Steve Daley

It was September of last year, and the polls showed George Bush pulling away from his Democratic opponent in the race for the White House. On the stump, the favorite...

Maybe it`s the heat. The Federal Swamp has been trapped in a 90-degree envelope for two weeks. It`s an annual meteorological phenomenon that transforms Washington into the humidity core of...

The Congress of the United States isn`t any more comfortable than George Bush when it comes to coping with the continuing state terror unfolding in China. While the White House...

If you want to see the Democratic Party lumbering toward what it perceives as the political center, look no further than the House of Representatives. In fact, inside the House,...

In a town where the only crime is losing, Lee Atwater looked like a winner. Until last week, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and former campaign director for...

When he became speaker of the House after a generation of service in that body, he already had a reputation as a haughty and autocratic leader. He ruled the House...

A year or so ago, Dick Phelan wanted to become a judge. And not just any judge: He applied for a vacancy on the Illinois Supreme Court. That Phelan wanted...

Rep. Lynn Martin makes a seven-stop fly-around of Illinois on Monday, but not to rack up frequent flier points. She is poised to challenge Sen. Paul Simon in 1990, though...

When Richard Phelan got held up at gunpoint in front of the Supreme Court last month, he couldn`t have expected that this close encounter of the worst kind would be...

David Obey is a serious man. During 20 years in the House, he has accumulated as many critics as friends in the relentlessly collegial body. The Wisconsin Democrat came from...