Senators Warren and Brown are making a huge difference, showing us that if we get a real live two-fisted fighter for working families in the ring on our behalf, it matters. That is why I decided to get involved in helping Rick Weiland run in South Dakota.

“We got way too excited over money in the 2012 elections,” Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein argued at a conference on money in politic...

Members of Congress, entrusted to represent the best interests of the average American, instead play out a stilted, ineffective soap opera on our TV screens, complete with phony discussions of fiscal cliffs and debt ceilings which take the place of real proposals for meaningful change in the country.

As a first generation American who came to this country when I was still young, I continue to be inspired by the founding vision of the American republic and believe that through innovation, dialogue, and bipartisan reform we can take steps that will help us realize that vision.

What is HLOGA's aim? How does it affect advocacy? These questions seem to resonate more by the day.

We have plenty of debate on whose budget numbers are fishy (Romney's) and on whether to bring about deficit reduction by slashing social spending to pay for even more tax cuts (Romney) or whether to have a mix or budget cuts and tax increases on the wealthy (Obama.) Of the two positions, Obama's is both the more sensible and intellectually honest. But the Democrats are mistaken when they argue that the deficit needs to be cut any time soon. With the economy weak, we certainly don't need $2 trillion in spending cuts as Obama proposes; if anything, we need more stimulus spending.

Back in 2000, I worked with Arianna at the Shadow Conventions because she and I shared a passion for ending the corrupting influence of money in politics. We thought the problem was bad then; it's rotten now. And neither party seems any more genuine about addressing it. The business of governing has been slowly replaced by the businesses that govern. And those businesses, for the most part, either seek to rig laws to their own advantage or to maintain the status quo. So what it comes down to is this: Unless we generate a massive, history-making surge in the fight for reform we are likely, in another 12 years, doomed to having an even more dire conversation about our fading republic -- about a country that is a shadow of its former self.

Though the policies advocated by Republicans and Democrats are diametrically opposed on the surface, their implications and their constituencies may be much more similar.

You can call all of this disgusting, or venal, or corrupt. But crazy? Not on your life. Critics should stop describing it that way and start calling it what it really is: the prostitution of democracy to the highest bidder.

President Obama and Democratic leaders, voters, workers and donors must understand with brutal clarity that: Republicans, right-wing billionaires who...

Federalist conservatives love shifting power from the federal government to states because they believe that the closer government is to its citizens, the more responsive it is to those citizens. They could not be more wrong.

As one of the U.S. Senate’s most endangered Democratic incumbents, Claire McCaskill knows she’s a top target of the new conservative super PACs th...

Senior government officials are ignoring a White House directive that requires disclosure of key documents in the federal rulemaking process, thus hiding the potential influence of special interests on the writing of government regulations.

On Wednesday, when it wasn’t clear if the Legislature would give Gov. Rick Scott a win and overhaul Personal Injury Protection auto insurance to his...

Coal-fired power plants and the pollution they produce are the number one threat to our public health and the environment. This is not an issue of jobs versus the environment. It's an issue of the American people's public health versus a narrow special interest.

This story is not new, but it's such a perfect encapsulation of the Washington establishment that it's still worth looking at.

To nullify special interest involvement in the drafting of bills, Congress should change its internal rules so that all votes on amendments and procedure are done by secret ballot, and all votes on passing laws are public and recorded.

Mary and Wayne Barrett debate what bin Laden's demise says about Obama -- no more 97 pound weakling! -- and about W and torture. Then, should Dems duplicate Rove's secret money machine?

The problem with today's budget bill is that legislative language was slipped into a massive appropriations bill to eliminate Free Choice Vouchers. One lobbyist called the move "an Early Easter gift."