Columns

WASHINGTON -- Ms. Know-It-All, the anonymous political advice columnist whose identity remains a popular Georgetown cocktail party guessing game, is also known to live up to her title now and then. Herewith a correspondence worth sharing.

"Nothing is lost save honor." So said Jim Fisk after he and Jay Gould survived yet another scrape in their corrupt and storied careers in the Gilded Age. Fisk's dismissal of honor came to mind while watching Barack Obama in Boston smugly explain how his vow -- "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it!" -- was now inoperative.

Some economists say more inflation is just what the American economy needs to escape from a half-decade of sluggish growth and high unemployment, the New York Times reports.

Do you know how much President Obama has raised taxes? Oh, by about $3 trillion.

WASHINGTON -- Every disaster has its moment of clarity. Physicist Richard Feynman dunks an O-ring into ice water and everyone understands instantly why the shuttle Challenger exploded. This week, the Obamacare O-ring froze for all the world to see: Hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters went out to people who had been assured a dozen times by the president that "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan. Period."

"The First Amendment does not permit laws that force speakers to retain a campaign finance attorney, conduct demographic marketing research, or seek declaratory rulings before discussing the most salient political issues of our day." -- U.S. Supreme Court, Citizens United (2010)

WASHINGTON -- It isn't over yet, but a bookie today would predict a Terry McAuliffe victory in the Virginia governor's election next week. Washington Post polling shows the Democratic businessman and fundraiser with a double-digit lead (51 percent to 39 percent) over Republican Ken Cuccinelli following a campaign ad blitz that shredded the sitting attorney general over his conservative views. It's not that voters love McAuliffe. They just don't like Cuccinelli -- and they really don't like the Republican Party.

In an attempt to divert attention from the mounting failures of his signature piece of legislation, President Obama is now back to beating the broken drum on amnesty.

If you are in your 60s or older, you came of age during the government boom at the federal level. You witnessed the birth of the Great Society, Americas massive engagement destined to eliminate poverty and open the American dream to all willing to pursue a better life and better education.

The spectacularly dreadful debut of Obamacare represents the greatest political opportunity for conservatism and the Republican Party in two generations.

When voters approved a nicely worded amendment to the state Constitution in 2010 they may have thought the constant squabbling over political districting would be over.

WASHINGTON -- While the nation's attention has been riveted on the Keystone Congress, the executive branch was busy developing its own comedy routine. Picture the cast (you know the characters) shrugging their shoulders in unison: "Who, me?"

Sherlock Holmes famously solved a mystery by noticing the dog that did not bark. In the recent government shutdown/debt ceiling fight, there was a five-letter dog that didn't bark: T-A-X-E-S.

The pots and pans are clanging for the ouster of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the Obamacare website roll-out takes on the aspect of that of the Edsel. Yet, though it is a website that has America laughing, Obama's legacy legislation itself could, in its entirety, be in peril. As ex-pilot George W. Bush used to say, this thing looks like a five-spiral crash.