No, that’s not a serious prediction. My real point is about Republicans getting too excited about thrashing the Democrats in 2010. Sure, that’s what I’d like to see. But remember what happened during Reagan’s first term? That precedent has been on my mind, so I was glad to see that Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts were thinking along the same lines. Here’s their exchange from...

Anti-abortion and pro-life advocates successfully added an Amendment to the House Health Reform Bill that prohibited any Federal Funds from subsidizing private insurance purchases by individuals and families on public exchanges that would cover abortions. Pro-abortion and pro-choice advocates cried foul and the amendment constituted an impermissible limit on a woman’s right to choose. The President also...

When President Barack Obama gave a speech at the memorial service for the 14 people murdered by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, it was one of those moments Presidents don’t relish but that can linger beyond the moment. Was this one of them? The context was a thorny one. Controversies still swirl over which intelligence agency seemingly dropped the ball on the warning signs that Hasan was a potential...

Kevin Drum praises Jonah Goldberg for resisting the impulse to call Nidal Malik Hasan a terrorist. A traitor? A murderer? Sure. But not a terrorist. The strange thing is that liberals assume they should be against labeling Hasan a terrorist and conservatives assume they should be for it. That makes a certain amount of sense. Liberals fear exaggerated threats. Conservatives fear threats that are ignored. But...

If you wait 15 years, people will say anything. Sunday morning on ABC, Donna Brazile explained why 2010 won’t be another 1994: Well, first of all, I don’t think it’s ‘94, because in ‘94, we also had some potential disastrous that happened that caused Democrats to lose so many seats. First of all, we had a great deal of retirements in the Congress, we had the bank scandal, the post...

To buy their silent support. The NYTimes: Four former Blackwater executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then the company’s president, had approved the bribes, and the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where Blackwater maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of...

Warren Buffet is nobody’s fool when it comes to global business and investing. We should all heed his suggestion to invest in America’s Railroads and private companies designing, building and maintaining key national and regional infrastructure projects around the world. We won’t be able to buy BNSF shares for a short time since Berkshire Hathaway will own 100% of it, but within the next few years, there...

From the very outset of the health reform legislation debate, I had this premonition that when the House and Senate bills reached the conference committee for reconciliation, President Barack Obama would come charging to the rescue like the hero wearing the white hat in those old western movies. He still may do that if the Senate manages to actually pass a bill but he is quickly running out of ammunition. He...

David Brooks had me going there, with the first several paragraphs in his column today. He had me thinking a new David Brooks had suddenly emerged, as a butterfly from its chrysalis, with powers of insight and perception the old David Brooks could only dream of having.

Dear, sweet Pat Robertson. Such a gentle, kindly Christian gentleman:

In the battle over health care, the Republican Right, after months of saying no to every Obama initiative from stimulus to bailouts, has gone on the offensive to slice and dice Americans into warring factions–young-old, men-women, rich-poor, anywhere fear and hatred can be stirred up. Sarah Palin, bless her feisty heart, started it all with “death panels,” but naysayers are now working the...

From page three of today’s WaPo article on Dede Scozzafava: “There is a great song called ‘Coca Cola Cowboy’ and I believe that’s what we have here. She was a Republican as long as it enhanced her electability,” said [former House majority leader] Armey, reached while petting a goat at his Texas ranch. Actually, that’s not the entire paragraph; it ends with the remainder...

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on compromise in the health care legislative process: I’m sure there are a lot of people sitting in the shade at the Aspen Institute — my brother being one of them — who will tell you what the ideal plan is. Great, fascinating. You have the art of the possible measured against the ideal. H/t Eric Zimmermann.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. During the past few days I have been writing about the sacrifices made by and heroism exhibited by our veterans—both living and departed. We often forget, however, that many of the sacrifices made, heroism and patriotism displayed and just plain honorable service to our country is by men and women who at one time were not even permitted to legally serve, and who today can serve...

By Alex Hammer As you’ve heard, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” We’ve shortchanged ourselves as a nation by ceding our collective non-partisan, solution-oriented strength to those with partisan interests. It’s not that we have the government we deserve, but rather the government we have allowed. Here is where we all come in — independents and moderates...

A brief thought and hopeful outlook for your Tuesday morning. It comes in the form of a quote from American author Grenville Kleiser. To live at this time is an inestimable privilege, and a sacred obligation devolves upon you to make right use of your opportunities. Though Kleiser died in 1953 and was referring to an entirely different era, the same can be said, I believe, for today. It could apply to your personal...

Fourteen were killed at Fort Hood, not thirteen as reported all week long. Which official is correcting the death toll? I am. On the authority of being a mother who is multi-paragravida, meaning one who has given birth more than once, and on the authority of being a grandmother of five souls, I can, I think, count straight about this particular tragedy. Francheska Velez was a 21-year-old woman, shot to death...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Matthew Yglesias wrote this a few days ago, but I didn’t blog about it then, and right now at the present moment there are a bunch of people who need to be told this. Not that it will make any difference of course, but here it is anyway.

The day the Wall came down: Bewildered East German border guards puzzle over whether to shake the hands of their former adversaries from the West, on November 9, 1989. Yes – today is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A reading of this op-ed by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev shows, however, that the wounds that divide Russia and the West – and even Europe’s...

The original 1787 National Convention assembled 55 delegates in Philadelphia. Over a period of four months this small group drafted the U.S. Constitution that was formally adopted by a supermajority of existing States and became effective in 1789. For most of its 220 years, it has provided the national governmental structure to create one of the most important, democratic, economically wealthy, influential,...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

UPDATED: House Democrats are laying down the gauntlet on abortion rights (emphasis in original):

As the world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lech Walesa, the co-founder of Solidarnosc, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Poland, wants to share in the celebration, the honor and the credit—and perhaps rightly so. Walesa was recently interviewed by Spiegel Online and says the collapse of communism really started in the Polish shipyards, in Gdansk. In the...

The Club for Growth has fired the next shot in the expected Republican civil war between hard line conservatives and candidates they find too milquetoast and moderate for their collective tastes. It came in the form of their long expected endorsement of Marco Rubio to be the next Senator from Florida. Analysts are already lining up to draw comparisons between this race and the recently concluded special election...