“It’s a big mess,” said Ari Fleischer, President Bush’s former press secretary, while offering his analysis of “Super Tuesday” on CNN. I couldn’t disagree more; what he sees as a big mess, I see as a giant opportunity and not just because Texas will finally factor into the nominating process.

It’s about time. Late last year, a U.S. House task force recommended the creation of an “Office of Congressional Ethics.” It still hasn’t been voted on but if accepted by the whole House, it would be a giant step in the right direction.

"His flip-flops don't bother me," said my Republican friend at lunch last week. He was talking about Mitt Romney. In a most sarcastic manner, I replied, "We're only talking about issues like abortion. Who can be expected to have a set belief about something like that?"

My friend the priest says that if you’re going to take over a new church, you better not follow someone who has been incredibly popular. He says that’s a recipe for failure.

If you think about it, churches aren’t the only places like that. It holds true for just about any organized body.

Don’t give up. Most of us repeatedly share that advice with our children; now we have three real life examples to show why it’s so important.

The Republican Party has clearly stolen the playbook that Democrats drafted back in the ’70s and is following it to a T. The playbook sets forth how a political party can go about destroying itself from the inside out.

It’s much like heroin for an addict. That’s the best way to describe federal money for state and local governments. They depend on it, and when it’s made available, they’ll go to great lengths to get it.

Between now and tomorrow’s Iowa Caucus, you’re going to hear a tremendous amount of prognostication by journalists. You should keep something in mind: No one really has any idea how the Caucus is going to wind up, least of all the journalists.

We really need to study this? A state agency is using our tax dollars to try to convince us we’re wrong about the Trans Texas Corridor and lawmakers need a year to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down? Seems like the ultimate no-brainer but, alas, this is Texas.

It’s a battle of titans.

Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey are squaring off in Iowa, the former for his wife, Hillary, the latter for her chosen one, Barack Obama. They are so familiar to the American people that most simply refer to both by their first names (well, Democrats refer to Bill Clinton by his first name; Republicans have other monikers they prefer).