Columns

Congress comes back from its Thanksgiving recess this week to what could result in one of the most jam-packed three weeks of congressional session in recent years.

"People who live in a Golden Age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks." -- Randall Jarrell, "A Sad Heart at the Supermarket"

According to some historians, the first feast of thanks took place in St. Augustine in 1565, more than 50 years before what most of us were taught was the first Thanksgiving.

Newt Gingrich wants to keep illegal aliens in this country so their children can work as school janitors.

Our frailties as a nation come in large part due to our penchant to seek to lop off the beauty of the tallest flower in the garden, often done by plucking one petal at a time.

WASHINGTON -- Another debate, another installment of "The Dating Game." Will the eventual winner be contestant Number One, Two ... Eight?

"Alice in Wonderland" was written by a professor who also wrote a book on symbolic logic. So it is not surprising that Alice encountered not only strange behavior in Wonderland, but also strange and illogical reasoning -- of a sort too often found in the real world, and which a logician would be very much aware of.

The supercommittee apparently wasn't so super. The members announced Monday they would not be able to meet the deadline of Nov. 23 for finding $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in savings in our federal government over the next 10 years.

WASHINGTON -- Shortly before the Supreme Court agreed to rule on the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual mandate, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed, 2-1, its constitutionality. Writing for the majority, Judge Laurence Silberman, a Reagan appointee, brusquely acknowledged that upholding the mandate means there is no limit to Congress's powers under the Commerce Clause.

WASHINGTON -- The headline on Democratic strategist Paul Begala's recent Newsweek essay dodged subtlety: "The Stupid Party." "Republicans used to admire intelligence. But now they're dumbing themselves down," was the subhead.

WASHINGTON -- In 2008, the slogan was Yes We Can. For 2011-12, it's We Cant Wait. What happened in between? Candidate Obama, the vessel into which myriad dreams were poured, met the reality of governance.