The Administration

This week marks the five-month anniversary of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.
 
By now, we should know which terrorist groups were responsible. We should have identified, detained and interrogated suspects. We should know the connections between the attack in Benghazi and the series of other attacks on U.S. embassies in Cairo, Tunis and Sana’a the same week, where American flags were torn down and replaced with al Qaida flags. We should have held the State Department officials responsible for the internal failures described in the Pickering Report accountable.  
 
Yet we have nothing.

Since President Obama nominated Senator Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense in early January, an ugly barrage of mudslinging and name-calling has ensued on Capitol Hill. While every presidential nominee should be thoroughly vetted by the Senate, tarnishing the name of a decorated Vietnam veteran to score political points is disgraceful. The misrepresentation of Hagel's sound foreign policy positions has now given way to ceaseless tactics to delay a confirmation vote. On Sunday, Senator Lindsay Graham threatened to hold up the confirmation vote unless the administration provided additional details on Benghazi. Sen. Graham should remember the Senate is in session, not the circus — this sideshow must end. Sen. Hagel should be promptly confirmed as secretary of defense.

As U.S. senators consider whether to filibuster former Senator Chuck Hagel’s nomination for secretary of Defense, they should not be deterred by the widespread myth that filibustering a cabinet-level nominee would be unprecedented. In fact, there have been several filibusters and attempts to invoke cloture (thereby ending filibusters) on cabinet-level nominations. Furthermore, many more Democrats than Republicans have cast votes to continue such filibusters – and such filibustering Democrats include current President Barack Obama and senior Obama Administration officials.

The Senate website defines a “filibuster” as an “informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.” By that definition, there have been many filibusters of cabinet-level nominees.

How many candidates for Congress last year won on the following platform?

It’s difficult to fathom that the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School happened two months ago this week.

We are no longer in an election year — which makes this the perfect time to take action on election reform. 

Politicians are famously reluctant to make commitments — especially about the future, as Yogi might say.

If terms like “continuing resolution” or “debt ceiling” seem like déjà vu, there’s a good reason. 

This could be the decisive and historic year the federal government swerves away from bankruptcy. But progress will require the president and his party to exercise previously unseen political courage on entitlement reform.

During his second inaugural speech, the president proclaimed that "[o]ur journey is complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.” Powerful words, indeed. The problem is that, coming from him, they ring hollow.
 
The president loves to pontificate about immigration, but the reality is that since his administration began, he hasn’t done anything to advance the discussion of immigration and help forge the bipartisan consensus necessary to address this important issue. He’s only made promises that he hasn’t kept.