The late Congressman Phillip Burton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s mentor, once said a popular colleague’s idea of negotiation was to find out what the other guy wants and give it to him.

WikiLeaks is one of those stories where the passions of the moment blind us to the more important lessons.

Professional football, the most popular American sport, appears to be riding high.

Republicans won a smashing victory in this month’s U.S. national elections; no issue resonated more with the party’s base than President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation.

Russell Long, of the famous Louisiana political dynasty, loved to tell how his Uncle Earl, the governor, advised a city slicker politician, hit by redistricting, how to successfully court rural voters.

Republicans, after picking up 61 House seats, six Senate spots, seven new governorships and 680 additional state legislators, received two more gifts: Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

No-drama Obama may need some drama, or at least a shakeup.

The race for the U.S. Senate seat in Colorado is one of the most intense, interesting and important of this year’s midterm elections, with real countervailing pressures.

A prediction: The U.S. is due for a huge scandal involving big money, bribery and politicians. Not the small fry that dominates the ethics fights in Washington; really big stuff; think Watergate.

It’s a useful exercise to juxtapose Bob Woodward’s new book on the war in Afghanistan, “Obama’s Wars,” with the agenda discussed in elections across the country.