The Democrats were blindsided yesterday in Massachusetts, and they have nobody to blame but themselves. They have badly misjudged the mood of the American people for months, stringing out the health care debate ad infinitum while ignoring the growing anger over the slow pace of the recovery, the loss of jobs, and the obscene unfairness [...]

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 [...]

I’d like to believe that Senator Lieberman’s about-face on supporting the Senate’s health care reform bill was a principled stance, but I don’t. Either the man loves being the center of attention so much that he’s willing to break his promises, or the health care lobby that’s given him so much money got to him. [...]

My first sketch for this cartoon had the health care bill as an adult with an arm and a leg already cut off, hobbling from the House surgical unit to the Senate surgical unit. In some ways it may have been more accurate, given how butchered the plan already is, and how much more will [...]

Ted Kennedy, the third longest-serving senator in history, left behind an unmatched legislative legacy. He helped craft some of the most important bills of the last half century, and his influence changed this country for the better. Medicare, voting rights, family leave, civil rights, immigration reform, greater access for the disabled, all bear his mark. [...]

We finally know the answer to the question, what’s the dog going to do with the car if he catches it? In the case of health care reform, bury it. Republicans who want to hand Obama a major defeat are jubilant that the blue dog Democrats are doing their work for them. I know these [...]

One of the last remaining moderate Republicans,  Senator Arlen Specter finally called it quits and joined the other party. One could hardly blame him. Facing a strong conservative challenger, he was likely to lose in the primary to a man far to his right, who then most likely would have been defeated in a Democratic-leaning [...]

Justice Department prosecutors evidently ran amok in their zeal to convict Alaska Senator Ted Stevens of wrongdoing. The prosecutorial misconduct was so great that new Attorney General Eric Holder decided to drop all charges. This doesn’t mean, of course, that Stevens was innocent. We’ll never really know how extensive his abuse of office might have [...]