Thomas F. Schaller is associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and coauthor of Devolution and Black State Legislators. The weekly national political columnist forThe Baltimore Sun, Schaller has also written forThe New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times,The American Prospect, The New York Sun, The Boston Globe, The Washington Examiner and Salon, and has appeared on Comedy Central'sThe Colbert Report, MSNBC's Hardball, National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition, PBS's The Tavis Smiley Show, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Tom earned his Ph. D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He currently resides in Washington, DC.