Jared Bernstein

Fmr. Obama administration economist; CNBC and MSNBC contributor

For all the numbers bouncing around the immigration reform debate, the most relevant number is 27 percent. That's the share of Gov Romney's Latino vote and that's the reason this much needed advance in public policy might just make it over the legislative goal line.

Ethan Chorin

Director, Berkeley Research Group

Many in Washington now dismiss further assistance to Libya as useless: the Libyans themselves are fractious and have limited 'absorbtive capacity.' At the same time, it is wrong to say we have no influence in Libya, or that we have no means of increasing that capacity.

Lori Wallach

Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

What do a zombie, handcuffs, a steamroller and a legislative luge run for job-killing trade agreements all have in common? They're all apt metaphors of an expired, scandalously anti-democratic procedure called Fast Track.

Chris Weigant

Political writer and blogger at ChrisWeigant.com

Even after multiple scandals all vying for the top headline throughout the week, over the weekend CNN reported poll numbers showing Obama currently enjoys 53 percent of the public's approval for the job he's doing. His numbers actually rose from the last time the poll was taken.

Chris Rodda

Senior Research Director, Military Religious Freedom Foundation; Author, 'Liars For Jesus'

It seems that Congressman Fleming's ability to separate fact from fiction hasn't improved much in the past year. The stories he's now believing might not come from The Onion, but the headlines are just as far-fetched and the stories just as fictitious.

Kelly James Clark

Senior Research Fellow, Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Grand Valley State University

Muslims around the world are in favor of peace, harmony, liberty, and tolerance. The stereotype of the Muslim terrorist must finally be laid to rest -- this is the view of a very small minority. Those in the West should stop judging Islam in the light of this very small minority.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Senior Attorney, NRDC

Those who bother to read these historical snippets will find many important departures and only tenuous parallels between the Obama Administration's IRS affair and Richard Nixon's Watergate-era IRS scandal.

Josh Horwitz

Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

The NRA didn't just throw down the gauntlet to our government in Houston. It also articulated a vision of America and its ideals that is the antithesis of what our Founders intended, and which would mean the absolution of our Constitution.

Linda Bergthold

Health policy researcher

Why do people think Obamacare no longer exists? It is already being implemented and it will continue to be implemented in January 2014.

Mike Lux

Co-Founder, Democracy Partners

Hundreds of homeowners who have been playing by the rules while the big banks have cheated them are risking arrest at the Department of Justice to make an unmistakable statement: it is about time for the government to side with poor and middle class folks.

Robert Reich

Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Beyond Outrage'

Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. "competitive."

Peter Scheer

Executive Director, First Amendment Coalition

The government's actions likely have already succeeded in deterring government officials from confiding in journalists about national security matters. And that, of course, is the administration's real objective.

Bob Bragar

Member, Democratic National Committee

One doesn't often have the opportunity to make a quick remark that might affect the course of U.S. policy. I got that chance in an unexpected conversation with Barack Obama in 2007.

Steve Westly

Former CA State Controller; Managing Partner, The Westly Group

FCC chairmen often fall into one of two camps -- stern regulators focused on compliance or free-market stalwarts eager to spark private sector growth. Chairman Genachowski is rare in his ability to simultaneously accomplish both goals.

Terry O'Neill

President, National Organization for Women

How bad is the wage gap for women in the workplace? For college graduates, it's so bad that it begins even before women begin their careers.

Roy S. Gutterman

Director, Tully Center for Free Speech, Newhouse School, Syracuse University

Even as a staunch free press advocate, I admit that the government has an obligation to protect certain state secrets. But once information reaches the press and the public, the resulting investigative witch hunts raise questions about how free our press really is.

Barbara Parramore

Professor emeritus at North Carolina State University

I devoted my entire career to making sure that all of our children get the very best education possible, and I am willing to be arrested today to make my voice heard to the North Carolina General Assembly.