There’s a fascinating dual dramatic comedy being played out in the Senate, as the Party of NO tries desperately to halt financial reform on behalf of their Wall Street pals, while in the hearing room next door Goldman Sachs execs demonstrate why we so desperately need the reform. The most amusing (or tragic) exchange occurred [...]

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 [...]

I’ve been having a lively conversation with one of the readers of this site about, among other things, the meaning of words. As many others have in the past, he has predicted that if I don’t like what he has to say, I will “censor” his postings, as have the Rocky Mountain News and the [...]

Here we go again. One more attempt at crafting a health care reform bill with the Republicans. The problem is that the GOP wants nothing to do with the main ideas the Democrats have put forth. Part of it is ideological–a reflexive rejection of anything but market-driven health care, (which has dismally failed either to [...]

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 [...]

I thought President Obama got it exactly right in his State of the Union address last night, chiding both Democrats and Republicans for their inability to solve any of the daunting problems facing the country. The Democrats are tied in knots, unwilling to wield the power the voters gave them a year ago, and the [...]

The Republicans are nothing if not united in their opposition to anything the Democrats try. In the case of health care reform, their stance from the beginning has been to kill it at all costs. It’s an outrage that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to accomplish anything when the minority party is unanimously [...]

Finally, the 9/11 conspirators are going to have their day in court. What an uproar has been unleashed by Attorney general Eric Holder’s decision to allow  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his followers to be tried in a civilian court in the United States. The very idea that we at long last are returning to a [...]

It now looks likely that Obama will be able to sign some version of comprehensive health care reform by the end of the year. There are still numerous hurdles to leap, but the momentum appears to have built to the point that the discussion is about what the bill will contain rather than whether it [...]

I suppose, given the toxic climate of Washington these days, that it was too much to ask that everyone in America celebrate, at least for a day, an American winning a Nobel Prize. One can certainly debate whether the surprise Peace Prize awarded to President Obama was a bit premature, based more on expectation than [...]