Cracking Acorn—When Congress voted in mid-September to curtail all federal funding to Acorn, two people with costumes and a video camera achieved what the Bush Justice Department failed do in eight years. The community organizing group has been on the Republican Party’s hit list since George W. Bush’s 366-vote victory in 2000 in Florida energized […]

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Who Do You Trust? “Who do you trust? The HMO-coddling, drug-company loving, Medicare-destroying, Social-Security hating Bush Administration? Or do you trust the Democrats?”  — Senator Ted Kennedy, Dec. 8, 2001 THE HUFFINGTON POST GOT IT RIGHT. SORT OF. “Senator Calls Out Frank Luntz from the Senate Floor” read a June 10 headline on the national Internet news […]

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So much has been written about Senator Edward Kennedy’s extraordinary legislative achievement that it’s worthwhile to recall that he didn’t always win. And that he was as fierce an advocate in defeat as he was in victory. The Congressional Review Act allows the Congress to overturn any executive rule that has been posted on the […]

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“I hope that in the coming months we will see negotiations launched on all fronts as result of a regional peace initiative by President Obama, with the Palestinian issue at its core…. In my opinion, Israel should enthusiastically join the initiative.” —Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, August 3, 2009 LONG-TIME OBSERVERS OF THE MIDDLE EAST […]

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The Dalles, Oregon WHEN DEMOCRAT JEFF MERKLEY WAS THE UNDERDOG challenging Republican incumbent Gordon Smith in 2008, he promised that if elected he would hold one town hall meeting a year in every county in Oregon. Because they usually begin with a 3,000-mile flight from Washington, D.C., congressional town hall meetings in Oregon are a […]

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