A.B. Stoddard

For Republicans, the explosive leak revealing that the U.S. government tracks all electronic communication was certainly an ill-timed bummer. 

Between a heavy load of congressional oversight, the imperative of governing — passing spending bills, for example — and their plan of “emphasizing working families,” Republicans in Congress should ignore the promotions President Obama has given Samantha Power and Susan Rice. 

Attorney General Eric Holder made sure to let the press, and the rest of the country, know this week that he is experiencing a "creeping sense of remorse" about his role in personally approving a search warrant into Fox News reporter James Rosen's emails and phone calls. By telling a Daily Beast reporter that the magnitude of what he has wrought finally hit him at his kitchen table when he read a story in The Washington Post about everything he already knew, Holder seems to be attempting some form of rehab on his toxic reputation, five years in the making.

And the obvious question is — so what?

Amid scrutiny and oversight of the Obama administration’s many failures and the scandals that have resulted, it’s easy to forget that Congress has failed — once more — to fulfill its statutory duty to pass an annual budget by April 15

As a record three scandals engulf Barack Obama’s presidency at once, the three-pronged effect of their damage

If the mere idea of ObamaCare fueled an historic GOP victory in 2010, just wait until reality sets in next year.

Life is what happens when we make other plans, and the Boston bombings happened right as immigration reform proponents concluded their bill was ready to go public. No matter how hard supporters and the Gang of Eight members who wrote the legislation try to deny or mitigate it, the terror attacks have slowed reform’s momentum considerably and may have indeed blown it up entirely. 

After more than 11 years, the fear is fresh but familiar: a shocking new attack has reminded us that no matter where we gather, someone somewhere wants to tell us we truly are not free. On a spring day at the Boston marathon — warmed by the big-ness of strangers cheering strangers, of endurance and of triumph — a small act shattered lives with explosions designed to kill, or at least to destroy the legs that had enabled people to travel great distances in body and in soul. 

Several 2016 presidential campaigns are already up and running

No matter what gun control bill passes the Senate, and it is highly unlikely one will, the National Rifle Association has already won this round. An assault weapons ban is off the table. There is no hope for restricting high-capacity magazines. Now even the once bipartisan idea of expanding background checks is nearly dead.

Democrats and advocates of new gun restrictions are clinging to the hope that Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) could step into the fray to rescue their efforts. They shouldn’t hold their breath.