A 7-foot tall statue of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass is more than just a tribute to the man. It's a larger-than-life reminder of the fight over voting rights and statehood for Washington, D.C.

House Speaker John Boehner strongly suggested he would abide by the Hastert rule on immigration legislation, meaning no floor vote unless a majority of House Republicans backed the bill.

President Obama didn't expect he'd need to have a "national conversation" about government data-gathering.

The Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law that required proof of citizenship to register to vote. But while celebrating a victory, voting-rights organizations are still waiting for the superstar voting case of the current term: a challenge to the Voting Rights Act.

Keeping tabs on the arm of government that constantly invokes national security to justify its opaqueness can be a frustrating experience for members of Congress.

The White House announced Syria had crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapons. Many of the GOP reactions suggested the announcement was long overdue. And they made clear they expect much more from the president than just arming the Syrian rebels.

The race in Massachusetts to fill the seat once held by John Kerry may be giving Democrats anxious flashbacks to 2010, when a Republican won Ted Kennedy's longtime seat. Controversies that have tarnished the Obama administration could give Republicans an edge.

One, Marco Rubio, is a member of the Gang of Eight that crafted the immigration bill being taken up by the Senate; another, Ted Cruz, vehemently opposes the bill; a third, Kelly Ayotte, supports the overhaul; and the fourth, Rand Paul, says the measure needs revision.

Political necessity dictates that President Obama not embrace the Senate immigration legislation too tightly.

Controversies over the National Security Agency's phone records and Internet snooping, and self-proclaimed leaker Edward Snowden, present some in Congress with a dilemma.

Even the admission of a self-described conservative Republican IRS manager that he was at the heart of the agency's targeting of Tea Party groups hasn't disrupted the partisan head-butting. Indeed, it may have intensified it.

Even in a starkly polarized era, there are still some issues that can draw together Americans from across the political spectrum and scramble ideological fault lines.

There are days when that photo you can find on the Web of President Obama's and President George W. Bush's faces morphed into each other seems awfully apt.

President Obama's selection of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as his national security adviser sends a message to his Republican foes: In your face.

Gov. Chris Christie needed a plausible explanation for choosing a politically advantageous, if more costly, special election date to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Maybe he found it.

It's what happens when one party holds the White House and the other at least one congressional chamber. Subpoenas are launched like rockets at an enemy camp.

Some Democrats might snicker at Mitt Romney's desire to be involved in the 2014 midterm election campaigns. While there are limits to his usefulness as a campaigner, he could have an upside for Republicans as a fundraiser.

Trips to war zones have become a signature for Sen. John McCain. While some senators use poster board displays on the Senate floor to make their points, McCain goes them one better and by posing in dangerous places alongside wary men with semiautomatic rifles.

While Bob Dole was the kind of conservative who could cut deals with Democrats, that's exactly the kind of image that doesn't work in GOP primaries anymore.

If President Obama's newly recalibrated counterterrorism strategy demonstrates anything, it is his penchant for nuance.