Blacks are still largely lock-step Democratic voters and will probably remain so for a while. But when you listen to the likes of West and Clyburn, never mind silly white liberals like Garofalo, one cannot help but be reassured that the ground is shifting under their feet as inexorably as it shifted under the feet of racists more than a generation ago.

Conservatives should not look at the GOP's new "Pledge to America" as the sum total of the Republican agenda, but as the opening bid.

While the Democratic leadership in the House wants to vote on health care reform, many Democratic members fear for their electoral prospects.

Evenwar criticsandsurge opponents are coming around.

The inability of Democrats to find unity on the Medicare bill is nota criticism ofNancy Pelosi, but rather her colleagues who provided the votes that enabled the GOP to squeeze the bill through.

On issues involving race, Republicans are cowards.

Race-driven districting is the product of a bygone era and should be ended, and it should be replaced by a celebration that black politics has come of age in the United States.