An important debate flared this week -- one in which sides were chosen, positions staked out, and invective hurled. I will let that sentence stand in...

[Program Note: Last month, we ran this column four days before the end of May, due to travel plans. We promised we'd update the preliminary numbers i...

The silly season has come early to Washington, it seems. The root cause is a simple fact of American politics these days -- sometimes, there just can't be transparency.

There's an old bumpersticker saying that "if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done," which bears repeating right now. But this time around, it will be by design.

Back in 1995 and 1996, a government shutdown actually happened -- twice. The debt ceiling was not raised, but the country did not default. President Clinton actively used his veto pen, as the Republicans sent him bills that they knew he would not sign.

In the midst of the debt ceiling frenzy, nobody seems to have noticed that Obama is negotiating in a markedly different way than what we've seen from him in the past. He is at the absolute center of the showdown.

Since it's been over a month since we last took a look at how the 2012 Republican presidential field is shaping up, we're overdue for an update.

Since the Republican Party now worships at the altar of "Saint Ronald of Reagan," it's always fun to point out the hard, cold fact that Reagan would simply not be acceptable to the Republican Party as it stands today.

Forgive me if I'm not impressed, Speaker Boehner. Because I've seen this movie before, and I know how it's going to turn out. Republicans will refuse to raise one thin dime of revenue, and Democrats will refuse to cut one thin dime from the social safety net.

It's a pretty safe bet that the issue will (at least temporarily) be resolved by the fifth of August, at the absolute latest. Bank on it. The reason for such certainty is a simple one.

If I were a hobbit, right about now I would be wondering just how the heck I wound up at the center of this Washington intraparty political fight, personally.