tea get thrown in their faces, Republicans around here keep forgetting just how scalding hot it is. It is like they still don't get what this whole Tea Party movement is...  

    September 16, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Damning the Dems in fall's election

    WASHINGTON -- Declaring the Iraq war over last night, President Obama at the same moment waved the white flag for Democrats in the November elections. Speaking in prime time, Obama made a mockery of his -- and his...  

    September 01, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Voters: The party's over

    WASHINGTON -- Voters desperate for an alternative to both parties in Washington got another dose of good news in this week's primaries. In Florida and, it appears, also in Alaska, Republican voters once again sent...  

    August 26, 2010 12:00 AM
  • President chooses the wrong side -- again

    WASHINGTON -- Ultimately, politics is all about priorities. Whose defense a politician rushes to first tells you whose side he is on. And will always be on. No amount of backpedaling and obfuscation later by...  

    August 18, 2010 12:00 AM
  • Sheriff Taylor's health pitch sparks cardiac arrest

    WASHINGTON -- Was it not enough for President Obama to saddle future Americans with billions of dollars in new health benefits and entitlements that they simply cannot afford? He also had to go and corrupt one of...  

    August 04, 2010 12:00 AM
  • He's ready for crime time, feds

    WASHINGTON -- Hey, feds, do you need a road map? Well, here it is. The charging documents in the sprawling House investigation into the shady, double-dipping deals of Charlie Rangel reads like a crime novel....  

    July 30, 2010 12:00 AM