Terence Samuel

The list of important legislation that will die from inattention or political suffocation at the end of the 108th Congress is long and distinguished one: energy legislation, welfare reform, highway funding, asbestos compensation, medical-malpractice liability, a tax overhaul for corporations that do business overseas and that are now subject to sanctions by the European Union. […]

I am so far into northwestern Pennsylvania that if I sneeze, the “bless you’s” are going to come across Lake Erie from Cleveland. I’m in the basement Assembly Hall of the Meadville Medical Center watching Republican Senator Arlen Specter explain, or defend, his peculiar brand of politics. It is an odd mix of ambivalence, defiance, […]

Ted Kennedy’s Iraq-is-George-W.-Bush’s-Vietnam speech dominated the news for three days. It’s a telling indication of how valuable the senior senator from Massachusetts is going to be for his junior’s campaign for president. The ability to grab headlines for days at a time may be more valuable than a $10 million “527” contribution at this stage […]

Bill Frist is majority leader of the U.S. Senate, and there are no references in the job description to “beanbag.” So when Frist went after Richard Clarke last week, the only surprise was that for all the tough talk, the attack seemed so oddly dispassionate. The problem, of course, is that an attack on Clarke […]

Nancy Pelosi did not get to be Democratic leader just by smiling pretty and raising money, so it should surprise no one that she might crack you over the head if you cross her. Though she has threatened, this has not happened — so far. But maybe all that is about to change. Pelosi is […]

Washington politics is a constant collection of amazements. Over the life of the Bush presidency, one of the most stunning developments has been the unfolding cohesiveness of the Democrats, the closing of what I call the Charlie-to-Charlie spectrum. From the most liberal member of Congress (say, Charlie Rangel of Harlem) to the most conservative Democrat […]

There are 100 workdays on the Senate calendar between now and October 1, when the 108th Congress hopes to get out of town and on with the business of getting itself re-elected. On the other side of the Capitol, the schedule is even lighter, with the House having settled into the grinding rhythms of a […]

There is a strange, rare political species quietly roaming the landscape these days. Long endangered and occasionally thought to be extinct, its sudden re-emergence is as startling as it is sublime, particularly on Capitol Hill, where it seemed to face a fate on par with what the dinosaurs endured. Here, of course, I speak of […]