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The 111th Congress will be more Democratic than the 110th.  By latest count, the Senate will be 58D-40R, with two races (Minnesota and Georgia) undecided.  The House will be 256D-175R, with four races outstanding.  Compare these divisions to those of the 91st Congress...

A rather unusual op-ed appears in today's Washington Post, written by Karl E. Meyer, a longtime writer (and editorial-board member) for both that paper and the New York Times, who recently retired after many years editing World Policy Journal, and his wife Shareen...

During his five years in the White House Lyndon Johnson, from time to time, would call in a group of honored Democratic (and Republican) elder statesmen to seek their counsel about the major issues in foreign policy and the Vietnam War. This group came to be known as...

This afternoon my wife Rene and I went to the Kennedy Center in Washington to see a matinee performance of Peter Morgan's acclaimed play Frost/Nixon, starring Stacy Keach as Richard Nixon and Alan Cox as David Frost, in a dramatization of their celebrated TV...

Back in the '80s, Rich Hall invented Sniglets: Words that should ---but don't--- appear in the dictionary. Such as: ACCORDIONATED (ah kor' de on ay tid) adj. Being able to drive and refold a road map at the same time. CARPERPETUATION (kar' pur pet u a shun) n. The...

As the big boys from the big three pressed their case this week for a taxpayer funded bridge or bailout (pick your metaphor), the role of big labor in Mr. Obama’s coming administration is being seriously tested even before the guy gets to say “so help me God.” Of...

Robert Novak suspended his column last summer when he learned he had a brain tumor.  The long-time Washington observer and uber-reporter arrived in the capital in the latter years of the Eisenhower administration. In this month's Washingtonian magazine, he talks at...

Erica Heller is a New Yorker in her fifties.  In her twenties and thirties she worked in advertising. Then she dropped out of the field and wrote a novel, Splinters - a natural thing to do when one is the daughter of the late Joseph Heller, author of Something...

Ted Stevens conceded defeat in his bid for re-election to the Senate today, strengthening the Democratic hand in the upper chamber but at least saving the GOP elders some embarrassment.  This eliminates the prospect, at least immediately, that Gov. Sarah Palin, as...

While there's still time --- if there's still time --- some FOB ---Friend of Barack--- should do him a real solid and slip him a copy of What Do We Do Now? --- Steve Hess' "Workbook for the President-Elect" hot off the presses from the Brookings Institution just in...