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And suddenly Obama -- who was ready to give away the store again -- has everything going his way.

House Speaker Michael Madigan is one of Illinois' most mysterious politicians. He's so guarded, even his mere utterances can make a big splash.Last month was no exception. Madigan raised eyebrows after attending a fundraiser for U.S. House Speaker John Boehner - as in Republican, John Boehner.

Reports of the death of compromise in Washington are greatly exaggerated.That's one important message from the 11th-hour agreement that averted a partial shutdown of the federal government Friday night."No compromise" has been the rallying cry of the Tea Party movement.

House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House appear to agree on two things at least: the federal government shouldn't be shut down and funding the government via stopgap spending bills is no way to run a government.Aside from that, they don't agree on much else.

Signs abound of the pressures on Speaker John Boehner and other House Republicans to show real results on spending cuts.An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found, for instance, that those voters focused on spending cuts are the voters who matter most to Republicans — their base.As a writer for MSNBC's F

The House's GOP leaders appear to be the big winners following passage Tuesday of legislation to temporarily fund the federal government for two weeks and cut $4 billion from current federal spending to boot.That more than 100 Democrats joined Republicans in a whopping 335-91 vote for the stopgap s

In a city with a reputation for overly well-coiffed politicians whose tendency is to speak from both sides of their mouths, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's visit Wednesday to Washington was bracing.