Columns

NEW YORK -- In the accelerating debate about airport pat-downs that feel like a clumsy third date and body scans that border on Peeping Tom shows, its hard to find a sane place to land.

Missiles fired from the Chinese mainland could destroy five of the six major U.S. air bases in the Far East. So states a new report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, adding:

I don't claim to be an expert on monetary policy or international finance, but I've been astonished by the degree of disrespect expressed here and abroad to the latest economic policies of President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Nobody expected that George W. Bush's book, "Decision Points," was going to compare to the memoirs of Ulysses Grant. As expected, book reviewers found it wanting as a literary work. But still, every book by an ex-president is seen as an opportunity for legacy-polishing and the press is most accommodating.

Other than being the highest-profile Republican victims of Tea Party candidates, what do Lisa Murkowski, Mike Castle, Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter have in common?

George W. Bush is sitting on a hotel sofa in front of a south-facing window on a sunny November morning. His presidential memoir, "Decision Points," is No. 1 on amazon.com and is expected to be No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. "I've got a very comfortable life," he says.

The first of the two-legged, two-staged, lame-duck session of Congress begins Monday, and it consists of mostly wounded ducks. These winged fowl would love nothing more than to duck the huge legislative agenda that awaits them.