Politics

Rosa Lee Measures dreams of spending a week on a serene island, far away from ringing telephones, a bickering City Council and endless appointments. But with her schedule crowded with more and more commitments, that trip seems destined to remain a fantasy. Since she swept into office 16 months ago, the highest vote-getter in a … Read more

Fired White House aide Oliver L. North today said he had been fully prepared to be a scapegoat for President Reagan over the Iran- contra scandal and described how he and other Administration officials worked to shield Reagan from political damage as the affair unraveled last fall. North, under intense cross-examination in his third day … Read more

President Biden walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, when he presented his budget in Pennsylvania. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) President Biden unveiled a $6.8-trillion budget blueprint on Thursday. The plan includes new tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations that are designed to offset new spending … Read more

Column: How California, land of Nixon and Reagan, turned blue and changed American politics Bill Clinton was busy filling Cabinet positions and shaping his economic agenda when a memo landed from a team of political advisors. Although Clinton was still more than a month away from becoming president, the topic was his reelection nearly four years … Read more

Lawn signs line the street in Brentwood where Vice President Kamala Harris has a home. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) It was Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours before polls were to begin closing on the East Coast, and Kamala Harris’ L.A. neighborhood was a picture of midday quietude. A woman walked her dog, … Read more

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas appears to have continued accepting free trips from a wealthy friend. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) It was 2004 when the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips paid for by Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real estate investor … Read more

Former President Clinton applauds his wife, Hillary Clinton, after she conceded defeat in the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. Emails leaked from her campaign played a role in the election. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press) When emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign were leaked just before the 2016 election, the news media breathlessly covered the … Read more

Nancy Pelosi’s plan to seek reelection extends one of San Francisco’s longest-running, most-fevered political guessing games: Who will succeed the Democrat when she finally does step aside? The announcement Tuesday by the 81-year-old congresswoman was utterly predictable. Her decision augurs an election that will be thoroughly pro forma. Pelosi will attract, as she always does, … Read more

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reads from a statement about Pope Francis during a campaign rally in Kiawah, S.C., on Thursday. (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images) The tiff between Donald Trump and Pope Francis on Thursday was the latest example of what’s become a persistent theme of Trump’s presidential campaign: caustic battles over religion, immigration … Read more

The individual act of Sirhan Sirhan in assassinating presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was not the “first shot” in the terror war, as Michael Fischbach tries to imply (Commentary, June 2). It was no more an act of terror than John Hinckley Jr.’s or Lee Harvey Oswald’s. Maybe James Earl Ray’s assassination of Martin … Read more