Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.

I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.

To 'know your place' is a good idea in politics. That is not to say 'stay in your place' or 'hang on to your place', because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place - a feel for one's own position in the control room-is useful in gauging what you should try to do.

Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.

A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.

Have a definite opinion.

Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.