President Obama will play host to American Indian leaders at a White House conference on Dec. 16.
There are those who discount the impact the Tea Party has and will have on our political scene. They think it is a blip on the radar screen that will soon fade away. They are wrong.
Over the next few weeks, ownership of the House will transition from outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, to Rep. John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. That change can't happen soon enough, but it won't be easy. One of the first challenges for the presumptive speaker's team will be selecting committee chairmen for the 112th Congress. The heads of those panels will influence the direction of the body for years to come.
Election Day has come and gone, but the message sent by the American people is clear: They want government to spend less, use more common sense and reform the way business is done in Washington.
Ask any 10 voters what motivated them to go to the polls on Election Day, and you'll probably get 10 different answers. Taxes, unemployment, government
President Obama has set the stage for an acrimonious relationship with the newly elected senators of the 112th Congress. As they come to Washington this week for freshman orientation, his welcome message amounts to, "I want to disenfranchise you."
Was the great financial crisis caused by greedy and reckless bankers and Wall Street players or by a broad range of individuals, financial institutions and governments who became less risk-averse and prudent or by government housing policies that brought on the housing bubble and mismanaged the risks? The lame-duck Congress now in session is about to make some major decisions on spending and taxes - when all too many members still are operating on the idea that greedy bankers and Wall Street players, rather than government housing policies, are the problem.
Bowing to political pressure from conservatives in his party and to voter anxiety over the federal budget, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday reversed course and supported a temporary ban on earmarks in order to show he is serious about cutting federal spending.
Let the quacking begin. And the oratory. What with all the business-as-usual items on the Democratic wish list, the "tea party" will stand fast outside the lame-duck session that begins Monday in Congress.
