In general, the children of public figures are off-limits. But with the recent remarks from Tanner Flake, son of Sen. Jeff Flake (R–Arizona), it’s worth relaxing that rule for a moment.

Paul Begala, CNN

E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- While listening to an NPR report out of Moore, Okla., this week, I was genuinely shocked. Not by the scale of the devastation or the tenacity of people who have grown stoically accustomed to the damage tornados can do, but by a political sentiment that, in almost any other era, would not have been surprising at all.Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican who lives in the very neighborhood that was overwhelmed, was talking about a call he received from President Obama. Hearing Cole, I realized how strange it is these days for politicians to speak in human terms about someone in the other...

Caroline May, Daily Caller
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz welcomed President Obama to Texas Thursday, where Obama is scheduled to begin his “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour,” by highlighting Texas’ job record in comparison with the administration’s. “America is stuck with high unemployment and low GDP growth, so it’s encouraging to see the President coming to Austin to talk about jobs — perhaps he will learn how to create some from the folks who know how,” Cruz said in a statement.

Pat Toomey will seem like an unlikely savior to gun-control advocates.

The Supreme Court heard a lot of long-winded arguments for and against gay marriage, but for a brief 29 seconds, Republican lawyer Ted Olson cut straight to the heart of the debate.

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- As the Senate edged toward a divisive filibuster vote on Chuck Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber -- his voice lost to laryngitis -- as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service.

Charlie Cook, National Journal
Democrats face twin struggles as they seek to retake the House majority they lost in 2010. First, the chamber has largely sorted itself out. With 96 percent of Democratic House members representing districts carried by President Obama and 94 percent of Republican House lawmakers representing districts won by Mitt Romney, each party pretty much has the seats God intended. The House simply doesn't have much elasticity right now. Substantial gains would either require Democrats winning a bunch of Romney districts or Republicans capturing a lot of Obama districts. Given this sorting out and...

High political winds were gusting before the nor'easter truly started whipping through New Hampshire on Feb. 8.

Over a year after she dropped out, Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann has refused to pay five staffers from her failed presidential bid, according to a former top campaign official.

Kathleen Parker, Washington Post
The new year has begun with an avalanche of Republican retrospectives: What went wrong? What must the GOP do?In attempting to navigate my own thoughts, I keep bumping into advice my father gave me a long time ago: “Learn Spanish. You will need it to survive in the world you will inherit.”

Ross Douthat, New York Times
A big part of the story of the fiscal cliff negotiations, now half-resolved and half-postponed, was that the populist wing of the Republican Party couldn’t quite figure what it wanted to actually achieve, or how. The broad goals of less spending and lower taxes were clear enough, but on anything more specific the politicians and activists on the grassroots right seemed confused about what they thought the party should to be negotiating toward, or what they expected that their calls for harder hardball and/or cliff-diving would actually win in the end. (The scenarios being spun out...

Paul Krugman, NY Times
The centrist fantasy of a Grand Bargain on the budget never had a chance. Even if some kind of bargain had supposedly been reached, key players would soon have reneged on the deal — probably the next time a Republican occupied the White House. Paul Krugman For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT. For the reality is that our two major political parties are engaged in a fierce struggle over the future shape of American society. Democrats want to preserve the legacy of the New Deal...

Michael Cohen, The Guardian
How ironic: 150 years after emancipation, a party that abolished slavery is dedicated to saving wealthy Americans from taxesSo the United States went over the fiscal cliff.This was about as surprising a development as when the boat sank at the end of Titanic (the movie). Instead, it is yet further evidence of the extraordinary, almost mind-boggling level of dysfunction that exists at the highest level of the US government.

WASHINGTON -- The No. 2 Republican in the House leadership says he opposes a Senate-passed measure to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor told reporters after a two-hour closed-door meeting Tuesday with his GOP lawmakers that he did not support the bill.

He said House leaders were looking for "the best path forward" and that no decisions had been made.

The Senate passed the measure early Tuesday by a sweeping 89-8 vote. House passage of the measure would send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The bill would increase taxes on family income exceeding $450,000 and delay across-the-board spending cuts for two months.

House GOP leaders were considering amending the measure and sending it back to the Senate, but that step could produce a deadlock.

Erick Erickson, RS
Conservatives within the Republican Conference should kill the compromise plan for the fiscal cliff.For years, squishy folks on both sides and lots of think tankers have told us that we needed a “balanced” approach to solve our debt and deficit problems. A “balanced” approached included both tax increases and spending cuts. In other words, a “balanced” approach looked a lot like the so called fiscal cliff.But today Congress is negotiating away the spending cuts component. Word coming from Capitol Hill is that there will be tax...

The Tea Party might not be over, but it is increasingly clear that the election last month significantly weakened the once-surging movement, which nearly captured control of the Republican Party through a potent combination of populism and fury.

The Tea Party might not be over, but it is increasingly clear that the election last month significantly weakened the once-surging movement, which nearly captured control of the Republican Party through a potent combination of populism and fury.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin spoke with Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz at 92Y on November 16, 2012. In this clip, Toobin talks about whether the Supreme Court is political. Toobin says "you tell me who gets elected President and I'll tell you how a Supreme Court's going to decide a case...so yes, it's very political."

Toobin also points to how the Supreme Court illustrates a larger phenomena in American politics--the evolution of the Republican Party. To Toobin, "moderate Republicans do not exist anymore."

Do you think the Supreme Court is too political? Leave a comment below.

Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast
Really, what is to be done about this Republican Party? What force can change it—can stop Republicans from being ideological saboteurs and convert at least a workable minority of them into people interested in governing rather than sabotage? With the failed Plan B vote, we have reached the undeniable crisis point. Actually we’ve been at a crisis point for years, but this is really the all-upper-case Undeniable Crisis Point. They are a direct threat to the economy, which could slip back into recession next year if the government doesn’t, well, govern.

Sen. Jim DeMint
SEN. JIM DEMINT (R-SC): I’m leaving the Senate to work on ideas that I know work. I’ve seen them work all over our country. We can look all over our country and showcase these ideas that are working, and I know there is power in ideas, but I’ve learned one thing about the political environment: Unless there’s power behind the ideas, that they will not emerge here in the Congress. If there’s too much pressure on the outside from the status quo, or to protect some political interest, and no matter how much we show that it’s working, it...

Paul Krugman, New York Times
A few years back, there was a boom in poker television — shows in which you got to watch the betting and bluffing of expert card players. Since then, however, viewers seem to have lost interest. But I have a suggestion: Instead of featuring poker experts, why not have a show featuring poker incompetents — people who fold when they have a strong hand or don’t know how to quit while they’re ahead? Paul Krugman For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT. On...

Yesterday began with President Obama’s base grappling with how to interpret the new concessions he’d offered House Speaker John Boehner in their fiscal cliff negotiations.