Goldman: Some things you just can’t make up

The first order of business from the power-hungry Republican members of the US House of Representatives in 2017 turned out to be not their pledge to end Obamacare or to defund Planned Parenthood, but instead their first action taken in the dark of night on January 2 was to gut their own long-standing independent ethics oversight panel! During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump announced that he had a 'secret plan' which would "end the violence in Chicago within 5 days of his taking office".

Schapiro: Goodlatte is first casualty of new Congress

Bob Goodlatte, the first ethics casualty of the new Congress - and by his own hand - is supposed to be the political heir to M. Caldwell Butler, the Virginia Republican who, as a newcomer to the House of Representatives in 1974, voted to impeach President Richard Nixon for Watergate crimes.

How about sticking with our ally Israel?

So it's near the end of his time in office and President Barack Obama decides to put forever-threatened Israel at more of a disadvantage in maintaining its survival. Interestingly, the move could also weaken a United Nations that indeed needs weakening, but that was hardly the president's intent.

Teeming local ballots in 2017

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Know when to fold ’em

The politicians who have taken New York City to court over its plans to destroy copies of personal documents used to grant its municipal ID card are wasting their time. Assembly Members Nicole Malliotakis and Ron Castorina filed suit after Mayor de Blasio got on his anti-Trump soapbox and threatened to shred the materials lest they fall into the hands of a President who might use them to deport illegal immigrants en masse, including in so-called sanctuary cities.

Richard Neal’s moment has arrived

A low-key, behind-the-scenes, let's-get-a-deal-done type, the Springfield lawmaker is now the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, which means he will be one of the minority party's point people in critiquing Republican proposals and arguing for Democratic alternatives. As Republicans prepare to repeal Obamacare, Neal frames things this way: "The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are all linked," and all essential to the middle class.

Democrat plan would not serve nation well

Democrats in the U.S. Senate have vowed to use every roadblock they can find to delay confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. They have speculated they could drag the process out for as much as two months after Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20. That would delay the people's business, forcing the new administration to work through interim heads of agencies ranging from the State Department to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Our Opinion: Disservice

Democrats in the U.S. Senate have vowed to use every roadblock they can find to delay confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. They have speculated they could drag the process out for as much as two months after Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20. That would delay the people's business, forcing the new administration to work through interim heads of agencies ranging from the State Department to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Will Trump let Obama go quietly?

Will Donald Trump deprive President Barack Obama of what we have come to think of as a normal post-presidency, the relatively serene life of reflection, writing, philanthropy and high-minded speeches to friendly audiences? In recent decades, we have become accustomed to the idea of ex-presidents who leave political combat behind. They might occasionally speak out on behalf of their party: Bill Clinton was an effective "explainer in chief" for Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Trump stalls bad ethics proposal

President-elect Donald Trump's reliance on Twitter to address complex issues - from trade policy with China to nuclear proliferation - is frightening. Occasionally, though, issues are simple enough to fit in a tweet, and that was the case with the House GOP proposal to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics.