A plain blog about politics

What's a gift you would like to give to a politician you like? This is for sincere, not sarcastic, gifts, but creative ones if you can t...

I think this properly should go to Noam Scheiber, although he cites another piece when he says : Here's why it doesn't matter if ...

Earlier I watched a truly great politician moment: "Gang of 14" Senators going to the Senate floor and congratulating themselves f...

I really like Ezra Klein's analysis of the Cruz, Paul, Sanders, and Wendy Davis filibusters/extended speeches, trying to answer the ques...

Yet another anonymous commenter asks: Does Hillary Clinton display any skills at 'Presidenting' that set her apart from Biden, Cuo...

Have to give one of these to Dan Drezner, for celebrating the craven self-interest displayed by politicians in the Syria matter : Look, t...

I'm mostly over at Greg's place this week, so I guess I should drop one of these "elsewhere" posts by now, no? Let's s...

Happy Birthday to Amanda Bearse , 55. And with that, I'm off on a long vacation weekend. Off to Vegas with my dad. I should get the no...

Chris Cillizza, on why Chris Christie is a strong candidate : As Mitt Romney, John Kerry and Al Gore can attest — and not in a good way — ...

Same question as the one for conservatives, also leaning on the 4th of July week and my Salon column yesterday about the importance of elec...

Here's one for the week leading up to July 4th. Long-time readers will recall that I'm an advocate of particularly celebrating polit...

Two special elections to replace two older Senators, with the late Senator Lautenberg an especially significant case (he was 89). I think ...

Jordan Ragusa has a very nice post today using the business about PolitiFact ratings to write about research showing that, yes, Members of C...

Is there a new wave of dynastic politicians coming to Congress? National Journal's Sarah Mimms has the story ... or, at least, the beg...

Well, some days, you don't have much of a choice, do you? The catch has to go to economists Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Poll...

Off format this week just for a little variety...I won't divide these by conservative/liberal As regular readers know, I'm a fan o...

Happy Birthday to Jonathan Demme , 69. I don't understand why Paul Le Mat didn't become a star, but I guess that's for another d...

Happy Birthday to Seth Green , 39. Mostly, as you might guess, because of Oz -- but I'm definitely a big Radio Days fan, too. And he was...

Happy Birthday to Jacob Cruz , 40. Continued playing, and usually hitting, in the minors up through 2010, including stops in Korea and Mexic...

The House Press Gallery has a nice fact sheet on the incoming 113th House. Lots of fun facts, some of which I knew (78 women, 59D/19R, not ...