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“These are hard-core skinheads,” Pitcavage said at the time, referring to the American Front’s 17 active members and associates in Central Florida. He described the group as one of the oldest continually active racist-skinhead groups in the country.

Questions about the investigation began shortly after the arrests, when bond for most members was set at $500,000 while Faella only had to post $50,000 and his wife Patricia just $5,000. The disparity was never explained by authorities. In April, all charges against Patricia Faella were dropped without explanation on the day of her scheduled trial. The decision was reached after consultation with Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton.

“While the State Attorney respects the public’s right to know what motivated this morning’s dismissals, the State Attorney requests patience from the public as it is inappropriate for him or his assistants to comment until the charges against Marcus Faella are also resolved,” Ashton’s spokesman Richard Wallsh said in a written statement at the time.

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The co-author of a disputed immigration study by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, resigned Friday after questions were raised about racially charged conclusions made in his previous work.

The departure of Jason Richwine, who joined the organization in 2010, came as Heritage sought to move past a barrage of criticism from liberals and conservatives alike over the methodology used in its report that pegged the cost of legalizing 11 million undocumented immigrants at $6.3 trillion.

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The gun bill is the purest test of this theory. Since the massacre in December at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the president has crisscrossed the nation trying to mobilize public opinion against intransigent members of Congress. The public is with him. More than 80 percent of Americans, for example, support expanded background checks for gun purchases.

“There is only one thing that can stand in the way of change that just about everybody agrees on, and that’s politics in Washington,” he said this month in Hartford, Conn. “You would think that with those numbers Congress would rush to make this happen.”

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Congress can’t pass a budget or make headway on virtually any significant issue. But these guys trip over themselves to jump on some publicity stunt … and then declare it a solid day’s work.

To put this latest stunt — members pledging to give back 5 percent of their $174,000 salary — in perspective, think about your own household.

Let’s say you agreed to give your children $5 in allowance each week in exchange for them doing chores. This congressional stunt, though, would be like your kids not doing their chores — offering to give you 25 cents back — and then hoping you’ll call it even.

In my house, those kids would be grounded.