Ruth Marcus: Most Recent Articles and Archives

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• James Clapper’s ‘least untruthful’ answer

  Ron Wyden doesn’t want to call the director of national intelligence a liar.

  The Oregon Democrat is too seasoned a politician for that — and James Clapper’s self-assessment, that he answered in the “least untruthful manner” when the senator asked whether the National Security Agency was collecting data about millions of Americans, speaks for itself.

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• Obama’s choice of Rice, Power adds key women to Cabinet

  The two photos serve as powerful visual bookends for any discussion of gender and the Obama White House.

  The first was worth its thousand words, and sparked even more: the president sitting in the Oval Office with 10 men arrayed in front of him, and Valerie Jarrett’s leg barely visible.

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• ‘Invisible War’ helps open eyes to military’s sexual assault problem

  Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering knew from the start that they weren’t just making a movie.

  “The Invisible War,” their searing, Academy Award-nominated documentary about sexual assault in the military, was intended to galvanize change — in military culture, policy and, ultimately, the legal system.

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• Young graduates need to try and to fail

  In this graduation season, I thought I’d share the best advice I ever received: You can’t make a mistake before you’re 30.

  Granted, there are a few things wrong with this advice.

  First, it’s ambiguous. The intended meaning is not zero tolerance for youthful error — quite the opposite. The point is that youth and early adulthood is the time for some — since I have teenage daughters, emphasis on the some — risk-taking and experimentation.

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• Court-packing in GOP dreams only

  Is President Obama poised to “pack” the federal appeals court in Washington?

  “A type of court-packing reminiscent of FDR’s era,” warned Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. “Packing the court because it has issued rulings against the administration is a cynical approach to the judicial branch.”

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