The fact is that Congress does not need some sort of invitation from the White House in order to do their job. To take affirmative action toward addressing our nation's problems, Congress should put aside its letterhead and stop writing letters to the President and federal agencies asking them to take action.

WASHINGTON -- Several House Democrats walked out of a committee vote in protest on Wednesday, accusing their Republican counterparts of refusing to ne...

Without reform, we're doomed repeat and amplify the exasperating gridlock of the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling talks. That's why Senate Resolutions 4 and 6 need the support of Democratic senators and the White House. The American people strongly support overhauling the filibuster.

In many ways, the new Congress should look like the old one. Prospects for a grand bargain over taxes and spending remain dim. I also expect that congressional power will remain concentrated in the hands of party leaders, and that rank-and-file legislators will continue to grumble about it.

It is time to at least talk about some systemic changes to address the systemic and counterproductive political gridlock we are stuck with today.

Gridlock is the political equivalent of a medically induced coma. Basic life functions continue while a critical disease runs its course. Being in a coma isn't good for anyone, but when the disease is worse, a coma may be the only way to return to health.

This country is stuck in a hell of its own making that passes for everyday life at a moment when the world, for better and/or worse, is coming unstuck in all sorts of ways.

Under the most trying conditions he has held the tide against disheartening reactionary opposition. It took character to do that without descending to the level of right-wing ideologues, for whom no tactic is too low.

We recently saw for the first time in recent memory that the Democrats -- not Republicans -- blocked an immigration reform measure that many legislators in both parties say they support, in fact.

This little screed is the introductory installment in an ongoing series that will bravely seek to explore the connection between the news and the olds, between what's bothering us now and the system in which the botherances are, at least in many cases, rooted.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly four years after a congressionally mandated commission warned that bioterrorism poses the greatest threat to the nation, the form...

In order for the mainstream media to claim that their version of balance reflects the moderate middle, they're forced to ignore the actual moderate middle.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has the executive authority to bypass a hostile Republican House of Representatives and a bitterly divided Senate...

For a guy who walked into a historic financial meltdown, two costly wars, and a Wall Street- and GOP-ravished economy, President Obama is doing pretty well.

Everybody's beating their breasts about Washington gridlock. Let's defend gridlock for a moment. The opposite of gridlock was a halcyon time when Lyn...