Against The Grain
Dick Meyer is CBSNews.com's Editorial Director in Washington. A longtime producer for The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, he has been doing political and investigative reporting in Washington for nearly 20 years.
March 7: Republicans in droves went on the attack after a seemingly benign statement by Sen. Tom Daschle. Meyer examines the way they swarmed "en masse." |
March 1: The world is just as dangerous a place as it was six months ago, but it doesn't feel that way for most. Meyer wonders why. |
Feb. 21: Tired of being a direct marketing victim? Have your phone, mailbox and e-mail been taken over by alien peddlers? Meyer has tips to fight back. |
Feb. 14: Who ever dreamed Enron would become a big, fat, slobbering Cupid? Well, that's what happened when the House fell in love with campaign finance reform. |
Feb. 7: What happens when big donors want to buy, but not give? Are you ready for the Miracle-Gro Grand Canyon? The Enron Statue of Liberty? Well, neither is Meyer. |
Jan. 29: To his surprise, Meyer discovers that the man who stumbled into the White House a year ago has become a sure-footed political superstar. |
Jan. 25: Disappearing surpluses and retirement funds in peril? Sounds like a job for Enron. Meyer takes a fresh look at budget politics. |
Jan. 17: Scandals have become long-running news events that most of us tune out. But Enrn is more than a scandal, says Meyer. |
Jan. 10: Meyer examines how efforts to compensate the victims of 9/11 are creating painful conflicts between victims, and setting important precedents for the future. |
Jan. 3: Veteran Washington correspondent Eric Engberg is retiring from CBS News. Meyer says goodbye to one of the best in the business. |
Dec. 4: Meyer says the U.S. economy can do without a Washington-brokered recovery package. |
Dec. 4: According to Meyer, peace in the Middle East will require working with Arab leaders. |
Nov. 30: Meyer says there may be a hopeful message in a near tragedy in Massachusetts. |
Nov. 12: Meyer looks at our first reactions to the crash of American Flight 587. |
Oct. 29: Meyer looks at how the foreign press views the war on terrorism, va the Internet. |
Oct. 23: Meyer says Congress should get its act together when it comes to the homefront troops. |
Oct. 9: Meyer says Osama bin Laden's brand of Islamism is at war against the world, including the Muslim world. |
Oct. 1: Patriotism, as always, is in the eye of the beholder. Meyer takes a look at some new flag-wavers. |
Sept. 20: George W. Bush rose to the historic moment in his address to Congress. Now it's our turn, says Meyer. |
Sept. 15: The Rev. Jerry Falwell says the terrorist atrocities are "probably what we deserve." Meyer says the U.S. doesn't deserve Falwell. |
Sept. 7: Meyer reminds readers that not all sharks live in the water. |
Aug. 29: Meyer looks at a government-sponsored program in Chicago that encourages reading and a sense of community – one book at a time. /TD> |
Aug. 15: Meyer recommends some political novels for your summer reading pleasure. |
Aug. 8: Meyer charts the return to the headlines of two familiar political faces. |
July 26: Meyer offers a report card on the first six months of the Bush presidency – and finds plenty of room for improvement. |
July 19: Time is near for President Bush to come out with his position on embryonic stem cell research. Meyer weighs the arguments. |
July 12: Campaign finance reform was murdered at approximately 5:41 P.M. EDT, Thursday, July 12, 2001. Whodunnit? Meyer rounds up the usual suspects. |
June 27: Meyer pays tribute to one of his mentors at CBS News, veteran correspondent Phil Jones. |
June 21: Meyer says that on issues like global warming and stem cell research, President Bush is proving he's more swayed by politics than science. |
June 7: Divided government is back, and Meyer says that may be a good thing for voters. |
June 1: Meyer says the new tax bill is so dishonest that it gives smoke and mirrors a bad name. |
May 24: Meyer takes a look at an endangered species of American politician: the Republican moderate. |
May 16: Meyer says President Bush is finding that fixing America's schools is a tougher assignment than he thought. |
May 10: Meyer says the Brits know the right way to run an election campaign – keep it short and sweet. |
May 4: Meyer has some kind things to say about political paralysis. |
April 28: Meyer reads between the lines of the Bush administration's spin on its first hundred days. |
| Get The Greens April 19: Meyer wonders why the Bush administration seems to have made the greens Public Enemy Number One. |
April 11: Compassion aside, Meyer says the Bush budget plan offers little that's truly conservative. |
March 20: As the debate on campaign finance reform rages on, Meyer takes a look at what really needs to be reformed in Washington. |
March 14: Meyer takes a look at the most unpopular tax of all: the so-called death tax. |
March 8: The arguments being waged about the merits of the Bush tax plan can be frustrating and confusing, particularly, says Meyer, when the phony rhetoric of "class warfare" is invoked. |
March 2: There's a way to get rid of the most irritating symptoms of corruption and scandal in American politics, says Meyer: Ban Congressional hearings forever. |
Feb. 27: President Bush's first speech to Congress evokes a certain 50's nostalgia, says Meyer, but not in a way that the man in the Wite House would necessarily like. |
Feb. 22: No use explaining this one away, says Meyer. When it comes to the Clintons, the sleaze factor is just too pervasive to bother denying any more. |
Feb. 13: Meyer says Arizona Sen. John McCain is far from mending his maverick ways, as President Bush is finding out again and again. |
Feb. 6: As President Bush and his posse of economic advisers head out on Giant Tax Cut Trail, Meyer says they'd better take heed: There's a big business lobbyist lurking behind every boulder. |
Feb. 1: Could Democrats have stopped the Ashcroft nomination? Maybe, maybe not. But Meyer says the opposition lacked the guts to try as hard as they could. |
Jan. 27: A deal with the independent counsel, a passel of pardons and $190,000 in gifts from "close personal friends." One thing's for sure about the Clintons, says Meyer: They know how to make an exit. |
Jan. 20: Take a dreary day and a listless speech, mix in the frighteningly omnipresent Bill Clinton, and Meyer says you've got the recipe for a ho-hum inauguration. |
(c) MMII Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved