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Spy games Everybody loves a good spy story. And what could be more dramatic than the cloak-and-dagger saga of the intelligence establishment's quest to keep America's nuclear weapons know-how from [...]

resh out of the Navy in January 1961, I took a job as a cub reporter in Louisville, Ky., where I quickly learned two things: that our readers really did [...]

From the standpoint of its practitioners, the business of politics has never been healthier - or more lucrative. s Washington concentrates its attention on the political imperative of dealing forcefully [...]

ixty years ago, following Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Washington underwent a striking transformation. To facilitate the ensuing mobilization, temporary office structures sprang up like mushrooms in the green [...]

n the game of government, custom usually triumphs over change. And conciliation always beats confrontation. A good way to gauge the success of new Presidents is to see how quickly [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten he era of big government is said to be over. But is an era of big government contracting about to begin? The Bush administra-tion believes that many [...]

t the halfway point of President Bush's first year in the Oval Office, followers of Washington's think-tank punditry may understandably be a bit confused. The consensus at a recent gathering [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten "Oftentimes what I try to say in Washington gets filtered, and sometimes my words don't exactly translate directly to the people. So I've found it's best to [...]

t's a pillar of Republican belief that the private sector can solve most problems better than the government Similarly, Republicans are convinced that achieving good results also is good politics, [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten ashington's well-oiled revolving door is whirring smoothly these days. Seasoned Republican apparatchiks are rotating back into government, replacing ousted Democrats who have spun off to new pursuits [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten The "A" word - "accountability" - is a favorite in President Bush's vocabulary. resident George W. Bush wants the federal government to stop being a "nanny" who [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten onscious of his fragile electoral mandate, President George W. Bush arrived in Washington singing the praises of bipartisan cooperation and exhibiting a Clintonesque passion for ethnic and [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten o most observers overseas - not to mention those here at home - America's democratic system must have seemed totally chaotic during the long and litigious weeks [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten mericans have always taken pride in peacefully transferring power from one administration to another. But this year, the transition got off to a rocky start with lawyers [...]

Americans have always taken pride in peacefully transferring power from one administration to another. But this year, the transition is off to a rocky start, as lawyers and elections officials [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten ike a brisk autumn breeze, the election of a new President is always hailed in Washington as a time for a fresh start and a golden opportunity, [...]

Like a brisk autumn breeze, the election of a new President is always hailed in Washington as a time for a fresh start and a golden opportunity, at long last, [...]

federalfocus@govexec.com (mailto:federalfocus@govexec.com) Editor's Note: This week, Dick Kirschten, veteran reporter and editor at National Journal magazine. contributes to Federal Focus. Jean MacFarland, a veteran federal employee, will appear every other [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten letters@govexec.com ( mailto:letters@govexec.com) hen Calvin Coolidge declared 75 years ago that 'the business of America is business,' he could scarcely have dreamed how pervasive the role of [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com ( mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) abor Day, once the formal kickoff date for the fall presidential campaigns, is now just another milestone in a marketing process that provides full-time [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten letters@govexec.com ( mailto:author@govexec.com) rom birth, Al Gore has been steeped in politics. For the first 22 years of his life, his father sat in Congress, and for [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com ( mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) n the never-never land of government outsourcing, accountability is the first victim when scandal rears its ugly head. The uproar over security lapses at [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com ( mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) hen George W. Bush took office as governor of Texas in January 1995, he was flush from lucrative business ventures in oil and Major [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten letters@govexec.com ( mailto:letters@govexec.com) f America's voters promote George W. Bush from governor of Texas to boss of the federal workforce, he'd better be prepared for a sharp [...]

letters@govexec.com ( mailto:letters@govexec.com) stute executives at top publishing houses have a keen scent for blood. Like personal injury lawyers, they move in quickly when disaster strikes. The Clinton impeachment episode, [...]

dkirschten@govexec.com ( mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) ow that the field has narrowed in this year's presidential primaries, it appears most likely that a two-term Vice President with prior experience in Congress will face [...]

dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) or those of us in Washington who engage in political commentary, this is the cruelest of seasons. Starting in late January and accelerating through early March, voters have [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com ( mailto: dkirschten@govexec.com) he highly publicized appointments of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno as the first women to hold those posts [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) s long as Arizona Sen. John McCain commands the bully pulpit of a serious presidential candidacy, the discomfort level on Capitol Hill will remain high. [...]

dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto:dkirschten@govexec.com) ho says Congress and the White House can't cooperate enough to get anything done these days? They may have missed the deadline for completing annual appropriations again - [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten erhaps Lee Hamilton can be forgiven for indulging in nostalgia. When he first came to Congress 34 years ago, Washington was a very different place. Elected to [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten o its credit, Congress has not gone as far as the Kansas Board of Education, which voted in August to delete the theory of evolution from its [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten n May, after NATO bombers struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, American Ambassador to China James Sasser was literally under siege in Beijing, trapped in his window-shattered [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten ashington's frequent battles over bureaucratic reorganization aren't always about improving managerial efficiency. Such fights often have more to do with impeding an agency's ability to perform a [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto: dkirschten@govexec.com) hen it comes to diplomacy, you've got to take your hat off to Charles Rossotti, who has assumed the daunting task of trying to [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto: dkirschten@govexec.com) n the half century following World War II - the last military crusade fully embraced by the American public - service in uniform was [...]

rom both a Republican Congress and a Democratic President, Washington hears the refrain that 'the era of big government is over.' But not necessarily the lyric that an 'era of [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten A new agency with a bold mission is set to boost America's broadcast efforts overseas. By Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto: dkirschten@govexec.com) n October, a newly independent agency [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten he reorganization and integration of foreign affairs agencies being carried out this year is a bit less dramatic than its prime mover, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten t's an article of faith on Capitol Hill that America can shield itself from many evils by taking 'control' of the border with Mexico. Since 1994, the [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto: dkirschten@govexec.com) fter more than a decade, there's still no thaw in the frozen pizza war. Eleven years ago, the General Accounting Office ridiculed the interagency [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten ith the economy hum- ming merrily along, public dissatisfaction with the federal bureaucracy has lessened markedly. Recent poll-ing shows that most departments and agencies command approval ratings [...]

dkirschten@njdc.com (mailto: dkirschten@njdc.com) he three R's that constitute the curriculum for the 106th Congress will certainly encompass the topic of improving the performance of government programs and agencies. That is [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten dkirschten@govexec.com (mailto: dkirtschen@govexec.com) eorge Wallace, poet laureate of government bashing and architect of the Southern-fried populism that the Republican Party has emulated to build its current base, [...]

n the theater of Washington, the classic Punch-and-Judy ritual of politician thwacking bureaucrat is always an audience favorite. When federal agencies come under attack, the script frequently includes howls for [...]

hen Republicans on Capitol Hill combed White House documents for evidence of a politically motivated push to add immigrants to the voter rolls this year, they turned up some intriguing [...]

Byline: Dick Kirschten n the late 1800s, when New York City's Tammany Hall political machine was in its heyday, ward-heeling political operatives made a specialty of harvesting votes from the [...]

ess than two months before Election Day, immigration authorities booked a major football stadium for a mass ceremony-the largest that ever had been held-to swear in newly naturalized citizens. After [...]