If we cannot come together to pause, to respect our dead and the heroic lives of meaning they led, then ours is truly a civilization lost.

Mention the name George W. Bush in mixed company, and you're likely to spark a lot of debate and emotion - hot and cold, good and bad. Not a lot of neutral reaction. He was elected in the most controversial contest in American electoral history and governed during one of the most tumultuous decades.

I've spent the better part of my career in politics and public policy working on and fighting for education reforms.

Negativity drove me out of politics in the mid-Nineties.

I don't really care how or why Obama got to the right place on gay marriage. I'm just glad he got there.

A competition of the best ideas - that should be what Congress is about.

Limited government, low taxes, controlled spending and debt, and a restrained regulatory environment make Texas work.