David Keene

This will be my last weekly column for The Hill, and I write it with a sense of sadness, although by giving it up I will be free to sleep later on Monday mornings.

Although Republicans and Democrats blinked last week to avoid a government shutdown, any real budgetary compromise looks increasingly unlikely.

This year’s Republican presidential wannabes all have a past. 

The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol believes in an aggressive pursuit of what he likes to describe as an international freedom agenda and in the proposition that a nation’s greatness is not about how its citizens live, work and play but its role on the world stage. In this capacity and as high priest of “neo” or “National Greatness” conservatism, Bill has supported U.S. military involvement in places that most of his fellow citizens couldn’t find on a map in a brightly lit room.

As Republicans and Democrats ponder ways to reduce the size and scope of government, they will have to overcome their natural tendency to simply cut each other’s favorite programs.

To my liberal friends: How much do you value civil liberties now that one of your own is in charge?

Wisconsin is quite a place. Much of what is going on today reminds me of my days in Madison as a University of Wisconsin undergraduate and law student in the ’60s.

Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman both spent millions to win California’s 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary, but Whitman had deeper pockets and won. She was defeated in the general election by former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

As Americans pause this week to remember Ronald Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth, thousands of conservative activists are preparing to descend on Washington for the 38th annual CPAC, or Conservative Political Action Conference.

Partisanship and ideology may divide Washington politicians, but pork and money for the folks back home can really bring them together.