senate
OPINION: CPAC straw poll shows Rand Paul captured American voters' attention with filibuster
|Rand Paul’s March 6 filibuster, affectionately referred to by the public as “Filliblizzard,” has been the talk of the politics world for the past few weeks—especially because of the surprising amount of bipartisan support that surfaced for Rand during his almost thirteen hour speech. However, many people outside the political loop, and even some on the inside, wonder why Rand Paul put so much energy into a senatorial technique which many deem to be old-fashioned and a waste of time.
OPINION: The importance of confirming Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense
|Chuck Hagel has a good history. Because of his fairly clean, relatively moderate and free-thinking background, it’s not particularly surprising that he was chosen by President Obama to be the next Secretary of Defense. As a Republican senator from Nevada, Hagel voted largely along Republican Party lines, receiving a lifetime rating of 84 percent from the American Conservative Union. After retiring from the Senate, he entered the realm of academia as a professor at Georgetown University.
OPINION: Career politicians pose a problem for the American democratic system
|One of the things about Mason that I have always enjoyed is the political activity and enthusiasm of its students. Though Mason’s proximity to Washington D.C. may be a cause for this involvement, I also believe that a lot of it has to do with the students and faculty alike—they are passionate about politics, protecting their values and promoting the issues that they find important. GMU has a thriving student population of which many members are majoring in government and international politics. Some of them, although pursuing majors in other fields, also intend to work for the government. I am included in the latter population; however, one of the things I have commonly heard on campus terrifies me greatly: “When I finish school, I want to be a politician.”
OPINION: The political motivations behind legislative nomenclature
|With the nation just a few weeks away from electing our representatives in Washington, Congress is bottlenecked with legislation. Bills addressing a range of issues, from the financial crisis to foreign affairs, lay waiting for committees to act on them. In reflection of the campaigns’ tones and messages, authors of these bills have adorned their legislation with explicit titles aimed at specific issues.