This summer, the Congress was engaged in rancorous debate and stalled negotiations over raising the debt limit ceiling.  

It was frustrating to see the lack of dialogue and good faith negotiations between the two parties.  As I've observed on many occasions, I believe that our country was founded under a system of government that requires compromise between factions.   We are not a parliamentary system where one party or coalition is elected to take total control of the government and drive all processes.  

Our Republic requires us all to work together toward the common good.

As a regular contributor to the local Fox News affiliate, I had frequent on air discussions with my Republican counterparts about how the Congress could move forward to avoid default. (See Media Gallery for archived TV appearances).

Fortunately, a deal was made at the 11th hour, however, the dysfunction involved in getting to that deal contributed in large part to one agency's downgrade of the credit worthiness of the United States.  I find it unthinkable that this has happened.

There will be a lot of focus in coming months on the Deficit Reduction Committee. I believe that the most pressing issue facing our country is how to move our country's economic growth forward to create more jobs. We should have been talking about how to create pro-growth strategies all summer.

I've enjoyed meeting with successful entrepreneurs and learning about what they consider the key to excellence.

It was a pleasure to interview Jim Innocenzi, of Sandler-Innocenzi -- check out his story in A Real Communications Pro.  In the course of our discussion, Jim shared his client service mantra which has really captured my imagination:  "You pay for our minds, but we throw in our hearts for free."  Of course, our shared Italian heritage explains it all!

I enjoyed visiting Silicon Valley and have grown in my admiration for the best and brightest innovation that springs from the streets of Palo Alto.  No trip would be complete without going to the campus of Stanford University where I admired the new Knight Management Center of the Graduate Business School and its equally innovative artwork (see Innovation Central).

This summer, both baseball and golf ranked high in Russo activities.  

The 50th Anniversary of the Congressional Baseball Game was held at Nationals Park and I was 

privileged to announce for the Democrats for a 12th year. 

Here is some fun pre-game chatter in my blog Let's Play Ball -- it even has an old photo of me as the two-time MVP.

Check out my post game blog A Good Time Was Had By All for some great quotes and photos including this one of Phil Neikro, the MLB Hall of Fame pitcher who threw out the first pitch.  Did I mention that the Democrats won on a score of 8 to 2?!  What a good feeling.

Lastly, I could not be more proud of my son, Tony Russo, who was featured in a big spread in the Style Section of The Washington Post as Washington's top political golfer.  See Tony Russo:  Leader of the Tee World.  Tony and I had a great time playing golf at Congressional Country with the reporter.