Boston Globe reporters Frank Phillips and Jim O’Sullivan are interviewed by Adam Reilly on The Scrum and talk about the pressures of campaign coverage, why the State House is more interesting to cover, and why an older Yankee journalist is superior to a young Irish reporter (and vice-versa).

There is much to admire in the skill of David Axelrod.  But on the issue of Martha Coakley and the 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, the Axe misses the mark.

Remarks from federal Judge William Young and United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz suggest that the feds have seriously disrupted, if not ended, political patronage in the state. Let’s hope they’re wrong.

The American people aren’t stupid.  We in the academy don’t do ourselves any favors by suggesting otherwise as we try to explain the policymaking process.  

The Boston Globe wants the Democrats to do away with the fifteen percent rule at their party convention. Here’s why (again) the Globe is wrong.

Professor Jonathan Gruber’s explanation of the legislative language in the Affordable Care Act was neither shocking nor a secret. ALL legislation is framed for maximum political acceptability and minimum pushback. ALL legislation includes spin intended to short circuit opposition spin. The incredibly phony outrage of conservative pols and pundits is pitiful. The effort to take umbrage on behalf of “The American People” is comical evidence of moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

In a brief address to the fighting men of the 166^th Ohio regiment, President Abraham Lincoln poetically expressed the great cause for which they fought.

When the Progressives of a century ago amended the Massachusetts Constitution to institute the referendum process, they envisioned a process by which the people would make policy. That’s now how it has turned out.