The GOP in Congress has already lost three rounds of the fight for a balanced budget.

In December they agreed to raise taxes with no "quid pro quo". This year, they agreed to suspend the debt ceiling and finally delayed the sequestration until March. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with President Obama, the Republicans got nothing in exchange for compromising their fiscal principles.

At least since 1973, when Marlon Brando declined his Oscar — he couldn't remember which picture it was supposed to be for — and sent up Sacheen Littlefeather to pitch the case for Indian rights instead, the giving of Oscars has been as iconic as medieval architecture, attempting with barely hidden symbolism to territorialize the political culture. Hollywood has changed and possibly invented America. Especially California. It has been said, by Fox Mulder, in an episode of “The X Files,” that this was the way of the "military, industrial, entertainment complex." Several cultural shifts can be intuited from last nights’ awards: The Clinton age is over, and President Obama will bomb Iran.

It has been a big week in Republican soul searching, and Republicans seeking answers to the past and for the future must read Michael Gerson and Pete Wehner's diagnosis and prescription "How To Save The Republican Party," in the March edition of Commentary. It's all there. For those still in denial about everything being a "messaging problem," if this doesn't wake you, you might be helpless. 

Young people need to learn to work. Their parents must not let them be idle all year for, as they say, idle hands are the devil's workshop.

When I was growing up, it was early to bed, early to rise. My family worked hard, every one of us, starting even before the sun rose. Sure, I wanted to rest many times, but my parents wouldn't let me until our work was done. They needed a rest more than anybody. They taught by example and instilled in us a strong work ethic.

China and Russia are gnawing at the bit to access our “secured” online universe, and Congress appears content to shut the power off on ourselves, leaving innovation in the dark. While there is no part of the left’s manifesto that encourages collaboration with America’s businesses, it needs to happen. Cooperation between the private and public sectors is essential to beat the opposition. Current measures in this Congress would instead force the U.S. to watch as foreign cyber-platoons advance in front of us.

Imagine a city where the citizens have come to feel so victimized by gun violence that they give up trying to stop criminals. Instead, they choose the most easily identifiable symbol of their problem — gun manufacturers — and start yelling at them.

To these frightened souls, it feels good to yell at gun manufacturers. It feels good to vent their fears. A mainstream media, both TV and in print, are now telling sad and compelling stories about how innocent citizens are gunned down across our nation, to convince we the people that the solution is more gun control legislation.

There are probably more kinds of stupid, but two especially come to mind: stupid of the head, like Chuck Hagel’s visions of Israel, and stupid of the heart, like Mark Sanford's. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said recently that the Republican Party is in danger of becoming the “stupid party.” (Possibly sinfully, irretrievably stupid: See Bill O’Reilly’s upcoming book, Killing Jesus.) 

Sanford’s sin is not of the head, but another place. Press today say that Sanford will be running for office again in spite of his recent “peccadilloes” — not the word I would have chosen. He feels reformed enough to reenter politics. He should be allowed back into the world. Because before there was a Tea Party and before Texas Gov. Rick Perry chanted “states’ rights, states’ rights, states’ rights” at the Alamo, there was one man standing alone in opposition: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

The scene at the White House on Tuesday was befitting a national emergency. President Obama held a press event with a backdrop of first responders, aiming to pressure Republicans to accept a compromise to avoid the sequester. The fearmongering was at DEFCON 4.

What, according to Obama, would the sequester mean?

My answer to Cheri Jacobus is that a) mistakes were made and admitted; b) Hillary emerged from Benghazi with popularity huge enough to win her a presidential landslide.

So c) give it up, Republicans. You lost the election, deal with it; d) nobody cares about Obama golfing with Tiger Woods except bored (and boring) Republicans with nothing better to say, and e) if Republicans want to bang Benghazi forever, Democrats could revisit Bush 43 mocking the CIA warning him about planes flying into buildings before 9/11 or Dick Cheney's role in leaking CIA identities.