Entries for May 2006

The term "great man" is thrown around far too much in Washington, but Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a Texas Democrat, who died Tuesday at 85, fit that label.

House Democratic leaders shouldn't wait another day to denounce Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, and call sternly for his resignation. Time is not on their side.

The immigration issue in Congress has touched many raw nerves across the country, with no end in sight.Any compromise on a new law seems distant now unless President Bush can find a way for compromise with conservatives in his own party in the House.

The late Rep. Morris "Mo" Udall, an Arizona Democrat, used to say that embalming fluid was the only real cure for politicians with presidential disease. He had it, too, in 1976, when he lost to Jimmy Carter, so he knows all about its potency.

The lack of civility in the nation's capital, especially in Congress, has been a topic of concern for the past few years. The hostility on Capitol Hill is so rampant that there seems to be no solution in a country also bitterly divided into "blue" states and "red" states in the past two presidential elections.

Since this is the horse-race season, let's examine the talked-about prospects for president in both parties since the jockeying for 2008 is already under way. The field is huge now, but it will dwindle long before the first caucus in Iowa and the first primary in New Hampshire.

As low as George W. Bush's numbers are in the polls, he can still look down: Congress fares even worse in virtually every survey. The latest Gallup reading gives Congress a 23 percent approval rating, the lowest in many years. So one would think leaders in both parties should see the need for changes.