Politics

The ouster of Joe Passarella as Montgomery County Voter Services director has devolved into what one county official called "a political spitting match. " Commissioners fired Passarella last week, after 18 years on the job, and installed a team of administration allies to oversee the office until a permanent replacement was found. County GOP Chairman Robert J. Kerns immediately cried foul, calling the move politically motivated and extolling Passarella's "record of managing elections without so much as a single glitch.

Sometimes it's great to be away from the main office. Like, for example, when the home office is the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, where a court decision, pending legislation, and political paralysis are calling into question the board's ability to function. "It's a lot of uncertainty," Dennis Walsh said with the understatement of a man well-practiced in dodging political land mines. On Friday, Walsh, 58, was sworn in as the new regional director of the NLRB.

D EAR HARRY: I know you don't like to get involved in the political area, but this is a nonpartisan thing that has me deeply puzzled. I trust your knowledge of history and statistics to straighten me out. Ever since the election, I've seen a multitude of commentators (print, radio and TV) discussing just what's wrong with the Republican Party. Many predict it will fall apart or become too right-wing for the people to support it, or become exclusively the party of the rich. If any of these is the case, why is the party able to tie up much of the Democratic agenda from legislation to appointments?

Venturing into the arcane inflation-adjustment arena shows that our politicians are truly clueless. As I like to say, if you get your economics from a politician, you get the economy you deserve. With the drive to change the way Social Security Insurance payments are adjusted for inflation, our elected officials are once again showing their willingness to venture into areas where they know little as long as it suits their political views and needs. What in the world am I talking about here?

Beverly C. Schiffrin, 92, of Lower Merion, a former businesswoman who was a longtime political and social activist, died Monday, April 15, at the Waverly Heights retirement community in Gladwyne. Mrs. Schiffrin, who lived in Lower Merion for 58 years, was active in her community, serving as an officer and president of the home and school associations of the Bala School for Young Children and the Lower Merion high schools. She "was one of those people who spent her life making the world a better place," her son Richard said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - High court judges disqualified former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday from running in the parliamentary election, likely ending any hope of a political comeback. The ruling was the latest blow for Musharraf, who has faced paltry public support, a raft of legal challenges, and Taliban death threats since he returned to Pakistan last month after years in self-imposed exile. Many experts had predicted this would be Musharraf's fate if he came back and have been scratching their heads at what drove his decision.

The heroic role played by the families of the Sandy Hook massacre's victims should not be used to create what would be a dangerously misleading narrative about how they changed the politics of guns. The importance of last Thursday's 68-31 vote in the Senate to proceed with debate on a bill to curb gun violence cannot be understated, and the testimonies from the citizens of Newtown were vital to that victory. To say this is not to deny that many fights loom ahead. This was a vote to debate, not to pass, a bill - and the House could prove an even larger obstacle to change than the Senate.

WASHINGTON - After one of the most remarkable announcements of his public career, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey sat down in his office with the parents of some of the children killed in the Newtown shootings. Clutching photos of their loved ones, they thanked him. Toomey, a Republican best known for his focus on fiscal issues, had become an unlikely catalyst for advancing the most significant new gun law in two decades. That morning, he had announced a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.)

Robert Remini, 91, an award-winning historian who was considered a pre-eminent biographer of President Andrew Jackson, died Thursday, March 28, at a hospital in Evanston, Ill., from complications after a stroke, said a son-in-law. Mr. Remini was regarded as one of the finest political biographers of his era. His subjects included Presidents John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren, House Speaker Henry Clay, senator and statesman Daniel Webster, and Mormon leader Joseph Smith. Remini also wrote a sprawling history of the House of Representatives, where he served as historian from 2005 to 2010.

As the confetti fell from the ceiling and President Obama took the stage for his 2012 victory speech, there may have been a factor he forgot to thank - social media. And as Republican candidate Mitt Romney learned of his defeat, there may have been a factor that wasn't foremost in his mind - social media. In a world where people yearn for information at lightning speed, where perception via social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can be a candidate's best friend or worst enemy, it has become increasingly crucial for today's politician to master the information technology of the day. Kevin Arceneaux, an associate professor of political science at Temple University, has watched the use of social media grow from 2004, where they played a minor role, to the present day, where they have become "a central tool for campaigns.