As a reporter, editor, editorial writer and columnist at The Washington Post, Ruth Marcus has developed a keen understanding of the folklores and byways of the national political scene. Marcus writes with the practiced...
As a reporter, editor, editorial writer and columnist at The Washington Post, Ruth Marcus has developed a keen understanding of the folklores and byways of the national political scene. Marcus writes with the practiced eye of a veteran reporter, the incisive analysis of a lawyer, and the amused affection of someone who loves the political game even as she perceives—and pierces—its artifice.
Marcus has covered every institution in Washington, from the Supreme Court to the White House to Congress; she has reported on every major Washington story of the last two decades, from contested Supreme Court nominations to contested elections, from hard-fought political campaigns to a hard-fought presidential impeachment. She can dissect a Supreme Court opinion; unearth—and explain—a fundraising scandal; and write, always in a down-to-earth manner, about the details of the federal budget or the intricacies of health care reform.
A boots-on-the-ground columnist who likes to report first and opine later, Marcus is happiest out of the office, whether on the campaign trail or at a congressional hearing. Although she leans to the left, she is not captive to any party or orthodoxy. As much as Marcus captures for readers the inner workings of Washington and its money culture, she writes with equal ease about social issues and the real world concerns of modern parents. She does not shy away from the fact that she is a woman but does not let that define her columns; she brings gender to the table when it is relevant to the discussion.
Marcus was born in Philadelphia, Pa., and raised in Livingston, N.J., where the local passion tended toward shopping rather than politics. She studied history at Yale, and became hooked on journalism from the moment she received her first assignment from the college newspaper, a story about where to buy firewood. She took a brief detour to graduate from Harvard Law School, where her writing ability somehow survived the footnote-intensive process of serving on the Harvard Law Review.
Marcus joined The Post as a staff writer in 1984 and has covered the Justice Department, the Supreme Court, the White House, and national politics, with a particular expertise in campaign finance and lobbying. After serving as a deputy national editor, a stint that included supervising coverage of the messy aftermath of the 2000 election, Marcus became a member of the Post editorial board in 2003, where she discovered what no one else who knew her doubted: that she was full of sharp opinions and not shy about expressing them. Her occasional op-ed columns developed into a weekly column in late 2005. In 2007, after her first full year of column-writing, Marcus was a nominated finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. The Pulitzer board cited "her intelligent and incisive commentary on a range of subjects, using a voice that can be serious or playful."
Marcus met her husband in the classic Washington way: She was covering the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas and he was working for a senator on the Judiciary Committee. They have two daughters who are, for the most part, tolerant about being used as column fodder and sometimes even read what their mother writes.
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigApr 29, 2011
It's easy to beat up on a big corporate law firm for acting cravenly in its financial self-interest. In the case of King & Spalding, the Atlanta firm that abruptly reneged on its commitment to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, the pummeling is entirely deserved. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigApr 28, 2011
There's a reason presidents go gray. The job is difficult. The pressures are unrelenting. If you don't realize this, you're not qualified to be president. Or you're Donald Trump, in which case you are also not qualified to be president. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigApr 22, 2011
When it comes to matters of money and politics, there is a big gulf between Democrats and Republicans -- in theory. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigApr 6, 2011
At fancy Washington dinner parties decades ago, it was the custom for men and women to part ways after the meal. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigApr 1, 2011
It's time to retire the false choice. As a rhetorical device, particularly as a political rhetorical device, the false choice has outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigMar 30, 2011
In his speech Monday night to a public thoroughly, and understandably, befuddled about U.S. policy in Libya, President Obama began to fill in some important blanks. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigMar 18, 2011
Lawsuit Mom Nicole Imprescia took a quintessentially American approach to raising her child. First, she paid someone else to handle the work for her. Then she sued to get the money back. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigMar 16, 2011
It's possible to simultaneously worry about the debt and believe in an active and compassionate role for government. In fact, it's required. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigMar 10, 2011
In an era of instant pontificators on every subject imaginable, Broder was willing to say, "I have no clue." When Dave did allow as to how he had a clue, you quickly learned that it paid to listen. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigMar 4, 2011
If there is a better illustration of the decline of American culture, the triumph of technology over privacy, and the end of shame as a motivating force, I can't think of one. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigMar 2, 2011
For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 25, 2011
Mike Huckabee made a great argument for gay marriage. The once and perhaps future Republican presidential candidate didn't mean it that way, of course. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
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