This time next year, we will be in the midst of the congressional midterm election circus ("Peanuts! ... Getcher peanuts here!"). That much, at least, is beyond dispute. What will be in dispute are 435 seats in the House, and a third of the Senate. I'm going to go way out on a limb and predict here what the Republican rallying cry will be next year at this time: Lower taxes!

Now that I've actually typed that out, it doesn't seem as much of a revelation as when the thought struck me out of the blue the other day. So allow me to provide some detail to what I think the Republican midterm playbook will contain.

Of course, predicting the actual outcome of the 2010 midterms is virtually impossible at this point, so you shouldn't listen to anyone (me included) who confidently says anything about what's going to happen. There are so many "ifs" and other caveats that it's a fool's game. Having said that, allow me to play the fool for a bit.

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The Washington Post, one of the leading newspapers in the country, has announced on its website a contest to name "America's Next Great Pundit." In an enticing blend of reality television contests and print journalism, they are going to run a contest to see who deserves to be printed on their op-ed pages, on the sheer strength of writing. I heartily applaud this innovative effort -- even though I seem to be ineligible to enter. I also applaud anyone who reads this who might normally be inclined to write me a comment, and who instead decides to write an entry to the contest. Because you could be "America's Next Great Pundit." The winner receives a 13-week run for a weekly column, paid at $200 a pop. That's not the million-dollar prize reality TV routinely awards, but the newspaper industry is hurting, so you've got to make allowances. Kidding aside, it's not really the money anyway -- it's the prestige they're offering. But, since I've been an advocate for newspapers to do exactly this sort of thing for a while now, I have to cheer the Washington Post for their outside-the-box thinking.

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Did the Obama administration just issue a veto threat? I saw a headline suggesting the hint of a veto threat, so I thought I'd check out today's White House press briefing to see what was said. Now, I have to admit in all honesty, I haven't been reading these transcripts on a daily basis, so the Obama team may have previously issued veto threats of which I am unaware, but either way, I have to applaud them for even subtly hinting at the possibility of a veto. It's a weapon they haven't used much, and should consider using a lot more frequently.

The hedging is really par for the course in White House press briefings in our modern age, of course. The "Serious Journalist" crowd always gets up in arms over this fact, but it's been like that for so long and it isn't going to change any time soon, so it's really not even worth decrying here. The White House Press Secretary's job is to spin. And obfuscate. His job is not (as you might think) to answer questions. He is the official spokesperson for the administration, and so you have to expect the spin and the dodging when he speaks. It's his job, as both he sees it and how recent presidents have seen it. So be it.

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[Note: This column originally ran August 17, 2009. I don't usually re-run columns (and never so soon after their original appearance), but after watching the debut of Ken Burn's "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" last night, I had to dig this out. I strongly encourage everyone to watch the rest of Burns' series, which is running all week long on your local PBS station. I also strongly urge everyone to visit our National Parks, as well. This column was written just after a road trip I took this summer, and just after President Obama had visited Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.]

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"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party."

Of course, this really should be (in today's inclusive society): "Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party." But what it really should say is something more like: "Now is the time for all good men and women to pick up the phone and give their party representative an earful about what it actually means to be a member of that party, and that we actually expect them to stand up and vote for what the party not only believes in at its core but also what we were promised in the last election, and (by the way) why we gave you such overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress to play around with -- but the time for playing is over, and it's time for you to now either stand tall with the people in your party, or admit you're just a corporate whore at heart." But that's a little hard to type, so maybe not. We'll get to this ranting and raving in the Talking Points part of the program, after a quick trip down Memory Lane.

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The horse-trading has begun in earnest on the healthcare reform front in Congress. The sausage-making currently going on in the House and Senate has somewhat of a "through the microscope" quality to it, but it's interesting to highlight a few stories from this week for a peek into what the final legislation may look like. This will, necessarily, be an incomplete look, so I warn you in advance there won't be any sweeping conclusions at the end of the article. Consider it merely a snapshot of where things stand this week. Or two snapshots, since we'll look at each house separately.

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No so very long ago, Afghanistan was known as "the forgotten war." While America's attention was largely focused on Baghdad, many forgot our military was even in another country. But these days, Afghanistan is hard to miss in the headlines. Rumors are swirling over what President Obama will do there -- increase American troops, draw down troops, keep the same troops (it depends on which headlines you read) -- and how he will change our strategy and goals. Talk of "failure" is rampant, except that now it is not coming from the anti-war crowd, but instead from the Pentagon. President Obama needs to get out front on this issue, by beginning to talk about our newly-forgotten war: Iraq.

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Senator Robert Byrd reportedly visited the hospital today. The cause of his visit wouldn't normally be considered alarming, but the man is 91 years old, so any such visit is bound to be seen as news. My reaction to this announcement was to check the West Virginia legal code for their rules of senatorial succession. Thankfully for Democrats, the state has a Democratic governor who has the power to appoint a replacement, should Byrd not complete his term.

West Virginia's governor, should Byrd's seat become empty, would name a successor right away, to avoid a prolonged vacancy. The interim senator, in Byrd's case, would serve until the next election cycle. Byrd just got re-elected in 2008, so he won't be up for re-election until 2014. Any interim senator would have to face the voters in either the 2010 or 2012 election cycle, depending on when the appointment was made. But if Byrd does make it to the 2014 election, he will be a few weeks shy of his 97th birthday on election day.

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The chattering classes inside the Washington Beltway have decided amongst themselves that when all else fails, they can always revert to their "least common denominator" story about President Barack Obama -- that he is in danger of being "overexposed." You don't have to look very far to find this viewpoint on television, in print, or on the radio. It's like talking about the weather, for the political punditocracy. There's only one problem -- there's not a shred of evidence to back up the idea that President Obama using the bully pulpit (as often as he likes) is somehow a bad thing for him. But that doesn't stop it from being talked about endlessly, whenever Obama is in the same Zip code as a news camera.

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How time flies. This column marks its second anniversary today, by the calendar if not the Volume number. For the second straight year, we only produced 47 columns, but by the calendar we've gone two full years and a few odd days. Actually, now that I think of it, more than just a few odd days. Ahem.

For those wishing to see the humble origins of this column, check out Friday Talking Points, Volume 1, from September 14, 2007 (it was called "Memo To Democrats: Talking Points," and then for a while, "Friday Democratic Talking Points," until it finally settled into the FTP format). At the time, President Bush had just addressed the nation on the ongoing wars, and a battle was shaping up in Congress over war funding. Last year's anniversary column, Friday Talking Points, Volume 47 was written in the heat of the general election campaign, and contained advice for how to talk about John McCain.

But enough of this patting ourselves on the back. On with the show!

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