The federal government, at least for the moment, will stay in business. The most recent threat of a shutdown was averted when FEMA found enough money under the mattress to limp along until the end of its fiscal year, when it will be automatically funded again. The right-wingers in the House wanted any additional disaster [...]

Enough said.

I wonder if the sour, off-key comments by House Speaker-to-be John Boehner and still Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the election might have given the voters who placed renewed confidence in the Republican Party buyer’s remorse. Boehner gave no indication whatsoever that he was willing to work with Democrats, and McConnell repeated his claim [...]

I know people are angry; heck, I’m angry. It’s an inevitability of American politics that the party in power during bad economies gets punished at the polls, and the Democrats certainly haven’t distinguished themselves with the power we’ve given them. But I keep coming back to this question–what has the Republican party done to earn [...]

Many years ago I read a hilarious Russell Baker column (at least, I’m pretty sure it was Russell Baker) in which he promised not to trash Richard Nixon for one single day. By the end of the column, however, he was unable to restrain himself and let loose a barrage of invective. I made a [...]

Here we go again. Obama is reaching out to Republicans one more time, convening a health care summit in hopes of crafting a bipartisan bill with a party that wants nothing to do with bipartisanship. If anything, Republicans, emboldened by Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts, see obstructionism as the way to success at the [...]