Representatives of 194 nations who met in South Africa in December reached a last-minute agreement to sign a treaty to reduce greenhouse emissions. It was an imperfect conclusion at best: an agreement to have a binding agreement in place by 2020, a date many climate scientists consider too late to turn around the climate trends […]

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The aim, of course, was to make researchers working on projects like “computer models to analyze the on-field contributions of soccer players” look profligate and foolish. Though mutual skepticism between lay citizens and academic scientists is nothing new, harnessing this ambivalence to further the aims of the Republican party was ingenious. Despite the fact that […]

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As Lawrence Lessig explains in Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It (TWELVE, 383 pp., $26.99), the disastrous nibble for American democracy was the change in the relationship between money and power. It may not have been a fall from Eden, but it was a headlong descent from the […]

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Frank is one of the brightest (and most obnoxious) members of the House. From up close, he watched Gingrich ascend to power. While I was writing a book on Tom DeLay, Frank told me that Gingrich promised to be a “transformational” leader, then succeeded in changing how business is conducted in the House. “He disregarded […]

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In 1995, the OTA was the smallest federal agency, with a budget of less than $22 million. It was bipartisan, governed by a board of six Republicans and six Democrats from the House and the Senate. And it was responsive to requests for assessments from chairs and ranking members of House and Senate committees. During […]

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