Numbers can tell a story. Looking back on Barack Obama's second State of the Union message, and looking forward to the congressional session and the 2012 elections, they tell a story that should leave Democrats uneasy.

Confronted by a new Republican majority in the U.S. House and a sluggish economy, President Barack Obama offered his second State of the Union address Tuesday night, calling for a “new era of cooperation.”

Martin Luther King Jr., Hero

I had the privilege of being part of this man's magic when I heard him speak in 1962, while I was in college in North Carolina. There -- in a segregated city where whites used one toilet and "coloreds" another, where the largest hospital admitted blacks only to windowless basement rooms -- the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in a single afternoon, welded into one thousands of people, black and white.

In his superb speech in Tucson, Ariz., Wednesday evening, Barack Obama did great service to the nation. He put to rest the libel that political incivility is responsible for the Tucson shootings. He did so with three words that he added to the written text: "It did not."

As he starts his second term in Congress, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney is increasingly visible as he focuses on federal spending.

Attempting to connect invisible dots to link Sarah Palin and Jared Loughner, leftist conspiracy theorists continue to suggest that right-wing mayhem is on the loose.

While Gov. Rick Scott issued an order Monday for all flags at state buildings to fly at half-staff this week in remembrance of victims of the mass shooting in Arizona, members of Florida’s congressional delegation weighed in on the tragic events.

First and foremost, I know that all of those reading this will want to say a prayer for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. and the others killed or injured Saturday, Jan. 8, while she hosted her first town hall-style meeting of the new Congress in Tucson.