Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.

Instead of telling Americans who lost their shirts in the financial crisis why Wall Street shouldn’t be regulated, why not allow the Democrats to pass the bill and own the victory—and its consequences?

Now, the GOP is grousing that Obama has appointed former Sen. Alan Simpson—a Republican!—to a blue-ribbon deficit-reduction panel because he’s too “moderate.” Christopher Buckley on the latest Washington circus.

In a revelatory Q & A, Christopher Buckley explains that health insurance is well and good, but driving the country into bankruptcy isn’t going to help anyone in the long run—and why we’d all be better off if Warren Buffett were president.

A frisky, fun keynote by Beck, an encouraging straw poll that left Palin with a happily meager 7 percent—CPAC showed that for better or worse, the GOP is fired up and ready to go.

As CPAC continues its right-wing celebration this weekend, The Daily Beast’s Christopher Buckley (politely) takes on his first cousin, Brent Bozell III, and the other signers of the Mount Vernon Statement, for trying to redefine conservatism by updating his father’s original manifesto—when all they’re really doing is bashing Obama.

Obama didn’t deliver a speech so much as a symphony, calling for nukes and zapping the Supremes; thanks for the performance, Mr. President.

Homeland Security, with its $42 billion budget, is a giant bureaucratic disaster. Christopher Buckley wonders who, really, is in charge.