After eight years of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles voters will pick a, shall we say, more charismatically-challenged successor.

President Obama says we don't have time to be playing these kinds of political games. Was he talking about Benghazi or ScuttleButton?

Seriously, who cares about the Jodi Arias verdict when there's a new ScuttleButton puzzle to be solved? Actually, even if there weren't a new ScuttleButton puzzle.

History says that if a sitting vice president wants to succeed his retiring boss, the nomination is usually his. Think: Nixon '60, Humphrey '68, Bush '88, Gore '00. But history may not help Joe Biden in 2016.

Of the eight senators retiring in 2014, six of them are Democrats. Which should be good news for the Republicans. Maybe. Plus: take our poll, please, as to who will win in South Carolina next week.

America has rushed to embrace the first openly gay NBA active player. Now if it would only embrace ScuttleButton, the popular waste-of-time button puzzle.

The complaints begin anew. First, it was indignation over the April Fool's puzzle. Now, it's how EASY last week's one was. Well, here's another ScuttleButton for you to figure out.

Please forgive me for the cruel, April Fool's ScuttleButton, which ultimately was deliberately unsolvable. This week's puzzle is on the up and up.

It's wrong, and journalistically lazy, to lump together every politician who was ever involved in a sex scandal. Still, there are a lot of similarities between Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner — at least in their post-scandal "script."

I couldn't possibly go on vacation this week without leaving a ScuttleButton puzzle to be solved behind.

Everybody complains when ScuttleButton puzzles are too easy. Well, this week's offering is anything but easy.

Is it too soon to be thinking about 2016? Not really, especially after watching Hillary Clinton talk on same-sex marriage and Rand Paul on changes to immigration policy. Plus: a brief history of the GOP's rise in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District.

America's two great pastimes — baseball and ScuttleButton — came together in last week's puzzle. Now you have a new one to figure out.

Public opinion is clearly shifting on the issue of gay marriage; even one Republican senator has come out in favor of it. But it was a different story in 1996, when an overwhelming majority of congressional D's and R's supported the Defense of Marriage Act and a Democratic president signed it.

If you've come here to learn the identity of the next Pope, you've made a grievous mistake. But while you're here you may as well uncover the latest ScuttleButton puzzle.

Forget about 2012 presidential burnout. The 2016 campaign has already begun, at least according to what has been written in the past week about Jeb Bush's new book on immigration. Plus: Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) won't run again in 2014.

With a major snowstorm about to hit the D.C. area, our suggestion is for you to get nice and cozy, sit by the fire, and solve this week's ScuttleButton puzzle.

Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, is immensely popular, an apparent shoo-in for a second term this year. But his decision to take Obamacare money and federal relief help in the wake of Hurricane Sandy cost him an invitation to speak at a key conservative conference this month.

Should she win Tuesday's special election in Chicago, Robin Kelly will become the 30th female African-American member of the House in the nation's history. This week's Political Junkie column has the complete list, starting with Shirley Chisholm, first elected in 1968.

Two gubernatorial contests — in New Jersey and Virginia — plus mayoral races in New York and Los Angeles head up the 2013 election calendar. Plus: Time to get rid of the Iowa straw poll? And who will succeed Jesse Jackson Jr.?