The conservative faithful just don't know what to do with Sen. John McCain. Just when they think he's become a "real" Republican again, he turns on the president. And just when they think he's gone to the dark side, he comes through for the GOP when no one else can.

This past week showcased classic McCain. Early in the week, most of the political talk was about the pending battle between Senate Democrats and Republicans over judicial nominations. The Republicans are getting closer to using the "nuclear option" of barring filibusters, which the Democrats, of course, say is outrageous. All the votes involved are expected to be close, so when McCain announced he'd vote with the Democrats to keep the filibuster, Republican leaders were fuming. [Read article]

The best in last week's editorials from college campuses around the nation

The slow progress of No Child Left Behind

LOS ANGELES - No Child Left Behind is apparently leaving a lot of children behind.

The academic growth students experience in a given school year has slowed since the law went into effect in 2002, according to a study conducted by the Northwest Evaluation Association. [Read article]

Columnist's statistics hard to believe

There goes John again, still pumping and pounding the right-wing rhetoric. In April 18's article, "A party of the people no more," Riches goes on and on about how the Democrats are more "elitist" than Republicans - whatever that means. To support his thesis, he stated that trial lawyers donated $112 million to the Democratic presidential campaign in 2004, while the "entire oil and gas industry donated only $15 million." [Read article]