dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle's blog

If you believe that money is power, Oregon has not had this much power on Capitol Hill since the Packwood-Hatfield era ended two decades ago.

The deal would require no Republican support, demolish the Hastert Rule, revive bipartisan solutions, marginalize the Tea Party, and put Boehner back in the business of legislating.

Only a newcomer in Washington could believe that legislators are called “lawmakers” for a reason. Not surprisingly, recent news accounts have characterized Merkley and other reformers as “a cohort of short-sighted Senate sophomores.”