Tangherlini Tapped to Stay On at GSA
Video: Stephen Colbert on the Census Bureau
Lawmaker: Don't Furlough Weather Service Now
Making Government 'Simpler'
OK Senators Leery of Unfunded Tornado Relief
Boldly Go Where No Fed's Gone Before
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
If the GOP Wins
September 27, 2011 It's hard to find many upbeat and optimistic Democrats these days; many seem distinctly worried if not apoplectic about the 2012 elections. Thinking about those lofty days when Barack Obama was elected and sworn in as president of the United States, let's just say this wasn't the cruise that Democrats ...
Isn’t That Special?
September 20, 2011 Whenever there's a special election for a House or Senate seat, the two parties react predictably. The victorious party proclaims that the election was a national referendum of huge significance. The losing party attributes the outcome to local problems-perhaps the candidate was weak or the campaign was disorganized and off-message. ...
Background Noise
September 13, 2011 By the time you read this, President Obama will have addressed a joint session of Congress outlining his latest proposal to improve the country's economic situation, which is currently teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession. The employment picture is as challenging as any a president has faced since ...
Obama’s Anchor
September 6, 2011 The political significance of unemployment rates in the 9 percent range just 15 months before a presidential election is pretty obvious; indeed, no post-World War II president has faced this bleak a jobs picture at this juncture. Other measures marking the breadth and depth of the jobs problem also merit ...
America's Summer of Discontent
August 30, 2011 Recently, I got back home from a 3,600-mile solo drive that took me from Washington to Iowa, Iowa to Louisiana, and Louisiana back to D.C. I recommend the exercise. It's a big and beautiful country. As my route took me through both Normal, Ill. (east of Peoria), and Peculiar, Mo. ...
Memo to GOP
August 23, 2011 The 2012 presidential election is shaping up to be one of oddest in memory and potentially far more dramatic than one might guess. Obviously, the general election is still more than 14 months away -- and, in politics, and for that matter anything involving human behavior, predictions are dangerous. But ...
Self-Sorting
August 9, 2011 When weary voters saw the news that Washington had struck a bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling, it's doubtful that many of them took out stationery to write Congress a thank-you note; it's not clear how many of us even believed it had happened. Last week, according to a Pew ...
A Laughingstock
August 2, 2011 Here's your homework for today: Go to the Government Printing Office's website and order the current edition of the Congressional Pictorial Directory, which contains color photographs of every member of the 112th Congress. Save it, and after the 2016 elections, look back through the guide and see how many of ...
Too Close to Call
July 26, 2011 It's interesting that the race for the Republican presidential nomination is as fluid as it is, given that no primaries or caucuses have been held and that the first important straw poll, in Ames, Iowa, is still three weeks away. The narrative is confusing. Is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ...
Blame Republicans for Debt Crisis
July 19, 2011 Remember the old joke that ended with the punch line, "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable?" That seems to be the Republican position in the debt-ceiling debate now that House Speaker John Boehner has been forced to renounce any tax increases and, for that matter, any net ...
