Victor Davis Hanson: After the failure of the polarizing cap-and-trade bill, and the current fight over health care reform, tackling illegal immigration right now would be a political nightmare. Full story »

William F. Pewen: As health policy adviser to a Republican senator, I saw firsthand how a failure to recognize the magnitude of the task, and a toxic political environment, undermined the effort to achieve health care reform. Full story »

It was the briefest window into the schedule of freshman Senator Jeff Merkley, D-OR, but it was a reminder of why we pick people from among ourselves and force them to travel to Washington, D.C., to speak for us. Full story »

John Nichols: Proponents of public banking, including Oregon Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Bradbury, point to a working model in North Dakota. Full story »

E.J. Dionne Jr.: In a city where the phrase “bipartisan initiative” is becoming an oxymoron, the urgency of containing the damage the Supreme Court could do to our electoral system creates an opportunity for a rare convergence of interest and principle. Full story »

Bill Moyers has created a crucial forum that must have a successor -- where those with dissenting views, left or right, will be heard  Full story »

Matthew Continetti: It is dangerous for Republicans to assume that current political conditions will prevail indefinitely. The midterm elections are months away, and forecasts about the 2012 presidential election could be easily upset. Full story »

Hundreds of Oregonians will sign up by Tuesday's deadline to run for office in the May primary election. Win or lose, none of them may ever face a more difficult decision or show more courage than Sarah Gorbett, a 17-year-old junior at Molalla High School. Full story »

Gregory Rodriguez: Political anger has become a compulsion. Having elevated happiness to a self-evident right, we Americans have become experts in dissatisfaction -- and our discourse is angrier than ever.  Full story »

Getting our students to complete college must be a top priority Full story »

There was a time when facts settled arguments. It was back before partisan shouting matches replaced discourse, before it was permissible to ignore anything that didn't fit your worldview. We are a people divorced from critical thinking, alienated from even objective truth. Full story »

Peter Buckley: The Oregon Legislature took a balanced approach that gets us through this biennium intact and prepares us for the fiscal problems we still face for 2011-13 and 2013-15.  Full story »

Dick Polman: It's not enough anymore to be shrill, to call somebody an idiot, or a moron, or words not fit for a family newspaper. After those frontiers are crossed, what's left? Only the death wish.  Full story »

Thomas E. Ricks: By late summer, the Obama administration may find itself in the uncomfortable position of reconsidering its vows to get out of combat in Iraq by August and to remove all troops by the end of next year. Full story »

There's a cliff ahead, everyone in Salem sees an approaching plunge in public finances, and yet the Democrats who hold Oregon's reins are not changing course. Instead, it's full speed ahead in these last days of the special legislative session.  Full story »