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I continue to be a supporter of President Barack Obama. He has had several outstanding successes. The major one has been a positive change in the economy due primarily, I believe, to his hand-picked team of economic advisers who, from all indications, have fashioned an effective economic recovery plan. The recovery still has a long way to go, but using the language of my doctors at the hospital in which I recently spent six critical weeks recovering from open-heart surgery, “All the numbers are going in the right direction.” I also believe his reaching out to our allies and those...

“Outrage” is the talk of the Tribeca film festival. The documentary by filmmaker Kirby Dick claims that several politicians who vote “anti-gay” on political issues are actually gay themselves, and have had verifiable trysts with men. The documentary contains interviews with men who claim to have had sex with these “anti-gay” politicians. Of course, many liberal media outlets are trying to keep the identities of the politicians “outed” by Outrage a secret. Some claim that sexuality (even for politicians) is a personal issue that should not be made public without consent under any circumstances. That is sheer nonsense. In the...

California GOP Rep. David Dreier and a number of other politicians are the unwilling stars of a controversial new documentary with an explosive premise - it's time to blow open the closet door on prominent politicians who have hidden their homosexuality while actively working against gay causes. The film "Outrage," which opens today at the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco, presents interviews and documentation charging that a number of prominent legislators - including Dreier, the U.S. representative from San Dimas (Los Angeles County), Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former New York Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat - have remained...

Those in power under former president George W. Bush contributed to the economic rape of the country by declining to regulate Wall Street, allowing the economic debacle now unfolding which has devastated the country, bringing middle-class Americans to their knees economically with their jobs and savings vanishing with each passing day. In the last days of the Bush tenure, his economic team tried to stem the economic tidal wave overwhelming the country with a team led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who failed miserably. Bush’s team told us that the major problem was liquidity and that a bailout of the...

There are those who object to the war in Iraq, but who continue to support our military efforts in Afghanistan. There is now an ongoing effort to move troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. We and NATO currently have 62,000 troops in Afghanistan, 32,000 American and 30,000 coalition. The Afghan war, which was approved by the United Nations, is going badly. The Taliban is using Pakistan as its base from which to attack American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. When our troops strike back with airpower, either in Afghanistan or Pakistan, they often kill innocent civilians living with the Taliban and...

Sarah Palin is a phenomenon. She is plucky and, in a winsome way, in your face. Referring to middle class America as Joe-Six-Pack and to herself as a hockey mom, she debated last week with veteran Senator Joe Biden, who has served in the Senate for 36 years and knows his way around Washington. I admire Sarah Pain's spunkiness and feel she has not been treated fairly by the media which has tried to make her look foolish and provincial. When she was interviewed by Charles Gibson and asked the question, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?" I thought...

The time has come to declare whom I will be voting for. When I made my decision four years ago and supported the re-election of George W. Bush, I said at the time the overwhelming issue for me was international Islamic terrorism, including al-Qaida. The goal of Islamic terrorists was, and still is, to re-establish the caliphate encompassing most of the Muslims living in a host of nations from Spain to Indonesia and placing them under a single religious leader with full authority over the civil affairs of the countries, in the style of Iran. That goal includes the deaths...

Throughout his political career, whenever anyone called him a liberal, Ed Koch would always respond: “Yes, I’m a liberal, but with sanity.” The eventual mayor of New York City first demonstrated that sanity in the Democratic Party reform movement of the early 1960s, when a group of prestigious New Yorkers led by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Herbert Lehman booted the party regulars—the so-called “machine politicians” who had dominated the Democratic Party for decades—from power. As a young soldier in that movement, Koch ousted the head of Tammany Hall, Carmine DeSapio, from his position as Democratic district leader...

Sen. John McCain was wrong to reject the endorsement of Texas evangelist Rev. John Hagee. Several years ago the Rev. Hagee delivered a sermon that was caught on tape in which he preached, "Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun, and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." Anyone hearing the tape would conclude that Hagee is hostile to...

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, one of the country’s most prominent Democrats, says he may cross over and back Republican Sen. John McCain for president. In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Koch says McCain “has no equal” when it comes to opposing Islamic terrorism. Though Koch says he disagrees with most of McCain’s positions on domestic issues, he could support him because of his strong national security credentials. Koch carries significant weight with many Jewish Democrats in New York and across the country. He also has a history of playing the maverick and crossing party lines. He has backed...

Health Update From Mayor Koch I will be hospitalized on May 18 to have an operation on my spine on May 21. Hopefully, I will be discharged from the hospital at the end of that week to begin two weeks of recuperation. My medical condition, which I have had for about a year and a half, is diagnosed as stenosis of the spine, which involves arthritis, a narrowing of the spine and the impingement on nerves, causing discomfort and some pain when I walk. The prognosis, I am told, is excellent with a 92 percent recovery rate and a very...

Sen. Barack Obama won the North Carolina primary by 14 percentage points. Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Indiana primary by a narrower margin of 2 percent. Neither candidate scored a knockout punch, but Obama came out ahead. Clearly Obama who had the most to lose — it would have been considered a huge loss if Indiana went big for Hillary — also had the most to gain. The race goes on and will go on until a decision is made at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The fat lady here is Hillary, and she won’t sing. I’m part of...

Tomorrow evening we will know the outcome of the Democratic primaries in two important states that could decide the political fates of Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In Indiana, a primarily white state, we will know whether white voters, who are close to 75 percent of the population of the U.S., accept Senator Obama's explanation of why, after first stating, "I can no more disown him [Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother," he now rejects Wright after Wright's appearance before the NAACP and the...

There is an old saying, "Youth is wasted on the young." When we are young and energetic, few of us take stock of our lives. Instead, we use our energy to take on new challenges and enjoy life to the fullest. And that's the way it should be.

Barack Obama's speech last week addressing his 20-year relationship with his radical pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was very well done, yet unconvincing. Obama sought to explain that relationship and why he could not end this close association, despite the minister's hate-filled rhetoric. He said, "There will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Rev. Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?" Yes, those are the questions that people are asking. Many of Rev. Wright's incendiary statements are on videos sold by his church. Minister...

Published: March 25, 2008 Obama’s Big Speech: Too Little, Too LateEd Koch Barack Obama’s speech last week addressing his 20-year relationship with his radical pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was very well done, yet unconvincing. Obama sought to explain that relationship and why he could not end this close association, despite the minister's hate-filled rhetoric. He said, “There will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Rev. Wright in the first place, they may ask?  Why not join another church?” Yes, those are the questions that people are asking. Many of Rev. Wright’s incendiary statements...

Although Ed Koch has not held elected office for nearly two decades, the feisty former mayor of New York City remains a powerful force in American politics and in the American Jewish community. Reporters still ask for his comments on the latest news developments, and candidates for office still seek his endorsement. Now Koch has a new book out – and it contains a stunning revelation that may ignite a second round of his now-famous clash with James Baker. Round One of Koch vs. Baker exploded across headlines around the world in March 1992, when Koch revealed, in his New...

DAVID Petraeus is a highly decorated four-star general. He has been designated by the commander-in- chief to lead the young men and women who comprise the great U.S. force of 160,000 soldiers and Marines serving on the battlefields of Iraq, at great danger to themselves and to the officers who lead them. Most soldiers, in pointing out their military honors, will cite the Combat Infantry Badge - which the general wears, as he does those medals awarded to him for personal bravery in combat. Gen. Petraeus has sworn, as do all our military officers, to defend the Constitution of the...

Let me now -- and not for the first time -- rush in where angels fear to tread. I support President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence. I have never met Mr. Libby. I have not been asked by any of his friends or family to assist him. So why am I taking this step, which is sure to be criticized by many of my friends and supporters? It is because I believe in fairness. To remain silent because speaking out would not be popular is to invite punishment in the world to come. What are the facts in...

Ed Koch is willing to travel the country denouncing Rudy Giuliani if "America's mayor" wins the Republican presidential nomination . "If I had to sum it up in a few minutes I would say he's a control freak - and the control is over your life," said Koch, 82, of his former political ally. "The personality issue is very key." Koch said the "most opportune time" for him to hit the campaign trail would be after Giuliani were to become the nominee, but "if organizations asked me to come, I certainly would try in advance of that." Koch's anti-Rudy rhetoric...

Rudolph W. Giuliani's first inauguration as mayor here was a family affair. His 7-year-old son, Andrew, mugged for the cameras as Papa Rudy toasted his television hostess wife, Donna, as "my partner, my inspiration and my lover." Then daughter Caroline, 4, hid behind her hat as the couple kissed that Jan. 2, 1994. Thirteen years later, that familial unit is nowhere to be seen in the Giuliani presidential campaign. The once rambunctious Andrew, now a burly Duke sophomore, has indicated that he has no plans to stump for his father — he's too busy working on his golf game. Neither...

I support the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the landmark case of Roe v. Wade (1973). The Supreme Court found a constitutional right empowering women, in consultation with their physicians, to abort the fetus they were carrying if they so desired. Until the most recent case of Gonzales v. Carhart decided last week, Roe v. Wade was basically upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in abortion cases. Last week, the court took the opposite view. The 5 to 4 decision for the first time limited in a major way the right of a woman to have a particular type of...

President George W. Bush, vilified by many, supported by some, is a hero to me. Why do I say that? It’s not because I agree with the president’s domestic agenda. It’s not because I think he’s done a perfect job in the White House. George Bush is a hero to me because he has courage. The president does what he believes to be in the best interest of the United States. He sticks with his beliefs, no matter how intense the criticism and invective that are directed against him every day. The enormous defeat President Bush suffered with the loss...

President George W. Bush, vilified by many, supported by some, is a hero to me. Why do I say that? It's not because I agree with the President's domestic agenda. It's not because I think he's done a perfect job in the White House. George Bush is a hero to me because he has courage. The President does what he believes to be in the best interest of the United States. He sticks with his beliefs, no matter how intense the criticism and invective that are directed against him every day. The enormous defeat President Bush suffered with the loss...

I should seriously write a book called, The Idiots Guide To Not Thinking Seriously About Islam. It’s hard to find a subject where mushy thinking is more in vogue – where political correctness conquers reality more thoroughly. People actually are afraid to think seriously on the subject, because the logical conclusions are too frightening for many to contemplate. And so, there’s no place where comfortable clichés are more readily deployed. Probably the most glaring illustration of inanity here were recent comments by his Holiness, the Dalai Lama. On leaving a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of Tibetan Buddhists...

In the wake of the scandal surrounding former Congressman Mark Foley, what will Republican voters do? I believe they will hold their noses and go to the polls to re-elect a Republican Senate and Republican House of Representatives. They will comfort themselves with the thought that between now and 2008, they can cleanse their party. We will soon know. Tempus fugit. An article in The New York Times last week made this same point, stating, “As word of Representative Mark Foley’s sexually explicit e-mail messages to former pages spread last week, Republican strategists worried—and Democrats hoped—that the sordid nature of...

Most newspapers have published leaked conclusions from a classified National Intelligence Estimate that said the war in Iraq is fueling a rise in global Islamic terrorism. But only one, at least in New York City, has balanced these conclusions against the contents of a letter "found in the headquarters of Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after he was killed on June 7. The letter was sent to Zarqawi by a senior Al Qaeda leader who signs his name simply 'Atiyah.' He complains that Al Qaeda is weak both in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and in Iraq." In the...

On September 23, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I attended services at the Park East Synagogue as I have for the last forty years. Since I left the mayoralty seventeen years ago, Rabbi Arthur Schneier has called on me during that morning service to address the congregation observing the start of the Jewish New Year, in this case 5767. I never prepare formal remarks for this occasion, preferring to listen carefully to the Rabbi's sermon and to amplify his themes. When he introduced me he said, "We normally blow the shofar (a ram's horn) on Rosh Hashanah but not...

In a recent commentary, former New York Mayor Ed Koch - a Democrat with at least half a brain (which makes him the leading intellectual light of his party) - asked rhetorically, "Why do so many Americans refuse to face the fact that our country is at war with international terrorism?" Because they're liberals? During the Spanish Civil War, as the climactic battle for Madrid approached, Nationalist leader Francisco Franco told a reporter: "I have four columns marching on Madrid and a fifth within the city ready to rise at my call." Franco's comment gave rise to the World War...

Undermining the War on Terrorism Edward I. Koch Sept. 1, 2006 Why do so many Americans refuse to face the fact that our country is at war with international terrorism? The leading terrorist group, al-Qaida, is fighting us on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Iran and North Korea are threatening nuclear war. And yet many Americans, including some congressional Democrats, denounce President Bush, and in so doing, weaken our country's ability to resist Islamic fascism. One congressional Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, announced his intention to impeach the president when Republicans lose control of both houses of...

Why do so many Americans refuse to face the fact that our country is at war with international terrorism? The leading terrorist group, Al Qaida, is fighting us on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Iran and North Korea are threatening nuclear war. And yet many Americans, including some Congressional Democrats, denounce President Bush, and in so doing, weaken our country’s ability to resist Islamic fascism. One Congressional Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, announced his intention to impeach the President when Republicans lose control of both Houses of Congress. There is something terribly wrong with people seeking to...

Why do so many Americans refuse to face the fact that our country is at war with international terrorism? The leading terrorist group, al-Qaeda, is fighting us on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Iran and North Korea are threatening nuclear war. And yet many Americans, including some Congressional Democrats, denounce President Bush, and in so doing, weaken our country's ability to resist Islamic fascism. One Congressional Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, announced his intention to impeach the President when Republicans lose control of both Houses of Congress. There is something terribly wrong with people seeking to demean...

“HOW’M I DOIN’?” was the question the quixotic Ed Koch used to ask New York’s voters during Hizzoner’s eleven turbulent years as the city’s mayor. For a man who governed the globe’s most neurotic metropolis in the style of a rolling public psychiatric consultation, it was a fitting question. But as the world contemplates the nervous breakdown of American policy in the Middle East, it is something President George Bush should surely be asking himself, or at least his fellow Americans. How’m I doin’? Let’s see. You invaded Iraq because you argued you would be able to bring about a...

The war now raging in Lebanon should not surprise anyone. For many years, Hezbollah, which is funded, equipped and ideologically supported by Iran and Syria, has made it crystal clear that its goal is to conquer Israel, expel its Jewish inhabitants, and place the entire land under Islamic rule. Hezbollah engages in terrorism – the deliberate targeting of Jewish civilians and others – to achieve its goals. For the past month, Hezbollah has rained down thousands of rockets on Israel, deliberately maiming and killing innocent Israeli civilians. Hezbollah uses Lebanese civilians as human shields when it places its rockets in...

AUGUST 2, 2006 ED KOCH NEWS & COLUMNS Israel’s response to Hezbollah has demonstrated to the enemies of the Jewish state that Israel will stand up and fight. This is in marked contrast to Spain, France and Germany under Schroeder, who have blinked and withdrawn responding to Islamic terror or threatened terror. Thankfully, our country’s leaders appreciate that we are at war with international terrorism. The West confronts a war of civilizations that is not for the fainthearted. There are those who believe that negotiations without the will to engage in military action will suffice. They are wrong. For 58...

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes with the clarity of Bill Safire, whom he has succeeded as The Times in-house moderate. In a June 8 column, Brooks vividly described the cruelty of the Iraqi insurgents: "The insurgents' first advantage is that not only are they cruel, they are absolutely cruel. The defining feature of their violence is not merely that they murder, but that they torture those they are about to kill. Shiite militias use drills to bore holds into their victims' heads. Sunni insurgents saw off fingers and toes. Jihadists partially behead their victims then stomp on their...

“I vow by the One who raised the seven layers to Heaven (i.e. Allah) and who has beheaded tyrants that the leader of America has been thoroughly humiliated. Our heroes have defended this place. They have entered legend. Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute.”

Former Mayor Ed Koch slammed Andrew Cuomo last night, contending the attorney general hopeful misled Manhattan gay activists by denying that his father's 1977 mayoral campaign circulated "Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo" posters. Cuomo made the denial Wednesday night before the Stonewall Democratic Club, according to the club's founder, Lew Todd. Todd and others present said Cuomo tried to deny the slogan was ever used by the campaign, calling it an "urban legend." That left Koch, who has long had icy relations with the Cuomos, seething. "It either means he has amnesia or is deliberately distorting the truth," Koch...

From an Associated Press dispatch last Monday: "The American singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President George W. Bush ‘the greatest terrorist in the world' yesterday and said millions of Americans support the socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez." The report noted that "Belafonte led a delegation of Americans, including the actor Danny Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West, that met with the Venezuelan president for more than six hours late Saturday." At the meeting, Belafonte referred to the U.S. President as the "greatest tyrant in the world." Chavez is viewed in Venezuela as an enemy of...

January 5, 2006 Troubled Times Ahead for the New York Times? By Ed Koch Are troubled times ahead for The New York Times? I believe so. President Bush warned the Times that publishing a story on the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program would do great harm to American security. After holding the story for a year, the Times went ahead and published it anyway. In the past the President has not hesitated to go after those whom he has charged with violating national security laws. When the media demanded the administration find within its own circle those who violated...

Are troubled times ahead for The New York Times? I believe so. President Bush warned the Times that publishing a story on the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program would do great harm to American security. After holding the story for a year, the Times went ahead and published it anyway. In the past the president has not hesitated to go after those whom he has charged with violating national security laws. When the media demanded the administration find within its own circle those who violated the law by unmasking the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame, special prosecutor Patrick...

The media and the Democratic congressional leadership, including Senator Harry Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi, joined by some other members of Congress, have denounced President Bush for, as The New York Times noted, secretly authorizing the National Security Agency “to intercept the communications of Americans and terrorist suspects inside the Untied States without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters…” According to The Times, “sometime in 2002, President Bush signed a secret executive order scrapping a painfully reached, 25-year-old national consensus: spying on Americans by their government should generally be prohibited, and when it is allowed,...

The media and the Democratic congressional leadership, including Senator Harry Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi, joined by some other members of Congress, have denounced President Bush for, as The New York Times noted, secretly authorizing the National Security Agency "to intercept the communications of Americans and terrorist suspects inside the Untied States without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters…" According to The Times, "sometime in 2002, President Bush signed a secret executive order scrapping a painfully reached, 25-year-old national consensus: spying on Americans by their government should generally be prohibited, and when it is allowed,...

(1010 WINS) Ed Koch was mayor of New York City during the last transit strike. Koch was pacing the floor in police headquarters in Lower Manhattan when he noticed thousands of New Yorkers walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. The walkers were determined to get to work, despite the transit strike. Former Mayor Koch ran down onto the bridge and screamed at the crowds, "Keep walking New York, don't let the bastards shut us down." Koch went to all bridges to encourage the walkers and bicyclists during the 11 days of the strike. The former mayor modestly claims he, "kept the...

There are at least four positions currently being advanced as to the timing of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. President Bush, supported by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) and others, sums up Position One by saying "As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." In his November 30 speech at the Naval Academy, the President said, "We will continue to shift from providing security and conducting operations against the enemy nationwide to conducting more specialized operations targeted at the most dangerous terrorists. We will increasingly move out of Iraqi cities, reduce the number of bases from...

The Republicans are headed for a seismic crash in the congressional election of 2006. Their effort last week to embarrass House Democrats by forcing a contrived vote on a non-binding resolution to end the war in Iraq by immediately withdrawing all American troops didn’t succeed and shouldn’t have occurred. Everyone lost, including the Democrats, most of whom supported the Republican resolution. Most important, our country lost. We look foolish and in disarray in the eyes of the world. We can argue every day about whether the war was a wise choice. With the benefit of hindsight, everyone now agrees that...

On October 6th, President Bush delivered a superb speech on international terrorism. It is because our President has been willing to stand up to international terrorism and so many leaders in the Democratic Party have not been willing to do so, that caused me and millions of others to cross party lines and support him in the last presidential election and cheer his victory; notwithstanding that I did not then, nor do I now, agree with him on a single domestic issue, ranging from his proposals to reform Social Security and to changing our tax structure. For me, the single...

Mayor Ed Koch (fmr. New York City mayor) defends Bush on MSNBC tonight by asking "Where were the buses? What happened to all the hundreds of school buses? Public transit? Why weren't the poor evacuated with these?"

“The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is a danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.” That is what Justice Robert H. Jackson said in his dissent in a free speech case in 1949 when according to Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, “the majority opinion, by Justice William O. Douglas, overturned the disorderly conduct conviction of a priest whose anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi rantings at a rally had incited a riot....

"The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is a danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."