Reporter's Notebook: Particle Politics

Thursday, October 09, 2008 By Chad Pergram WASHINGTON — Washington is often-criticized for its inside baseball. But Congressional leadership contests are more insular than that. They’re the quantum mechanics of politics. Molecular in nature, there are only a few specialists in Washington who understand the physics of leadership races. No Washington laboratory is more obscure — yet has so much national impact. For it’s leadership races that gave us Newt Gingrich. Dick Cheney. Tom Daschle. John Boehner. Steny Hoyer. People who hold sway over the country for years and carry immense political clout. But their power was forged at the sub-atomic level. Moving around a neuron here. An electron there. Hold onto your protons. We could be in for another one in November over who will lead House Republicans next year. You’ve heard of... [read full story]