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Salena Zito is a political analyst, reporter and editorial page columnist. She has also reported on Pennsylvania politics for The Weekly Standard. A board member of the Center for Media & Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation, Salena Zito honed her skills working on the campaigns of George H.W. Bush, Senator Rick Santorum, Bush2000, Bush-Cheney 2004 served on the senate staff of U.S. Senator Arlen Specter. Salena Zito has interviewed one on one Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director General Hayden, Homeland Security Director Chertoff, Attorney General Gonzales and First Lady Laura Bush. Zito spends a third of her time on the road interviewing legislators as well as current policy makers.
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Salena Zito (Dec 18, 2011)
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 at the height of America’s most turbulent political era.
Built with steel, adorned with electricity, this marvel of the... more
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Salena Zito (Dec 11, 2011)
NEW YORK CITY – “The Grange” in Upper Manhattan is the only home that Alexander Hamilton ever owned.
Standing in front of it, an impeccably dressed elderly man says... more
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Salena Zito (Dec 04, 2011)
The Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe on Third Avenue is one of those places where men who want to be president stop to look decidedly un-presidential.
Al Gore visited the shop;... more
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Salena Zito (Nov 27, 2011)
Brandon Chu thinks everything will be OK.
The 20-year-old nutrition major at the University of Pittsburgh doesn't buy into the narrative that his generation is less... more
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Salena Zito (Nov 13, 2011)
The only time in modern history that a third-party candidate got more votes than a major-party candidate was in 1912.
Nearly 100 years later, Republican John McCain,... more
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Salena Zito (Nov 06, 2011)
GETTYSBURG – On Memorial Day 1963, Vice President Lyndon Johnson stood where Abraham Lincoln gave his immortal address here. In a calculated leap, Johnson gave a... more
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Salena Zito (Oct 30, 2011)
Two issues plague Democrats when it comes to congressmen representing swing districts: The moderates don’t get heard in Washington, and centrist districts... more
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Salena Zito (Oct 23, 2011)
TULSA, Okla. – “I don't say I am no better than anybody else but I’ll be damned if I ain’t just as good.”
That line from the iconic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical... more
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Salena Zito (Oct 16, 2011)
PITTSBURGH, PA- Minutes stretched on awkwardly after Labor Secretary Hilda Solis spoke to local Democrats. Yet that was less uncomfortable than one man’s attempt to... more
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Salena Zito (Oct 09, 2011)
NILES, Ohio – The North Main Street building here marking William McKinley’s birthplace reconstructs the famous front porch of a president who won what historians consider... more
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Salena Zito (Oct 03, 2011)
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Even the experts find the outcome of Tuesday's gubernatorial election in this state hard to predict. They're watching it, in part, to gauge the mood of the... more
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Salena Zito (Oct 02, 2011)
Every U.S. president needs people around him who are not afraid to tell him that his latest idea is terrible. Otherwise, he just keeps getting into... more
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Salena Zito (Sep 25, 2011)
HILLSBORO, Ohio – From the two-lane Simon Kenton Bridge at the Kentucky border to the steep curves past farms and river towns, U.S. Route 62 reminds you that Ohio is a... more
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Salena Zito (Sep 18, 2011)
Another wave is coming, Washington – and “the ‘ins’ may be thrown out, and the ‘outs’ may be thrown in,” according to Michael... more
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Salena Zito (Sep 11, 2011)
ASPEN, Colo. – At a bustling farmers’ market, Trevor Washko worked on a square of leather in his booth of finely stitched journals.
To his right was a stand packed with... more
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Salena Zito (Sep 04, 2011)
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Everyone in politics should heed the advice of baseball legend Casey Stengel: “Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
That never... more
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Salena Zito (Aug 28, 2011)
STAUNTON, Va. – Whether it is called General Lee Highway, as in Virginia, or Molly Pitcher Highway, as in Pennsylvania, the lives and economic strain along U.S. Route 11 tell... more
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Salena Zito (Aug 21, 2011)
A Tip O’Neill quote is inscribed on Jerry Ford’s monument in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall:
"God has been good to America, especially during difficult times. At the... more
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Salena Zito (Aug 14, 2011)
Democrats were remarkably unprepared for the discontent that dislodged them from running the U.S. House last year, a sentiment that began in the summer of 2009.
Pete... more
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Salena Zito (Aug 07, 2011)
The recent debt debate was not politics at its worst or most dysfunctional.
It worked exactly as American politics was designed to work.
“Our system is about posturing,... more
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Salena Zito (Jul 31, 2011)
When historians look back on this moment in American politics, they may wonder why the White House failed to focus on the consuming issue of the time: the economy -- and, in... more
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Salena Zito (Jul 24, 2011)
ST. MICHAELS, Pa. – Remarkably, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club still stands on what once was the shore of Cambria County’s Lake Conemaugh.
Built... more
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Salena Zito (Jul 17, 2011)
BUCKHORN, Ontario – Candy Penny and her husband have owned their novelty shop here just long enough to not know what it was like when American tourists flooded this small... more
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Salena Zito (Jul 10, 2011)
Where are the jobs?
Not the stimulus signs, not the rhetoric about “shovel-ready” economic voodoo, not the propping-up of an anemic manufacturing sector, but real... more
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Salena Zito (Jul 03, 2011)
UNIONTOWN – On July 4, 1776, Henry Beeson put up a sign on what was part of the ancient Indian trail known as Nemacolin's Path: He had laid out a two-street town, humbly... more
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Salena Zito (Jun 26, 2011)
Add redistricting as another drag on Democrats in their march to win back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012.
It’s hard to recruit new House... more
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Salena Zito (Jun 19, 2011)
DETROIT – Elaine Holder fussed over her elderly parents while waiting for a flight home to New Philadelphia, Ohio.
“We just returned from a... more
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Salena Zito (Jun 13, 2011)
SOMERSET – A roadside diner in a small town is quintessentially charming. Its sparkling steel, a reminder of our one-time manufacturing greatness, seems to reflect... more
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Salena Zito (Jun 05, 2011)
SALAMANCA, N.Y. – In a valley that curves along the Allegheny River is a tract of land built on opportunity, greed, and the bureaucratic nightmare of being one city in two... more
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Salena Zito (May 29, 2011)
A little more than a week ago, Vice President Joe Biden traveled to fund-raisers in two battleground-state cities, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
Neither stop included the... more
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Salena Zito (May 28, 2011)
When national campaign strategists consider targeting an ethnic voting bloc to swing results in their direction, they typically consider blacks or Hispanics.
Yet, an... more
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Salena Zito (May 22, 2011)
Women have had an impact in the voting booth since Lydia Taft cast a ballot in Uxbridge, Mass., on whether the town should spend money on troops in the French and Indian... more
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Salena Zito (May 16, 2011)
POWHATAN POINT, Ohio – Joyce McNears peers over her reading glasses and asks a question to which she expects no answer: “Why is the president still not talking about... more
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Salena Zito (May 08, 2011)
With the 2012 election approaching, you wouldn’t expect to hear one of Washington’s savviest Democratic strategists praise Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., for his... more
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Salena Zito (May 01, 2011)
Last October, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a popular Mountaineer State Democrat, was fast becoming an unpopular candidate for the late Robert Byrd's open U.S. Senate... more
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Salena Zito (Apr 24, 2011)
PITTSBURGH – Here along the Allegheny River in 1753, a young George Washington, clad in a woolen match coat and accompanied by guide Christopher Gist, walked toward the... more
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Salena Zito (Apr 17, 2011)
WASHINGTON – The sweeping office of the Speaker of the House once housed the Library of Congress – more than 6,000 leather-bound tomes owned and beloved by... more
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Salena Zito (Apr 10, 2011)
PHILADELPHIA – On a crisp February morning, President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad arrived at Independence Hall here for a flag-raising to mark the admittance of... more
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Salena Zito (Apr 03, 2011)
On a frigid February morning, the Census Bureau delivered chilling news to the mayors of New York, Detroit and Chicago.
A big chunk of each city's black population had... more
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Salena Zito (Mar 27, 2011)
For weeks the national media focused on union protests in Wisconsin.
Aging hippies trashed the state capital, union members were bused in from across the country in... more
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Salena Zito (Mar 20, 2011)
WASHINGTON – Republican Haley Barbour sat in one of those beige hotel meeting rooms that fill this city of endless meetings. Nearing the end of his second and final term as... more
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Salena Zito (Mar 20, 2011)
Republican Haley Barbour sat in one of those beige hotel meeting rooms that fill this city of endless meetings. Nearing the end of his second and final term as Mississippi’s... more
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Salena Zito (Mar 13, 2011)
Philadelphia – Three years ago, almost to the day, candidate Barack Obama told an AFL-CIO convention here, “It's time we had a president who didn't choke saying the word... more
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Salena Zito (Mar 06, 2011)
WASHINGTON – When Democrat Paul Strauss walks into the John A. Wilson Building a little more than a block from the White House, the door leading to his office is marked... more
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Salena Zito (Feb 27, 2011)
WASHINGTON – The only sound visitors hear on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol on an early Sunday morning is the click of heels on the marble floor, echoing off the 20-foot... more
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Salena Zito (Feb 20, 2011)
An American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus sign guards the majestic National Trust Historic Preservation building just beyond DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C.
... more
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Salena Zito (Feb 13, 2011)
WASHINGTON- Apropos of our democracy, Alexander Hamilton's and Thomas Jefferson's statues stand miles apart here.
America always has been at odds with these two Founders'... more
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Salena Zito (Feb 06, 2011)
“It sucked, it sucked, and it was terrific.”
That’s a remarkably blunt answer to a question posed to Republican pollster Neil Newhouse about the GOP’s generic-ballot poll... more
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Salena Zito (Jan 30, 2011)
MILFORD, Pa. – Less than a quarter-mile from the Columns, the stunning home of the Pike County Historical Society’s museum in the Delaware River Highlands, lies the grave of... more
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Salena Zito (Jan 23, 2011)
HARRISBURG – A statesman, Harry Truman once remarked, “is a dead politician.”
True, perhaps, for some cases but not for one of Pennsylvania’s political figures.
... more
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Salena Zito (Jan 16, 2011)
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. – Stepping onto the platform of a Victorian-era train station here, you wouldn’t know you are standing over the foundation of Harpers Ferry’s original... more
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Salena Zito (Jan 09, 2011)
WASHINGTON – Minutes before the roll-call vote for the next House speaker, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., gingerly sat down near the back of the chamber.
When his name... more
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Salena Zito (Jan 02, 2011)
Just because you say something does not make it true, no matter how many times you say it or how many people repeat it.
Case in point: the mantra among Washington... more