Michael Sean Winters

I last saw Sen Chris Dodd a couple of weeks ago outside of St Joseph rsquo s church where we had both just attended Mass I first met him in 1974 at the kitchen table in my home in Connecticut He had come there en route to a campaign event in our little town which had a church hall large enough f

You could sense the anger in the President rsquo s words and on his face as he spoke to the nation yesterday after a meeting with his national security and intelligence aides This was not a failure to collect intelligence it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we alrea

The indispensible blog of Ben Smith at Politico com has a posting up about immigration reform The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is evidently threatening to withhold support for the health care reform unless the congressional leadership and the White House pledge themselves to moving the immigration

America has been introduced to the country of Yemen this past week That introduction was a result of the failed bombing attempt on a Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit when 23 year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was unable to ignite the explosives in his underwear More precisely the introducti

Democrats do not know whether to pity former Vice President Dick Cheney or to vilify him Once again he has launched criticisms of President Obama rsquo s security policies that are more partisan than professorial akin to the kind of thing a mid-level communications director would say more than th

Completing our Best of 2009 awards the award for the outstanding Catholic chief executive goes to Maryland Governor Martin O rsquo Malley A graduate of two of Washington rsquo s most distinctively Catholic institutions Gonzaga High School and the Catholic University of America O rsquo Malley w

The award for outstanding Catholic legislator of 2009 is a shared award and a bipartisan one something that is increasingly uncommon in Washington these days Rep Anh Joseph Cao of Louisiana and Rep Bart Stupak of Michigan Both stood up to the leadership of their respective parties to cast votes

In this final week of 2009 this blogpost will be bestowing my awards alas without honoraria to the year rsquo s outstanding Catholic layperson outstanding Catholic legislator and outstanding Catholic government executive Our friend blogger extraordinaire Rocco Palmo always chooses a churchman

Surprise surpise The Washington Post reports this morning that officials at AIG have failed to return the ill-got bonuses they pledged to return earlier this year That pledge came after a firestorm of protest erupted at the news that the very same individuals who drove the company into a ditch ha

Some voices on the Left are unhappy with the health care reform bill the Senate will vote on this week They are upset about the lack of a public option They are mad that Sen Joe Lieberman abandoned a position he has long held in favor of a Medicare buy-in and by doing so got that provision toss