There seems to be an interesting round of speculation taking place in Washington over whether Speaker John Boehner will move on immigration reform in the House next year, and (if so) when he would do so. The story, at heart, is part of the ongoing civil war between the Tea Party and the Establishment Republicans, which is why it is such a fascinating question to even contemplate.

The conventional thinking, up until now, has been that Boehner has been slow-walking immigration reform all year because he doesn't want to see it succeed. Now that he has successfully punted it into the 2014 session of Congress, it will be allowed to quietly wither and die, since "it's an election year" and everyone knows nothing of importance gets done in even-numbered years in Washington. But now a counter-story has emerged: Boehner is going to use his new-found support in the House to reach a compromise with Democrats some time next year. Perhaps he will make this move before or during the crucial primary season, or perhaps he is waiting until just after primary season ends to do so. Which one you believe, at the moment, depends on whose version of this rumor you buy into.

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Happy Friday the thirteenth, everyone! It's even a double dose of triskaidekaphobia today, landing in 2013 as it does. Superstitious people, be careful today!

One more bit of minor calendar news before we get on with it: for the next two weeks, this column will be on hiatus. Instead, it will be pre-empted by our annual awards columns where we note the notable and laud the laudable from the past year. If you've got suggestions, feel free to post them on my site, where I've provided a handy (and extensive!) list of the categories, for your easy reference.

Let's take a quick look back at the week that was, which was actually chock full of political news. We'll begin in outer space and end up with amusing holiday news, so buckle your seatbelts, it's going to be a fast ride this week. So fast that we're not even going to explain the column's title until you reach the talking points at the end, just to warn you. Ready? OK, here we go....

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Today's going to be somewhat of an "open thread," as the blogfolk say.

While our regular Friday Talking Points column will appear here tomorrow as usual, for the next two weeks afterwards it will be pre-empted by our annual awards columns. These take a look back at the previous year and take note of what happened in an amusing fashion. Check out last year's columns (Part 1 and Part 2) to see what I'm talking about.

Since the awards categories don't change from year to year, we're throwing the doors open to nominations for any or all categories. Got a special memory from 2013? Then suggest it for one of the awards!

Though we do tend to focus on politics, these awards can in fact be given for any notable achievement (such as giving "Biggest Winner" to a sports star). So don't confine yourselves to the political world when thinking up suggestions. I'm going to take the time today to review all of the past year's columns, to dig up what nominees I can. So if you're interested, please provide me with your nominees to add to my list.

Here is the full (and extensive) list of categories. You can see why we have to spread this out among two columns, due to the length. In any case, have at it and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

-- Chris Weigant

Categories

Biggest Winner of 2013

Biggest Loser of 2013

Best Politician

Worst Politician

Most Defining Political Moment

Turncoat Of The Year

Most Boring

Most Charismatic

Bummest Rap

Fairest Rap

Best Comeback

Most Original Thinker

Most Stagnant Thinker

Best Photo Op

Worst Photo Op

Enough Already!

Worst Lie

Capitalist Of The Year

Honorable Mention

Person Of The Year

Destined For Political Stardom

Destined For Political Oblivion

Best Political Theater

Worst Political Theater

Worst Political Scandal

Most Underreported Story

Most Overreported Story

Biggest Government Waste

Best Government Dollar Spent

Boldest Political Tactic

Best Idea

Worst Idea

Sorry To See You Go

15 Minutes Of Fame

Best Spin

Most Honest Person

Most Overrated

Most Underrated

Predictions

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

The big political news of the day is that Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray have hammered out a new budget deal. Mostly, this news focuses on the details of the agreement, or the sheer jaw-dropping astonishment that a deal was reached before the next artificial deadline was hit. This last bit is actually laughable and not a little pathetic, when you consider how low the bar now is for Congress meeting the responsibilities outlined in their job descriptions. But even that is not the most cynical (or, if you're in a more forgiving mood, "most crassly political") aspect of the deal, which news reports are mostly missing today. Because, to me, the most appropriate headline from the new budget deal should really be: "Democrats And Republicans Agree To Remove Budget Negotiations From 2014 Campaign, Out Of Fear."

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Is "Obamacare" approaching a political milestone of sorts? Well, maybe. But first let me explain those "scare" quotes. Obamacare (the program itself) is of course reaching milestones, and will continue to do so for a while. But "Obamacare" (the name Republicans have been using) is what I'm talking about here -- the term itself, not the program. And that may indeed be about to hit a political milestone. Because the first Republican has come out in favor of not calling it "Obamacare" anymore, and instead referring to it by its full "Orwellian" name (his term, not mine): the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

I have believed, for over six months now, that the true sign that Republicans have accepted the new health law (or at least reacted to the public's acceptance of it) would be that they'd stop using the "Obamacare" moniker for the program. The program will begin to be seen as a success, this line of thinking goes, precisely when Republicans decide to stop saying "Obamacare." Unfortunately, while I could have sworn I had written about this previously, when I searched my own site for it, I could not find an article to cite. So you'll just have to take it on faith, I suppose, that I've believed this for a while now.

I don't claim this thought as original, as even President Obama has pointed it out before, speaking of Republicans' love of the term: "I know health care is controversial, so there's only going to be so much support we get on that on a bipartisan basis until it's working really well, and then they're going to stop calling it Obamacare. They're going to call it something else."

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I'm going to do two things today I don't normally do: write about another Internet author's work, and do some touchy-feely "Why can't we all get along?" sort of introspection. So if navel-gazing and blogging about someone else's writing aren't your cup of tea, then perhaps you should just save the time it'll take you to read this and spend it on something more productive. Just to warn everyone up front, as it were.

The title of this article uses the original, psychedelically-inspired meaning of "tripping." In its full form, the verb was originally "tripping out" -- loosely defined as "obsessing or deeply examining something which appears trivial, and then drawing spacey conclusions." This is (or at least, was) what comedians of old (note: this might be an old Robin Williams bit, but I am too lazy to confirm this) were mocking when doing "drug humor," by perhaps staring at one of their palms and then exclaiming (in a stoned sort of voice) something like: "Wow, man... hands...."

Ahem. Where were we? Tripping out... right, right.

Kidding aside, the reason I'm writing this today is because of an article in Salon today, and because of my firm belief in the power of the Great American Roadtrip. The article was written by Eric Lutz, age 25, after a 1,200-mile trip where he visited the home districts of Michele Bachmann, Paul Ryan, and Steve King. The article is an interesting piece of writing, especially in the responses it generated in the comments.

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Welcome back (after we took last week off, to digest) to our Friday roundup! We should have two weeks of news to cover, but nothing much of anything strange or startling happened Thanksgiving week, so we're going to concentrate on just this current week -- which still leaves a lot to cover, fear not.

A little-noted anniversary happened this week -- because it has been 80 years since Americans came to their senses and passed the Twenty-First Amendment, thus repealing the lunacy of Prohibition. So there's something to raise a glass to, over the weekend. So to speak.

Also worthy of a toast were the unemployment numbers released today for November. The official unemployment rate dropped to 7.0 percent (down from 7.3 percent), which is indeed something to celebrate, especially if you are one of the 203,000 people who got a new job last month.

The Obamacare website re-launch went impressively well this week, as the mainstream media shifted from "horror story mode" to actually exploring what people think about the larger question of Obamacare itself. Since this is a conversation that is long overdue, this is also something to celebrate.

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It's that time of year again, folks!

Yes, it is time once again for our annual holiday pledge drive, which we traditionally begin by intentionally distracting you with the cutest kittens known to exist -- in a cheap effort to tug at your heartstrings as you reach for your wallet. While this yearly begging season is somewhat distasteful to me personally, I really have no choice in the matter, as the ChrisWeigant.com board of directors insists that we make the attempt to keep the lights on and the site up and running each year. And the board members simply cannot be denied in this matter.

The ChrisWeigant.com board of directors

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Last Sunday, Senator Bob Menendez suggested a fairly good idea for further economic sanctions on Iran. Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has come up with an answer which could possibly satisfy both sides -- those who support the diplomatic track and those who are pushing for harsher sanctions for Iran. The idea is to let the Senate go ahead and pass further sanctions, but to trigger them to the timeline of the ongoing negotiations, so that new sanctions wouldn't kick in until after the six month period of talks. If a permanent deal is struck before that time, then new sanctions (obviously) wouldn't take effect, but if no deal is reached by the deadline, then the sanctions begin automatically.

This seems like a sensible middle ground to take. It doesn't give either side everything it wants, but such is the nature of compromise. The White House doesn't want the Senate to pass any sanctions at all, and the hardliners in the Senate who aren't fans of the interim deal want to impose new sanctions immediately. Passing delayed sanctions may satisfy both sides enough to be workable, though.

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Rock bottom

November was either a very bad month for President Obama in job approval polling, or his worst month ever. Take your choice.

I realize neither one is very palatable for Obama fans, but November was just brutal for the president. The ongoing nature of the Obamacare website problems just overwhelmed everything else this month.

Well, best 'twere done quickly, I suppose, so let's get right to the chart:

[Click on graph to see larger-scale version.]

November, 2013

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