Senator Chambliss and others will discuss implications of Secretary Gates' proposed defense budget shifts.

Let’s start with the stark reality: Second presidential terms rarely result in major accomplishments. Presidents have few new ideas that have not been posed in their first two years, and already met with success or failure. And second-term presidents face even more obduracy from the opposition, bitter at a second loss of the big prize. 

The country could save $100 billion or more over 10 years by reducing farm subsidies without endangering struggling farmers or affecting food production.

For all the public wrangling we are seeing over the super committee — mostly centered on tax reform and revenues as a key component of a compromise — the big issue facing policymakers in the coming years is health care costs.

This is a defining moment for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). He can go down in history as a statesman or as a weak and opportunistic pol. Right now, it doesn't look good on the statesman front.

Welcome to open-field politics.

Vulnerable incumbents like to tout their clout. This campaign season, they will ask voters: "Do you want to lose all of my power and seniority and be stuck with an ineffective freshman?"

With the election just a week away, the American presidential campaign is getting louder, nastier, more dramatic.