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 / TruthdigMar 4, 2010
Sometimes I think I’ve gotten too cynical after so many years in Washington. Then I remember the House Ethics Committee. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 25, 2010
Gen. Norton A. Schwartz's claim, echoed by Gen. George Casey, that letting troops serve openly would "perturb" the military is just silly. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 24, 2010
President Obama's health care fight is not with the Republicans, but with members of his own party, especially those in the House. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 19, 2010
If you are asking, as former President George W. Bush did jokingly the other day, "Who the hell is Marco Rubio?" you probably won't be for long. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 17, 2010
The Senate, with its endless holds and 60-vote points of order, may be the epitome of a place that knows neither victory nor defeat. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 11, 2010
No one would question an African-American judge's capacity to preside over a race discrimination lawsuit or a female jurist's handling of a sexual harassment case. Does it matter if the judge hearing the lawsuit challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage is gay? Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 10, 2010
I've been trying, because I'd truly like to see health reform pass, to find something nice to say about President Obama's plans for a summit. Here's the best I could come up with: It can't hurt. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 8, 2010
Jenny Sanford was my role model, until I read her book. I once wrote that the wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford offered "a new and improved version of the betrayed political spouse -- neither enabler nor victim." I was wrong. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigFeb 3, 2010
With 70 percent of children living in households where all adults are working, we need to reexamine the disparity that makes child care a luxury working families can't afford. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigJan 29, 2010
Chastened is not an adjective normally associated with Barack Obama, but that was the underlying theme of his State of the Union address. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigJan 27, 2010
This won't comfort Democrats mourning the loss of their filibuster-proof majority, but the existence of the filibuster is, on balance, a good thing. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Ruth Marcus / TruthdigJan 25, 2010
In opening the floodgates for corporate money in election campaigns, the Supreme Court did not simply engage in a brazen power grab. It did so in an opinion stunning in its intellectual dishonesty. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
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