PERRspectives: Republicans Archives

Republicans Archives

	For Republicans, No Means No If nothing else, Barack Obama is a glutton for punishment. Apparently confident in his ability to manhandle the Republican leadership in the wake of his televised beat-down of the House GOP caucus two weeks ago, Obama has invited McConnell, Boehner and company to the White House for a health care summit. But instead of applying a full-court press on recalcitrant members of his own party to finally pass a Democratic bill the country so badly needs, Obama will waste yet... more Posted on February 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Sexism Meets Palin's Sex Appeal As conservatives rush to defend Sarah Palin in the wake of her Tea Party "Telepalmter" episode, no reaction has been as comically hypocritical as that offered by the right-wing blog, Legal Insurrection. There, William Jacobsen bemoans the rash of adolescent "hand job" headlines in a stunning piece titled, "Palin Exposes Misogyny In The Democratic Base, Again." Stunning, that is, because her Republican admirers have made no secret about either their drooling reaction to Palin's looks or their sexist attitudes towards... more Posted on February 8, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Palin's America Dependent on Divine Intervention Over the past 10 days, President Obama and Sarah Palin made clear everything you need to know about their dueling visions of America's character and its future. In his State of the Union address, the President rejected the notion that "our progress was inevitable," reminding the nation that "the only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard." But on Saturday night, the half-term Alaska Governor presented the assembled Tea Party faithful... more Posted on February 8, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Immaculate Convention "I'm mad, I'm really mad," the man said, adding, "It's not the economy. It's the socialist taking over our country." If you thought those words came from one of the 600 faithful breathlessly waiting to hear from Sarah Palin at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, you could be forgiven for your error. Virtually identical in tone and content, that frothing at the mouth anger was instead just one highlight of a McCain-Palin town hall rally in October 2008.... more Posted on February 6, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Tea Bagging for Jesus As a quick glance at the video tape makes clear, the supposed Tea Party movement is simply a continuation of the right-wing's failed 2008 presidential campaign by other means. (Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) spoke for Sarah Palin, John Cornyn, Michele Bachmann and countless others when he insisted, "We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party.") But as the sessions by Pastor Rick Scarborough and Judge Roy Moore at today's National Tea Party Convention... more Posted on February 5, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	GOP Budget Proposal: Ration Medicare, Privatize Social Security Throughout the bitter debate over health care reform, talking points about "rationing" and "cuts to Medicare" have been the twin pillars of Republican fear mongering. For example, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in June warned of reform that "denies, delays, or rations health care," only to falsely charge weeks later that Democrats "are going to pay for this plan by cutting Medicare, that is cutting seniors." But with the publication of the Republican "shadow" budget by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI),... more Posted on February 4, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Convention Program: 10 Lessons for Tea Baggers Starting today in Nashville, a strange brew of Birthers and Birchers, Deathers and Deniers will gather for the National Tea Party Convention. They will be entertained by the likes of WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah, "War on Christians" Pastor Rick Scarborough, Andrew Breibart and disgraced Judge Roy Moore. Then on Saturday, the frothing at the mouth faithful will be fleeced by keynote speaker Sarah Palin to the tune of $115,000. But what they won't hear in Nashville is much of anything related... more Posted on February 4, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Palin Abandons Her "Screw Political Correctness" Mantra Last June, soon-to-be ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin praised Michael Reagan, lauding his propensity to "to call it like he sees it, and to screw political correctness that some would expect him to have to adhere to." As she headed out the door six weeks later, Palin promised to be "less politically correct" after her leaving office. Then after the Ft. Hood shootings in November, Palin said "profile away!" because such political correctness "could be our downfall." As it turns out,... more Posted on February 2, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	GOP's Hensarling Gives Republicans Credit for Clinton Surpluses Still smarting after his budgetary beat down at the hands of President Obama Friday, Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling this weekend invited a second round of punishment. "I stand by what I said," Hensarling said Saturday, referring to his manifestly ridiculous claim the previous day that "the old annual deficits under Republicans have now become the monthly deficits under Democrats." As it turns out, he wasn't talking about the red ink Republican George W. Bush. What he meant, Hensarling instead made... more Posted on February 1, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Hypes April Fool's Budget at Obama Meeting During their unprecedented televised gathering Friday, 140 House Republicans were intellectually and politically outnumbered by President Obama. Perhaps on no subject was the rout more complete than on the federal budget. Led by Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Republicans touted their own alternative budget proposed by Wisconsin's Paul Ryan. But as Americans should recall, with its new windfalls for the wealthy, gutting of social programs and privatization of Medicare, that budget was laughed off the national stage - and not... more Posted on January 30, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Deficit Hawks, Peacocks and Virgins Shaking his head at the bad economics and worse politics of the White House's proposed spending freeze, Paul Krugman deemed President Obama not a deficit hawk, but a "deficit peacock." "You can identify deficit peacocks," he wrote, "by the way they pretend that our budget problems can be solved with gimmicks like a temporary freeze in nondefense discretionary spending." But while Krugman is right to take Obama to task, he omitted an even more cynical player in the fiscal discipline... more Posted on January 29, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	After Threatening Judges, Republicans Rush to Alito's Defense While legal analysts like Glenn Greenwald and Jonathan Turley lamented Justice Samuel Alito's "serious and substantive breach of protocol" during last night's State of the Union address, conservatives are predictably apoplectic about President Obama's temerity in questioning the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision in that setting. As it turns out, the right-wing hypocrisy in defense of Alito is double. After all, President Bush didn't just routinely use the State of the Union to castigate "activist judges." For years, Bush's amen... more Posted on January 28, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Obama's Deficit Attention Disorder During his first State of the Union address Wednesday, President Barack Obama will apparently endorse two bad ideas whose time hasn't come. The first, a freeze affecting $477 billion in domestic spending, has been rightly labeled "appalling" (Paul Krugman), "a mistake on par with John McCain's 'suspending my campaign' gaffe" (Nate Silver), "fundamental unseriousness" (Brad Delong) and worse. The second, an executive order creating a "deficit commission," is just the latest in a generation of Potemkin crusades against the national... more Posted on January 26, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Three Strikes for John McCain Years ago, John McCain said of the Keating Five scandal that nearly ended his career, "The fact is, it was the wrong thing to do, and it will be on my tombstone and deservedly so." But if his new cause of campaign finance reform was the penance for his Keating "nightmare," the Supreme Court last week closed off that avenue for McCain's redemption. Which means that all that's left for John McCain's epitaph is a two word inscription: Sarah Palin.... more Posted on January 25, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Cornyn Not Threatening Judges After SCOTUS Ruling Apparently, judicial activism like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. On Sunday, Texas Senator John Cornyn told Fox News that the impact of the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling, which erased decades of precedents on corporate political campaign financing, has "been overstated." Given the victory in Massachusetts this week that his National Republican Senatorial Committee (NSRC) helped manufacture, Cornyn is understandably pleased that the hyperactive Roberts Court decided to "open up resources that have not previously been available"... more Posted on January 24, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Scott Brown, Fred Thompson and the Authenticity of Trucks In the wake of Scott Brown's landscape changing win in Massachusetts, the clear message to Republicans is "keep on truckin'." As the Boston Globe reports, the green GMC Canyon truck - what the paper deemed Brown's "regular-guy-mobile" featured so prominently in his campaign - is experiencing "a surge of interest" at Bay State dealerships. All of which suggests that with his pickup truck Scott Brown like Fred Thompson before him has perfected the Republican art of ersatz authenticity. The Senate's... more Posted on January 22, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	For GOP and Media, Obstructionism is the New Normal As Massachusetts residents vote in large numbers for a new Senator, 538.com, Pollster.com and other analysts are predicting an upset victory for Republican Scott Brown. If so, the GOP's victory will be double. The Republicans will not only have succeeded in replacing Ted Kennedy and ending the Democrats' 60 vote supermajority, but have already triumphed in redefining their unprecedented obstructionism as the new normal in American politics. And in that, they have been aided and abetted by the press and... more Posted on January 19, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Targeting Reid, Republicans Forget Bush Forced Lott Out The preposterous Republican campaign to equate Harry Reid's off-the-record "dialect" comment with neo-Confederate Trent Lott's lavish public praise of Strom Thurmond has shifted into overdrive. But even as Michael Steele, Jon Kyl and other leading lights of the Party of Hate press Reid like Lott before him to surrender his Senate leadership post, they conveniently omit President George W' Bush's essential role in forcing Lott's resignation. Just as important, the GOP is silent as to why Bush, desperate to improve... more Posted on January 11, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Defends Trent Lott, Calls for Reid to Resign While President Obama declared "the book is closed" on Harry Reid's past "negro dialect" comment, Republicans are using the imbroglio to reopen the book on the disgraced Trent Lott. On Sunday, RNC chairman Michael Steele and Arizona Senator Jon Kyl insisted Reid should resign his post as Senate Majority Leader like Trent Lott before him. Sadly for the Republicans, there is no double standard at work here. Trent Lott didn't merely lavish praise on the legendary racist and segregation stalwart... more Posted on January 10, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Steele the Latest Republican Chosen by God The first Republican Abraham Lincoln famously proclaimed, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." Sadly, as RNC Chairman Michael Steele confirmed again this week, his successors believe the GOP truly is God's Own Party. As it turns out, Steele has joined George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann on the long and growing list of Republican leaders who claim they have been chosen by God. Michael... more Posted on January 9, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	On Terror, GOP Goes from Oprah to Donald Trump Witnessing the Republican reaction to the Obama administration's handling of the failed Christmas bombing is like watching reruns of The Apprentice. Like Donald Trump, each conservative talking head proclaims "You're Fired!" to members of the Obama team. Of course, when President Bush presided over the 9/11 catastrophe, Osama Bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora, the baseless claims about Saddam's WMD, the disastrous invasion of Iraq and myriad other intelligence and national security debacles, Republicans instead played the role of Oprah.... more Posted on January 8, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	For Redemption, Tiger Woods Should Become a Republican Fox News anchor Brit Hume is rightly being mocked for suggesting that the road to redemption for a philandering Tiger Woods begins with his conversion to Christianity. But Hume's on-air evangelical fervor doesn't merely show his religious bigotry in general or ignorance towards Buddhists in particular. It also won't work, at least not with his viewers. As Gary Hart and Jim McGreevey among other Democrats learned, being a Christian isn't enough to resurrect a reputation and return to the public... more Posted on January 7, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	10 Moments in GOP Terrorism Accountability On Tuesday, President Obama described the failed Christmas airliner attack as a "potentially disastrous" failure of the system, one "that's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it." Unsurprisingly, the usual mouthpieces of the right like Peter King and Ron Christie have fanned out to demand "someone will have to go" and that Obama "fire those staff members who have failed their president and failed their nation." Even more predictable, of course, is that those same Republican voices were silent... more Posted on January 6, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Tea Parties R Us Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is taking to the airwaves this week to promote his new book. But while he claims to offer a new blueprint for a GOP he claims "screwed up" after Ronald Reagan, his colleagues on Capitol Hill already have a solution to the Republicans' identity crisis: Tea Parties R Us. For the likes of Jim Demint (R-SC) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the repackaged rage and seething hatred that has continued uninterrupted from the McCain campaign... more Posted on January 5, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Now the Party of Armageddon When the obscure evangelical radio host turned Biblical numerologist Harold Camping predicts the end of the world will arrive on May 21, 2011, it's not a cause for concern. But what about when many of the leading voices of a major American political party not only look forward to the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ but believe it will come in the form of an End of Days conflict with Iran over the fate of Israel? Then you'd... more Posted on January 4, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Rush Limbaugh Praises Blue State Health Care Last week, Republican strategist Kevin Madden chastised President Obama for choosing to vacation in a "foreign place" like Hawaii, concluding "it's much different than being in Texas." Rush Limbaugh, it turns out, couldn't disagree more. The right-wing radio host and avid golfer not only visits the islands every year. After his New Year's Eve scare with chest pains, Limbaugh had nothing but praise for the care he received there. And for good reason: while Hawaii ranks second in state health... more Posted on January 3, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	GOP to Wealthy: Die Here, Die Now, Pay Less! In its December 30 article "Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man," the Wall Street Journal reminded the wealthiest of its readers that 2010 will be an excellent year to die. The estate tax, which in 2009 impacted only 1 in 500 estates while generating tens of billion in revenue, temporarily expired on New Year's Day. But while the Journal lamented the "macabre situation" in which a handful of families were encouraged to delay end-of-life decisions into 2010, nowhere... more Posted on January 2, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP's Madden Faults Obama for Being from Hawaii For some Republicans, among the sins of this President of the United States is being from one of them. That's the word from GOP strategist and Mitt Romney aide Kevin Madden, who on Wednesday declared that Hawaii "seems like a foreign place." That indictment came in response to a question from CNN's John Roberts regarding the "heat for this president from the Republicans" over the failed Christmas day airliner bomb. (Left unmentioned was the Republican double-standard for the 2001 shoe... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Shoes vs. Underwear: The GOP's Terror Distinction The similarities between failed airplane bombers Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are striking. Each Al Qaeda convert was radicalized in London. Reid and Abdulmutallab were each subdued by fellow passengers after their explosive devices failed to detonate. The two men struck just as the President of the United States was starting his vacation for the Christmas holiday. In each case, the President spoke publicly about the incident only days later. And the Nigerian, just like Reid before him, will... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	For GOP, Short Memories on Terror Plots and Presidential Vacations That Republicans would try to politicize the failed Christmas terror attack was about as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Even less surprising is the utter falsehood and sheer hypocrisy of their ham-handed charges. For example, on Sunday Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) blasted the administration for not "connecting dots" despite having placed a hold on President Obama's TSA nominee and joining other Republicans in blocking new TSA funding. That came after Michigan Rep.... more Posted on December 28, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	McConnell and Friends Whitewash GOP Medicare Drug Plan Hypocrisy Only after both chambers of Congress had already voted on the health care reform bills which will cut the deficit, AP on Saturday belatedly looked back at the deeply flawed and unfunded Medicare prescription drug program Republicans jammed through Congress in 2003. 24 hours later, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on ABC's This Week to add his to the chorus of Republican voices protesting that was then and this is now. As Reagan Treasury official Bruce Bartlett told the AP,... more Posted on December 28, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Remembering Kennedy - and the Republican Goal - on Health Care Senate passage of the health care bill this morning naturally brought fond remembrances of reform's long time champion, Ted Kennedy. While his successor Paul Kirk announced, "He's having a merry Christmas in heaven," Kennedy's long-time Massachusetts colleague John Kerry concurred, "Ted Kennedy is up there smiling." But back here on earth, it's worth remembering why his Republican opponents waged an all-out war for four decades to block Ted Kennedy's dream of universal health care for the American people from ever... more Posted on December 24, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	IRS Audits Finally Reversing GOP Bias for Wealthy Score one for working Americans. After enduring both the worst economic downtown and steepest income inequality since the Great Depression, new data from the Internal Revenue Service revealed that lower and middle class taxpayers are being audited at lower rates than the wealthy. And that may finally signal a roll back of the kid gloves treatment for the rich which followed the successful Republican war on the IRS in the 1990's. As the AP reported, in its efforts to recover... more Posted on December 23, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Bipartisanship's Willing Executioners Republicans win, even when they lose. That appears to be the conventional wisdom after the Democrats' crucial victory in the Senate health care vote this weekend. In its wake, media outlets gave credence to John McCain's assertion that thanks to President Obama, Washington is "more partisan" and "more bitterly divided than it's been." That followed the pronouncement of CNN's supposedly moderate Republican analyst David Gergen, who proclaimed the party line vote "a tragedy" since it did not garner a "super... more Posted on December 22, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	God's Own Party Turns to Him to Block Health Care The first Republican Abraham Lincoln famously proclaimed, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." And as Matthew 4:23-24 tells us, Jesus never refused treatment to those with preexisting conditions, instead "healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." But as their prayers to God to block health care reform in the run-up to last night's decisive Senate vote show, today's Republicans apparently have... more Posted on December 21, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Six Degrees of John McCain Last week, Politico ran yet another fawning profile of John McCain, declaring him "critic-in-chief." But whether the ersatz Maverick's motivation runs the gamut from "unresolved anger to concern for his right flank as he seeks re-election to genuine dismay about Obama's agenda," McCain has been at or near the center of almost every domestic political news story over the past week. Call it the Six Degrees of John McCain. Or, perhaps more accurately, the First Degree of John McCain. In... more Posted on December 19, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Gives Wealthy One Year Estate Tax Windfall For a handful of the very richest Americans, 2010 will be an excellent year to die. Thanks to Republican obstructionism on their behalf, the estate tax, which in 2009 will impact only 1 in 500 estates while generating tens of billion in revenue, will temporarily expire after December 31. Adding insult to injury, while the fortunate heirs of the largest fortunes toast their good fortune in 2010, their less well off counterparts may face higher tax bills even as they... more Posted on December 18, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Tea Baggers Ignore U.S. Health Care's Daily "Die-In" On Tuesday, frothing at the mouth Tea Party faithful will protest health care reform legislation by descending on the Senate to holding a "die-in." But while the Tea Baggers will feign dropping dead to dramatize their opposition to health care reform they wrongly believe will leading to rationing, they seem blissfully unconcerned about the thousands of Americans who actually die each year due to lack of insurance. As TPM reported: Tea Party organizer Mark Meckler writes on his site: "The... more Posted on December 14, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	The Gitmo Memo and the GOP Love Affair with Leaks Once upon a time (a time coincident with George W. Bush's tenure in the White House), Republicans decried the leaking of classified national security information. After the New York Times revealed his program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA, President Bush deemed it a "a shameful act" that is "helping the enemy." Alas, that was then and this is now. As the publication of the confidential McChrystal report on Afghanistan and now a draft DOJ memo about relocating Gitmo... more Posted on December 12, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	In Which Sarah Palin Learns About War Taxes Among the qualities that uniquely define Sarah Palin is that she doesn't know what she doesn't know. But as her confusion about the First Amendment or Alaska's energy production showed, Palin's ignorance of a subject is no barrier to her speaking out with great conviction about it. So it is once again with talk of potential tax increases to fund the escalating war in Afghanistan. War time taxes are never necessary, Sarah Palin seemed to suggest this week, because during... more Posted on December 9, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Orrin Hatch: New GOP Majority the Solution to Republican Failures From 2001 through 2008, what Thomas Frank deemed the Republican "wrecking crew" essentially demolished U.S. prosperity and the American dream. For the eight years George W. Bush presided in the White House and the six that the GOP controlled Congress, Republican stewardship produced endless budget deficits, a massive tax windfall for wealthy Americans, an unnecessary war in Iraq, sharp increases in poverty and those without health insurance and, of course, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. But as... more Posted on December 8, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Warn of Health Care Gulags and Ghettoes For the Republican Party, the only thing worse than lower income Americans not having access to health insurance is having it. That's the conclusion of Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn, who on Sunday deemed the popular Medicaid program that serves 60 million Americans a "health care gulag." That fear-mongering came just days after his Tennessee colleague Lamar Alexander repeatedly branded Medicaid a "medical ghetto." The Democratic health care reform bills passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate... more Posted on December 7, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Notorious Hothead McCain Now "Madder Than I've Ever Been" Facing a surprisingly strong primary challenge from Tea Party darling J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Senator John McCain is now appealing to frothing-at-the-mouth Tea Baggers in the only language they understand: anger. But when McCain told Don Imus Friday that "I'm madder than I've ever been," that was really saying something. After all, with his explosive temper John McCain has been scaring the bejesus out of friends and foes - and even innocent bystanders - for decades. On Friday, the supposed Maverick... more Posted on December 6, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Wartime Reign of Error When it comes to matters of war and peace, over the past decade no American political figure outside of Dick Cheney has been as egregiously and frequently wrong as John McCain. Yet despite his almost uninterrupted record of error on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, McCain's supposed national security expertise is taken for granted by both his party and the press. So as he leads the Republican campaign against President Obama's "exit strategy" in Afghanistan, it's worth remembering that... more Posted on December 3, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Faith, Friends and Family: The Mike Huckabee Pardon Plan As it turns out, Mike Huckabee yesterday chose the right day to declare that "it's less likely than more likely" that he'll run for President in 2012. The horrific news that Maurice Clemmons, the repeat felon granted clemency by then Governor Huckabee in 2000, was suspected of executing four Washington state police officers won't merely cast a pall over his White House hopes. For the former Baptist minister turned GOP frontrunner, Sunday's slaughter resurrects Huckabee's disturbing history of intervening to... more Posted on November 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Give Thanks for Short Memories Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino's jaw-dropping statement Wednesday that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term" didn't merely serve to confirm President Obama's terrible judgment in appointing her to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. As it turns out, Perino's clumsy whitewashing of the 9/11 attacks is just the latest (if most pathetic) installment of the ongoing GOP project to selectively erase history. From their disaster in Iraq and neglect of Afghanistan to... more Posted on November 26, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Ari Fleischer Puts the BS in the BCS It's a crisis so serious that Republican Congressman from Utah and Texas have held hearings and called for investigations. Not into the Bush's administration's manipulation of Iraq intelligence, its detainee torture, the denial of global warming or the Katrina disaster. No, the outrage is the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) by which Division I college football annually determines its champion. And in an altogether fitting turn of events, the BCS has selected Ari Fleischer, the same Bush press secretary who faithfully... more Posted on November 25, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Republican Virginity Pledge With their virginity pledges and father-daughter purity balls, American conservatives have taken to public proclamations of their chastity and propriety. Now with its proposed "Ronald Reagan Unity Principle," the Republican National Committee is considering its own purity test for GOP candidates. But just like the right-wing teens that invariably violate their oaths of premarital abstinence, even the holiest of Republicans would fail the GOP's new Ten Commandments. Just like Ronald Reagan. Writing at the Red State blog, Erick Erickson opposes... more Posted on November 24, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Pray for Republicans: Luke 23:34. Just days after the shocking revelation that opponents of President Obama have been praying for his demise, another coded message in the form of Biblical verse has entered American political discourse. This time, however, the target of t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and signs is the Republican Party. And the meaning of "Pray for Republicans, Luke 23:34" isn't one of hate, but forgiveness. Then Jesus said, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." The meaning of Jesus' words... more Posted on November 23, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Sarah Palin's Willing Objectifiers As Sarah Palin travels the country filling her coffers, the debate rages as to whether the former Alaska Governor is a victim or beneficiary of sexism (or possibly even both). But while her allies and Palin herself have left little doubt where they stand in the wake of the Newsweek cover imbroglio, their words belie a different truth about who's objectifying whom. As many of her biggest supporters appear to admit, if Sarah Palin didn't look like she was still... more Posted on November 20, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	2009 Democratic Deficit Cutters vs. 2003 GOP Budget Busters A funny thing has happened on America's way to health care reform. As Republicans promise a "holy war" to block supposed "government-run" health care that would "break the bank", Democrats in the House and the Senate offered reform plans that would cover all almost Americans, plans which pay for themselves. As it turns out, that's a far cry from the GOP's deeply flawed 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit, an unfunded act of transparent pandering to elderly voters which saddled the... more Posted on November 19, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Joan of Palin Leads the Republican War on Science Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center published survey findings which revealed that only 6% of American scientists identify themselves as Republicans. There can be little doubt as to why conservatives are now an endangered species within the scientific community. From evolution and global warming to abortion and abstinence policies and so much more, the politicization of science has been an essential GOP strategy for decades. And as her book tour this week makes clear, Sarah Palin is now a... more Posted on November 18, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Fights Huckabee for the Hand of God Neither Mike Huckabee nor Sarah Palin believes in the theory of evolution. But with the posturing for the 2012 Republican presidential primaries already underway, each will soon learn about the principle of impenetrability. That is, when it comes to the GOP's religious right base, two White House hopefuls can't occupy the same space at the same time. And as her book makes clear, Sarah Palin seems certain that God is on her side, a position that Mike Huckabee has already... more Posted on November 17, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Embraces Medicare Official Bush Tried to Fire Politics, especially Republican politics, makes for strange bedfellows. With the AARP by their side, President Bush and his GOP allies in 2003 pushed for their unfunded and deeply flawed Medicare prescription drug plan. Now in their scorched earth campaign to block health care reform backed by the seniors' organization, the right-wing has declared war on the AARP. And the Republican partner swapping doesn't end there. Six years before Republicans hailed chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster this weekend for questioning the... more Posted on November 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Born Again Deficit Virgins Everything you need to know about the descent of the conservative movement into a hypocritical caricature is illustrated by two of its proudest constituencies: Republican deficit hawks and so-called "born again virgins." Having already violated the moral strictures they claim to hold dearest, each now asks the American people to join them in pretending their sin never happened. But unlike a generation of Republican leaders who built a mountain of national debt for the United States, the secondary virgins only... more Posted on November 15, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	Hutchison and the Republican Hypocrisy on Term Limits Among the most recycled quotes on this web site is Karl Marx's old chestnut that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. And so it is with the latest cynical Republican call for Congressional term limits. After sweeping into the majority with their disingenuous term limits pledge in the 1994 Contract with America, Republicans including Jim Demint (R-SC) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) are back with a proposed constitutional amendment limiting House members to three and... more Posted on November 13, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Take the Palin-Prejean Challenge! Karl Marx famously said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. And so it is with Carrie Prejean, the second coming of Sarah Palin. Like Palin, Prejean is a former beauty pageant contestant turned conservative darling. Each penned a tell-all book to bemoan her victimization by the supposed liberal media, all the while fundamentally misunderstanding the First Amendment. (As it turns out, the one difference may be that Sarah Palin only fingered her flute.) Judging... more Posted on November 12, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	For Midterms, Republicans Hope to Party Like It's 1966 As Politico reported Monday, Republicans in the wake of Saturday's cliff-hanger health care vote in the House immediately began their campaign to target vulnerable Democrats in traditionally GOP districts. But for a Republican Party looking to retake the House of Representatives in 2010, the formula for success may not be Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution that swept out 52 Democrats in 1994. Instead, the GOP role model may be Richard Nixon, whose one man whirlwind campaign during the 1966... more Posted on November 9, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	House GOP Reverses Role from 2003 Medicare Rx Vote With its talking babies and warnings of government takeovers and terrified seniors, the grandstanding by House Republicans during Saturday's narrow 220-215 passage of the Democratic Affordable Health Care for America Act was entirely predictable. And if that vote count sounds familiar, it should. Six years ago with the AARP by its side, it was the House GOP which eked out a victory for its deeply flawed and unfunded Medicare prescription drug program by an identical margin. But while the roles... more Posted on November 8, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Gingrich and Perry Tout Texas Health Care Mess Everything, they say, is bigger in the Texas. So it is with the failure of the health care system. Leading the nation with a jaw-dropping 25% of its residents uninsured, Texas ranked 46th in the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 scorecard of state health care performance. All of which makes today's op-ed by Newt Gingrich and Governor Rick Perry touting the mess in Texas all the more puzzling. Just two days after the CBO dismissed a House Republican plan that would barely... more Posted on November 6, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Pat Boone and the Right-Wing War on the AARP Back in 2003, Republican leaders praised the AARP for its support of President Bush's unfunded and deeply flawed Medicare prescription benefit. But now that the 40 million member organization has endorsed the House Democrats' health care reform bill, the GOP is declaring war on its one-time ally. Helping lead the attack is an array of industry-funded front groups and their reactionary has-been spokesmen like Pat Boone. Last week, Republican Congressmen Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) implied the nation's... more Posted on November 5, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	The Hatch Truth: GOP Blocking Health Care to Prevent Permanent Democratic Majority A gaffe, Michael Kinsley famously mused, is what results when a politician inadvertently tells the truth. And so it was Monday when Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch came clean about his party's scorched-earth opposition to health care reform being championed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. Hatch acknowledged, as I've long argued, that the GOP is worried not that Obama's health care initiatives might fail, but that they might succeed. As he did in his pivotal effort to block Bill... more Posted on November 2, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Jeb Bush's Brother and the GOP Attack on U.S. Capitalism On Wednesday, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush doubtless pleased his audience at the U.S Chamber of Commerce when he declared, "I think President Obama has used the bully pulpit as a way to attack capitalism." But in his knee-jerk assault on his brother's successor, Governor Bush conveniently omitted that George W. Bush compiled the worst economic record of any president since Herbert Hoover. Of course, when it comes to GDP, employment, the stock market or just about any other measure... more Posted on November 1, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	"Emergency Room" McConnell Claims Public Option May Kill You Back in September, a study by Harvard Medical School found that over 44,000 Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance. Now, in a complete reversal of both logic and the truth, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that it is the availability of a public insurance option which could prove fatal. Of course, McConnell's announcement that the public option "may cost you your life" should come as no surprise. After all, in July he echoed George... more Posted on October 30, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Broun Joins Palin in Backing GOP Plan to Privatize Medicare Among the more comic story lines of the Republican war on health care reform has been the Party's side-splitting defense of Medicare. After all, the GOP not only tried to block the program in the 1960's, but tried again to gut it thirty years later. But after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats were intent on "sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare" and RNC chief Michael Steele called for "no cuts to Medicare to pay for another... more Posted on October 27, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	When Opting Out is Not An Option While the Obama White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Congressional Democrats debate among themselves whether a so-called "opt out" public health insurance option will be included in reform legislation, Minnesota Governor and GOP presidential wannabee Tim Pawlenty has already weighed in. Asked if he would "lead a charge" in his state to opt out, Pawlenty replied, "I think so because I don't like government run health care." That's easy for him to say. As it turns out, Minnesota... more Posted on October 26, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Malpractice Myths In recent days, Republican leaders have scored a series of political victories in their eternal quest for tort reform. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) told Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) that an onerous package of malpractice curbs he championed could save the government an estimated $54 billion over 10 years. That came on the heels of President Obama's latest offer to support limited tort reform as an olive branch to recalcitrant Republicans balking at his health care proposals, including... more Posted on October 23, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	South Carolina Edges Oklahoma to Top BCS Standings In a surprise to many, South Carolina narrowly topped Oklahoma in the first BCS standings released this week. Not, that is, in college football's Bowl Championship Series, but in the Battle of Crazy States. Oklahoma dropped to the #2 spot after a late South Carolina rally led by two Palmetto State GOP county chairmen who turned to anti-Semitic stereotypes to praise Senator Jim Demint. In their letter Sunday, Bamberg County's Edwin Merwin and James Ulmer of Orangeburg rushed to defend... more Posted on October 20, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	McChrystal's Intel Leak Doubtless Warms GOP Hearts Seemingly with each passing day, General Stanley McChrystal grows in the esteem of President Obama's conservative foes. After having savaged General Eric Shinseki for his pre-Iraq war testimony that the occupation would require "several hundreds of thousands" of American troops, Republicans have seized on McChrystal's public demands for more forces in Afghanistan as their latest battering ram to bludgeon Obama on national security. And as it turns out, McChrystal's inadvertent leak earlier this month regarding a classified CIA analysis puts... more Posted on October 19, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Senate GOP: Delay, Define and Derail Health Care Reform For months, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has led the Republican campaign of fear-mongering "reform that that denies, delays, or rations health care." Now unable to filibuster Democratic legislation on their own, Roll Call reports that McConnell's minions are unveiling a new scorched-earth strategy to "to delay, define and derail" reform. Of course, in their latest misrepresentations of the program's benefits and costs, the GOP is merely repackaging Bill Kristol's July war cry to defeat health care reform: "kill it... more Posted on October 19, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Obama and the Right-Wing "Bull" Market Among the rarely acknowledged truths of American politics is that the U.S. economy in general and the stock market in particular almost always do better under Democratic presidents. Of course, that oversight is no accident, but instead the predictable result of successful mythmaking by the Party of Hoover and its media allies. And so it was this week as the Dow cracked the 10,000 barrier; the same conservative commentariat who blamed Barack Obama for the market's free fall as early... more Posted on October 15, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	The 2009 Nobel Prizes for Conservatives In much the same way that the sun sets in the west, each fall brings the predictable spectacle of apoplectic conservatives foaming at the mouth over the Nobel prizes. Following the awards to Al Gore and Paul Krugman over the past two years, the surprising announcement that President Obama captured the Nobel Peace Prize unsurprisingly produced popping veins and burst blood vessels across right-wingistan. Sadly for Republicans and their amen corner, the Nobels are humanitarian awards which generally recognize contributions... more Posted on October 10, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	15 Years Too Late, Bob Dole Backs Health Care Reform When it comes to his role in health care issues, most Americans probably associate former Kansas Senator Bob Dole with Viagra. Yet this week, the 1996 GOP presidential candidate stood up (so to speak) for the cause of health care reform, issuing a joint statement with Democrat Tom Daschle urging "the joint leadership to get together for America's sake." But while Dole castigated his own Republican Party for "putting up a 'no' sign and saying, 'we're not open for business,'"... more Posted on October 8, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Forgetting Right-Wing Terrorism at the Atlanta Olympics Conservatives may be having a blast now celebrating America's loss of the 2016 Olympics, but during the 1996 Atlanta games the explosion was literal. Right-wing terrorist Eric Rudolph detonated a bomb that killed one and injured over 100 people at the Atlanta Olympic Park. But while the Republican echo chamber never forgave Barack Obama for winning the presidency, Rudolph's extremist violence they seem only too eager to forget. That selective amnesia was on full display during Fox News' bashing of... more Posted on October 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Republican Leaders Remind Steele GOP Hates Medicare As Politico reported Monday, Republicans leaders took RNC chairman Michael Steele to the woodshed for his high profile role in the health care debate. Furious that Steele's so-called "seniors' bill of rights" committed the GOP to "no cuts to Medicare," the Congressional Republicans told their chairman to "quit meddling in policy." Of course, given the GOP's 50-year war on Medicare, their fury should come as no surprise. Beyond his almost daily, run of the mill buffoonery, the leading lights among... more Posted on October 5, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	"Going Rogue" by Sarah Palin, Editor's Cut Buoyed by bulk advance purchases by the right-wing faithful, Sarah Palin's upcoming book Going Rogue as expected catapulted to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list. That Palin turned to ghostwriter Lynn Vincent, whose past conservatives screeds branded Democrats "treasonous" and lauded the Christian crusader General William Boykin reprimanded by President Bush, is similarly unsurprising. Meanwhile, former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt announced on Friday a Palin presidential run in 2012 "catastrophic" for the GOP. Not because of what's in... more Posted on October 2, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Still Another 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism During the 2008 presidential campaign, I documented 10, then 10 more and yet another 10 moments in the extremism of Mike Huckabee. Now, fresh off his victory in the straw poll at the so-called Values Voters Summit, the one-time Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor turned Fox News host called for the United States to leave the United Nations. Following his use of the late Ted Kennedy to fight mythical "death panels" and his tacit endorsement of ethic cleansing in... more Posted on September 29, 2009 \| Comments (7)

	Washington Post Aids GOP in Medicare Role Reversal Story That the elderly of all groups of Americans most strongly oppose President Obama on health care reform shows the success of Republican fear-mongering over supposed Medicare cuts and "death panels". And on Monday, the Washington Post did the GOP a great service in a piece titled, "On Medicare Spending, a Role Reversal." While exploring the impact of projected savings in the program that serves 46 million Americans, the Post left unchallenged the Republicans' laughable claim to be the new protectors... more Posted on September 28, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	"Hong Kong" Palin vs. "Katie Couric" Palin Turning to Sarah Palin to explain the international economy and the role of government is like asking a dog why it likes to lick its ass. But as an audience of investors and fund managers learned today in Hong Kong, Palin's cartoon-quality conservative platitudes don't merely fly in the face of the consensus of economic analysts. As a flashback to her catastrophic interview with Katie Couric reveals, Sarah Palin doesn't even agree with herself. Palin's rewriting of history begins with... more Posted on September 23, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Michael Steele's Problems with Dr. King Continue Speaking at Philander Smith College in Little Rock Monday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared, "Dr. King would be disappointed in the political leadership of this country for failing to address the least of us." But while Steele denied "we're all doing all this blocking" on health care, he also left unmentioned that 58% of Republicans aren't sure if the nation's first African-American president was born in the United States. And as it turns out, this isn't Steele's first unfortunate attempt... more Posted on September 22, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Baucus Bill Latest Proof of Krugman's Law With his seriously compromised and deeply flawed legislation, Senator Max Baucus has achieved rare bipartisan consensus on health care: virtually everyone from both parties hates his bill. But with his feeble acknowledgement that despite all of his kowtowing to his GOP colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee "no Republican has offered his or her support at this moment," Baucus once again confirmed "Krugman's Law." That is, no amount of appeasement is sufficient for Republicans to ever back Democratic proposals on... more Posted on September 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	10 Lessons for Tea Baggers Back in April, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart offered some sound advice for frothing at the mouth Tea Baggers, "I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing." Now five months after their Tax Day outburst, thousands of vein-popping Obama opponents descended Saturday on Washington for Tea Party II. But while Glenn Beck's furious followers alternately slandered the President as a "fascist," a "communist" and worse, they remained unencumbered by either the thought process - or the truth. Here, then,... more Posted on September 14, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	The Bad Medicine of the Republican Doctors When the GOP trotted out the hapless Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) to deliver the response to President Obama, the former cardiologist became just the latest Republican physician deployed to halt health care reform. As it turns out, the repentant Birther was an unfortunate choice to carry the GOP banner of tort reform, given his own history of malpractice suits. Of course, as his colleagues Tom Price, Tom Coburn and Bill Frist all show, when it comes to the politics of... more Posted on September 10, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	10 Missing Republican Talking Points on Health Care As President Obama's make-or-break health care speech to Congress approaches, the focus of media tea leaf readers is on what specifically he will say. Will the President overcome his marketing failures to date and commit his political capital to a reform plan? Will he draw a line in the sand on the public option, viewed by most of his allies as essential to reining in costs and crucial to making insurance mandates possible? But perhaps just as telling as what... more Posted on September 9, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Why Right-Wing Hissy Fits Work On Wednesday, the fact checking web site Politifact deemed a "pants on fire" lie the Republican claim that President Obama planned to indoctrinate America's school children in a broadcast next week. On Friday, press secretary Robert Gibbs rightly noted that presidents Reagan and Bush similarly addressed students in speeches which, as Steve Benen pointed out, actually promoted their agendas on taxes and education. Nevertheless, as ABC, the New York Times and Politico tell us, the "school speech backlash builds." All... more Posted on September 4, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	McDonnell and the GOP's "Youthful Indiscretion" Defense The once lopsided Virginia gubernatorial race has suddenly gotten a lot more interesting with the revelations surrounding Republican front-runner Robert McDonnell's reactionary 1989 master's thesis. As it turns out, it's not just Democrats clamoring that McDonnell "can't shrug it off as misguided youth"; many of his long-time Republican allies claim the 34 year author of the Regent University rant against working women and "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators" is the same man they support today. But with a still-solid lead in... more Posted on September 2, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Wall Street Journal Debunks GOP Talking Point on Stimulus While the Wall Street Journal editorial page can always be counted on to cheerlead the flat-earth economics of the Republican Party, on occasion the paper's reporters contradict GOP orthodoxy. And so it is today on the subject of the Obama stimulus package. Just one day after Eric Cantor (R-VA) followed the lead of John Boehner and Newt Gingrich in urging the cancellation of the recovery program he deemed a "failure," the Journal's Deborah Solomon reported otherwise in a piece simply... more Posted on September 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	RNC's Steele Backs - and Opposes - Medicare Cuts If nothing else the GOP is an irony producing machine. The same Republican Party which fought to block Medicare in the 1960's and tried to gut it in the 1990's is now pretending to be the defender of the popular government-run health care program for America's seniors. RNC chairman Michael Steele is just the latest to deploy the elderly as human shields in the GOP battle to halt Democratic health care reform at all costs. But by both opposing and... more Posted on September 1, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	GOP: Health Care Needs More Senate Votes Than Social Security, Medicare Once upon a time - a time before the 2006 midterm elections consigned the GOP to minority status in Congress, a bill generally required 51 votes in the Senate to become law. But not content to rest on their record for filibusters in the 110th term, roadblock Republicans now insist even 60 votes aren't enough. But while Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) demand "75 to 80" votes to pass health care reform, it's worth remembering... more Posted on August 21, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The 5 Symptoms of Incurable Republican Schizophrenia The Mayo Clinic, the world famous institution cited by all sides in the contentious health care debate, defines schizophrenia as a serious brain disorder "in which reality is interpreted abnormally" resulting in "hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior." Apparently, that affliction is now running rampant among supporters of the Republican Party. As recent polling about conservative beliefs regarding Medicare, taxes, supposed "death panels," President Obama's citizenship and more shows, the crisis of Republican schizophrenia has reached epidemic proportions. Here,... more Posted on August 20, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Smoking Grassley on Health Care Reform After his predictable experience with unified Republican obstructionism on the stimulus bill, President Obama must be high if he thinks there's a glimmer of hope for bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. Not because Sarah Palin is doubling-down on her "death panels" lie or Newt Gingrich is now fear-mongering over end-of-life care for the elderly he staunchly advocated just months ago. No, Obama's latest bad trip is thanks to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. One week after meeting with the President... more Posted on August 13, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Tom Delay and Fred Thompson, Death Panelists Slowly but surely, the mainstream media and even some Republican politicians are starting to roll back the GOP's vicious lies and fear-mongering over what Sarah Palin deemed Obama's "death panels." Ironically, many of the same conservatives who demanded the federal government should make the end-of-life decision for Terri Schiavo are labeling optional Medicare-funded consultations "euthanasia." As it turns out, the Republican luminaries Fred Thompson and Tom Delay would deny other Americans both the right and the support to make the... more Posted on August 11, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	What's the Matter with Oklahoma? As the ever more combustible health care debate rages across America, the state of Oklahoma has become the poster child for the conflict and its contradictions. A 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund ranked Oklahoma dead last in state health care performance. Yet in 2008, the Sooner State remained among the most Republican in the nation, giving John McCain a whopping 31% win over Barack Obama. Meanwhile in Washington, its congressional delegation of James Inhofe, Tom Coburn and John Sullivan... more Posted on August 9, 2009 \| Comments (12)

	Town Halls, Teabaggers, Obama Birthers and Nixonland Once in a rare while, a book captures the spirit of its age. So it is with Nixonland, Rick Perlstein's stunning chronicle of the rise and fall of Tricky Dick. But his story of the "fracturing of America" isn't simply the harrowing tale of how Nixon, "a serial collector of resentments," fanned the flames of racism, anti-communism and the budding culture war to take power in his time. As the hateful rhetoric and dangerous tactics of furious Birthers, raging Teabaggers... more Posted on August 8, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Unbearable Whiteness of Being...a Birther As has been documented in detail, the anti-Obama birther movement is strongest in precisely those states where Republicans poll best and, ironically, health care is worst. But despite experiencing serial embarrassments akin to learning the sun does not rise in the West, a new Pew Research Center poll shows Republican want more - and not less - media coverage of their collective descent into delusion. Of course, that would involve deeper discussion of the racial flat-eartherism of the almost exclusively... more Posted on August 6, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Domestic Spying Ally Cornyn Now Fears Obama Data Collection If nothing else, Republican Senator John Cornyn is an irony producing machine. During the Terri Schiavo affair, the former Texas Supreme Court Justice was at the forefront of the GOP campaign to intimidate and threaten judges. Now after his fierce defense of President Bush's regime of illegal NSA domestic surveillance, Cornyn is comically warning that the Obama administration has launched a sinister "data collection program" to promote health care reform. Back in December 2005, Cornyn dismissed the New York Times'... more Posted on August 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	The Brooks Brothers Rioters and Their Discontents Karl Marx famously said historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. And so it is with the Republican "filibuster nation," the manufactured mob displays designed to disrupt, derail and destroy Democratic health care events. As I detailed yesterday, today's GOP astro-turfers are simply taking a page from the Republicans' 2000 playbook which featured the sinister "Brooks Brothers Riot" in Miami that shut down the recount in Dade County, Florida and effectively made George W. Bush president.... more Posted on August 5, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Returns to 2000 Dade County Recount Playbook Every football coach will tell you: if a play works, keep running it until the defense stops you. And so it is with the health care debate. Facing overwhelming public support for health care reform, right-wing groups have deployed mobs to disrupt events and "rattle" Democratic politicians in Austin, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and across the country. As the bitter 2000 recount battle in Dade County, Florida showed, that model of intimidation and manufactured outrage has a proven track record of success... more Posted on August 4, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Turns to Scare Tactics, Double-Talk on Medicare In his latest fear-mongering on health care reform, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that Democrats are intent on "sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare." Of course, McConnell's statement isn't merely false, it is comically so. After all, even as the program marked its 44th anniversary this week, his Republican colleagues like Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Tom Price (R-GA) continued the GOP's decades-long war against "government's intrusion into medicine through Medicare." More laughable still, Mitch McConnell was among... more Posted on July 31, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The Perpetual Republican War on Medicare Even as Republicans wage their new war against the latest efforts at health care reform, they are still fighting the last one. 44 years after the passage of Medicare, Republicans leaders like Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) are attacking Democratic proposals by blasting the popular health system for America's elderly. Sadly for the GOP, Medicare's proven success in reducing poverty among the elderly and its strong support from beneficiaries belies Price's claim that "nothing has had a greater negative effect on... more Posted on July 30, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	CBO Slams GOP Claim on Public Option and Employer Coverage To be sure, the preliminary analyses from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have not always bolstered the Obama administration's case for health care reform. But on one vital issue - the impact of the so-called "public option" on employer-provided health care in the U.S.- the CBO numbers backed the administration's case and decimated another Republican talking point. Even as a bipartisan group of Senate Finance Committee members reportedly reached a deal that would remove the public option from its version of... more Posted on July 28, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	In Parting, Palin Decries Federal Largesse She Accepted for Alaska In her fiery parting shot in Fairbanks Sunday, now-ex Governor Sarah Palin resorted to all of her now trademark rhetorical tactics. Bashing the media while using the U.S. military as human shields, she told the television cameras, "How about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit makin' things up?" She warned listeners of "enslavement to big central government" and the need to "be wary of accepting government largesse." Of course, when it comes to largesse from American taxpayers, Sarah... more Posted on July 27, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	A Look Back at the Sarah Palin Hall of Shame As she prepared for her final day in the Alaska governor's office Sunday, Sarah Palin's last week on the job produced more of the same head-scratching that has defined her 10 months on the national stage. Despite her demonstrated ignorance of Alaska energy production during the 2008 campaign, Newt Gingrich Wednesday declared, "Her knowledge of the energy issue is very real." As for Palin herself, who in her mind-numbing resignation speech said "I am not wired" to have the "fun... more Posted on July 26, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	Jindal Parrots Rove's 100 Million Health Care Ploy After going to ground following his calamitous prime-time response to President Obama's address to Congress in February, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has stepped back onto the national stage to insert himself in the health care debate. But while his Wall Street Journal op-ed claims to show "how to make health care reform bipartisan," Jindal's simply took a page from Karl Rove's playbook. That includes regurgitating Rove's charge that a public option will lead 100 million Americans to change health plans,... more Posted on July 22, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	McConnell, Bush and Delay: No One Goes Without Health Care Despite 50 million uninsured, another 25 million underinsured, a steep drop-off in employer-provided coverage, costs forecast to rise by 9% in 2010, 1 in 5 Americans delaying needed treatment and medical bills involved in over 60% of personal bankruptcies, Mitch McConnell pretends to fear reform which "denies, delays, or rations health care." As it turns out, the Senate Minority Leader like fellow Republican George W. Bush and Tom Delay believes no one goes without health care in America; they just... more Posted on July 20, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Shorter Mark Sanford: God is On My Side Politicians of both parties routinely paraphrase Abraham Lincoln's mantra that "my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." But in fighting his own civil war to hold onto office, disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has turned Lincoln's maxim on its head. Proclaiming in an opinion piece today that He will make him "a better and more effective leader," Sanford in essence declared God is on his side. Sanford's... more Posted on July 19, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	ACU Shows Conservatives Can Be Bought - and Rented As it turns out, free market conservatives can be bought - and rented. Four years after disgraced Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham pled guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractor MZM, the venerable American Conservative Union sought millions from FedEx before backing rival UPS in a pay-to-play scheme that came to light this week. Following the scandals over the Bush administration's paid-for pundits Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher, the ACU showed right-wingers can apparently also be purchased wholesale.... more Posted on July 18, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Sotomayor v. the GOP's Post-9/11 Constitution As the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor predictably devolved into mindless Republican regurgitation about wise Latinas, empathy, judicial activism and New Haven firefighters, one revealing exchange about the impact of the September 11 attacks was largely overlooked. The 9/11 tragedy, Sotomayor insisted, "doesn't change" the Constitution. As it turns out, her claim that "the Constitution is a timeless document" is a far cry from the philosophy of Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn and other Republicans who brushed off... more Posted on July 16, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	John McCain Revises His Epitaph As he launched his first presidential run nine years ago, John McCain in December 1999 said of the Keating Five scandal that nearly ended his career, "The fact is, it was the wrong thing to do, and it will be on my tombstone and deservedly so." But as he made clear on Meet the Press this morning, the man who pompously claimed he put "country first" has apparently revised his epitaph. The two-word inscription memorializing his political career now reads,... more Posted on July 12, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Rick Santorum and the Sanctity of John Ensign's Marriage Rick Santorum may no longer a Senator, but he remains an endless source of amusement - and hypocrisy. In 2002, the devout Catholic blamed the shocking clergy sex abuse scandal consuming his church on Boston's supposed "political and cultural liberalism." Warning of the slippery slope to "man-on-dog" nuptials to be triggered by same-sex unions, Santorum dedicated (and titled) a chapter of his 2004 book to protecting "the Sanctity of Marriage." As it turns out, protecting fellow Republican John Ensign may... more Posted on July 10, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Honduras Crisis Recalls Bush Support for Chavez Coup On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turned to Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias to mediate the crisis in Honduras. But even as President Obama from Moscow announced, "America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies," Republicans in Washington readied a resolution supporting the coup. If that line from the supposedly pro-democracy GOP sounds familiar, it should. Back in 2002, the Bush administration backed... more Posted on July 8, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Sarah Palin's Greatest Hits Attempting the political equivalent of relaunching the Hindenburg, soon-to-be former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin hosted ABC, Fox News, CNN, Time, the AP and other media outlets while fishing Tuesday. But even as she proclaimed of her abrupt resignation, "politically speaking, if I die, I die," Palin reminded Americans once again why she so deserves that fate. By claiming the nonexistent "Department of Law" in Washington would protect her from the kind of ethics woes she encountered in Alaska, Palin demonstrated... more Posted on July 7, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	After Calling Hillary Clinton a Whiner, Palin Blasts Media's "Different Standard" One day after her rambling resignation speech in Wasilla, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was a no-show for July 4th events in her state. But that didn't stop her from issuing yet another statement on Facebook, attacking the media for the "different standard [it] applies for the decisions I make." As it turns out, it is Sarah Palin who is holding herself to a different standard; in March 2008, she slammed Hillary Clinton for whining about her own treatment at the... more Posted on July 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Palin's Lawyer Threatens to Sue Bloggers, Media During her now 10 month-long media victimization campaign, Sarah Palin has time and again displayed her fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment and Americans' free speech rights. Now as she prepares to exit the Alaska Governor's mansion, her confusion - and thin skin - is again on display. On the Fourth of July of all days, Palin's lawyer Thomas Van Flein issued a warning that his client would bring defamation claims against bloggers and media alike speculating on rumors of... more Posted on July 5, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Palin, Sanford and Dereliction of Duty Like the proverbial broken clock, even Charles Krauthammer gets it right occasionally, if not twice a day. On Thursday, Krauthammer dismissed Governor Sarah Palin 24 hours before her surprise resignation as "not a serious candidate for the presidency." That conclusion followed his recent broadside against South Carolina's Mark Sanford for "dereliction of duty" in going AWOL over his Argentinean mistress. As her jaw-dropping rationalizing about her lame duck status revealed, that same charge applies to Palin as well. In her... more Posted on July 4, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Moral Paragons Bennett, Giuliani Weigh In on Sanford God may work in mysterious ways, but He has nothing on today's Republican Party. As the dueling scandals of John Ensign and Mark Sanford wash away the last vestiges of the GOP's long-discredited claim to uphold "moral values," gambling addict William Bennett and the thrice-married Rudy Giuliani weighed in on the imbroglio. Bennett, the former Education Secretary turned conservative columnist and radio host, used his perch at CNN to announce that Governor Sanford is "embarrassing himself": "I know Mark Sanford.... more Posted on July 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	God's Plan for Mark Sanford and Sarah Palin Three weeks ago, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee declared California's passage of Proposition 8 "a miracle from God's hand." Now, new revelations from Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford, two of Huckabee's would-be (or would have been) rivals for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, show they, too, believe they are part of God's plan. As the mushrooming scandal over his "soul mate" Argentine mistress and potentially other women increases pressure on him to resign as South Carolina's Governor, Sanford insisted God... more Posted on June 30, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Curious Case of Tom Coburn Politics, they say, makes strange bedfellows. And perhaps none is stranger than Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn. As the Washington Post reported today, the tenant of the mysterious "C Street" brownstone was a key player in both the Ensign and Sanford affairs. As it turns out, the arch-conservative Coburn also happens to be a friend and confidante of President Barack Obama. During his nationally-televised implosion on Wednesday, disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford made passing reference to "the Fellowship," a... more Posted on June 26, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Washington Times: Social Conservatives Fall from Grace You know things are bad for God's Own Party when the arch-conservative and faithfully Republican Washington Times runs an article proclaiming "social conservatives fall from moral high ground." Declaring "Republicans retreat from values claims," the Times catalogued the damage done to the party of supposed "values voters" by an endless string of scandals extended by John Ensign and Mark Sanford in the past week. For Democratic schadenfreude alone, the Times introduction was worth the price of admission: Social conservatives, the... more Posted on June 25, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Ronald Reagan, Cream Puff As the chaos and unrest escalates in Iran, Republicans have predictably exhumed Ronald Reagan to club President Obama. Confusing Soviet domination of Eastern Europe with an Iranian election among candidates all blessed by the ruling theocrats in Tehran, John McCain blasted the President, recalling that Reagan "stood up for Polish workers in Gdansk." Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) wasn't content to declare to Gipper "always knew" to "be vocally supportive of all those people who are oppressed," he denounced Obama as a... more Posted on June 18, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Another Susan Smith Moment for Conservatives It was just nine months ago that McCain campaign volunteer Ashley Todd manufactured a hoax in which a African-American attacker supposedly carved the letter "B" in her face. Now the conservative faithful have again been duped by one of their own. For the last two months, 26-year old blogger Beccah Beushausen won over anti-abortion activists nationwide with her heartbreaking accounts of her unbelievably difficult pregnancy. Unbelievable, it turns out, because it simply never happened. Just days after the assassination of... more Posted on June 13, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Mike Huckabee Sees the Hand of God. Again. As has been widely reported, on Friday the thrice-married, nouveau Catholic Newt Gingrich declared, "We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism." But in less noticed remarks during the same "Rediscovering God in America" lectures, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee announced "a miracle from God's hand" was behind the approval of California's Proposition 8. Of course, for Huckabee, who repeatedly cited divine intervention to explain his surprising early success during the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, such... more Posted on June 7, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Republicans Again Turn to Intel Leaks They Once Decried When the New York Times in December 2005 revealed President Bush's program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA, reaction from the White House and its Republican allies was swift - and furious. "These politically motivated leaks," Pete Hoekstra declared, "must stop." But now desperate to defend at any cost Bush's regime of detainee torture, Capitol Hill Republicans have learned to love leaking classified national security information. As The Hill reported Thursday, Hoekstra and his allies on the House Intelligence... more Posted on June 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Cheney and the Asterisk Republicans During his appearance Monday at the National Press Club, former Vice President Dick Cheney again stated his support for same-sex marriage. Understandably supporting the rights of his own daughter Mary, Cheney proclaimed, "Freedom means freedom for everyone," adding, "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish." Which makes Cheney just the latest Asterisk Republican. Marriage, it turns out, is between one man and one woman, * unless either the man or the... more Posted on June 2, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Before Tiller Murder, Palin Refused to Condemn Anti-Abortion Terrorism As I've noted before, the distance between the incendiary rhetoric of the Republican Party and anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-government and above all anti-abortion extremism is a growing ever shorter. With Sunday's murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, that disturbing dynamic deserves deeper examination. After all, while even arch-conservative Attorney General John Ashcroft once deemed such anti-abortion violence "terrorist," Alaska Governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin refused to "use the word there." In May 2003, the FBI finally captured... more Posted on May 31, 2009 \| Comments (9)

	Liddy, Gingrich, Limbaugh and Supreme Menstruation Back in 1995, Newt Gingrich famously concluded menstruation rendered women unfit for combat roles in the military. Now just two days after Gingrich branded Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "racist," convicted Watergate felon and right-wing radio host G. Gordon Liddy agreed that both of Newt's arguments disqualify Sotomayor. Period. After echoing Tom Tancredo's slander that the National Council of La Raza to which Sotomayor belongs is a "Latino KKK," Liddy Thursday recycled Gingrich's theory of menstrual disqualification: "Let's hope that... more Posted on May 29, 2009 \| Comments (7)

	Judicial Intimidator Cornyn Defends Sotomayor from Rush You know things are bad for the conservative movement when John Cornyn comes to the defense of Sonia Sotomayor. On Thursday, the Texas Senator called rejected as "terrible" charges from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich that Sotomayor is a "racist." Coming from a man who casually condoned threats against American judges, Cornyn's statement is telling indeed. Speaking on NPR, Cornyn responded to Gingrich and Limbaugh's rush to the gutter: "I think it's terrible. This is not the... more Posted on May 29, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, Rove Addressed La Raza, Deemed "Latino KKK" by Tancredo 48 hours after announcing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "appears to be racist," Republican Tom Tancredo today blasted her association with the National Council of La Raza, deeming the organization "a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses." As it turns out, of course, the GOP itself has a long tradition of reaching out to La Raza, including appearances at the group's events by George W. Bush, Karl Rove and John McCain. In an apparent effort to top Newt... more Posted on May 28, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Gingrich Called CIA's 2007 Iran NIE a "Coup d'Etat" Yesterday, I detailed the legion of leading Republicans and their acolytes in the right-wing echo who less than two years ago insisted that the CIA was an "anti-Bush cabal" seeking to "undermine" the President. Leading the calls for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down over her claim the CIA "misled" Congress is her disgraced predecessor, Newt Gingrich. As it turns out, Gingrich himself didn't merely calls the agency's 2007 Iran National Intelligence Estimate "misleading." Newt labeled it a "coup d'etat."... more Posted on May 21, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	GOP in 2007: CIA "Misleading" and an "Anti-Bush Cabal" That House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has badly bungled the imbroglio over what she knew and when about the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture is hard to dispute. Seemingly snatching PR defeat from the jaws of victory, Pelosi should have instead simply called the Republicans' bluff and insisted on investigations of torture architects, perpetrators and "accomplices" alike, letting the bipartisan chips fall where they may. But by savaging Pelosi for her statement that the CIA "misled" Congress, Bush's Republican water... more Posted on May 20, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Palin Fails Second Test on 1st Amendment On Wednesday, former beauty pageant contestant Sarah Palin rushed to the defense of another, proclaiming of Carrie Prejean, "I can relate as a liberal target myself." But by insisting "those who disagree with her deny her protection under the nation's First Amendment Rights," Governor Palin once again revealed her ignorance of the United States Constitution. As it turns out, Palin also failed First Amendment 101 during the 2008 campaign. In a statement released late Wednesday, Palin breathed new life into... more Posted on May 15, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Sessions Resuscitates GOP's "Club Gitmo" Talking Point If nothing else, Alabama Senator and ranking Judiciary Committee Republican Jeff Sessions can be counted on to faithfully regurgitate his party's talking points. In February 2006, Sessions joined John Cornyn (R-TX) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) in propagating the "give me death" defense of President Bush's regime of illegal domestic surveillance, proclaiming, "Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because they are no longer with us." Now, as the Obama administration wrestles with the fate of Guantanamo Bay terror detainees, Senator... more Posted on May 14, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Brands Democrats the Monarchist Party Republicans are not merely beaten and battered. As they revealed once again at the kickoff event for their latest extremist makeover, they are confused as well. According to the McCain/Palin ticket and later myriad Republicans in Congress, Barack Obama is a "socialist." While their tea-bagging faithful slander Obama as a "communist," their erstwhile leader Glenn Beck and others warned of Democratic "fascism." And on Saturday, the once and future GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney called Democrats "the party of... more Posted on May 4, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Bybee Latest Proposed GOP Medal Recipient This week, Judge Jay Bybee broke his silence regarding his infamous August 2002 torture memo, calmly declaring "the conclusions were legally correct." But while some Democrats want the 9th Circuit Appeals Court judge impeached or at least to testify before Congress, New York Rep. Peter King believes Bybee should be "given a medal." As it turns out, King's is just the latest conservative voice calling for a GOPy medal for perpetrators of Republican wrongdoing, a list that also includes the... more Posted on May 3, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	How Republicans Learned to Love the Judicial Filibuster The end of the Souter era on the U.S. Supreme Court also officially marks the beginning of the GOP's new found love of the judicial filibuster. After years in the majority insisting President Bush's picks for the bench deserved an "up or down vote," the same Republican Senators are now threatening to turn to the judicial filibuster they once promised to eviscerate with the so-called "nuclear option." Of course, Republicans made clear that their "up or down vote" talking point... more Posted on May 1, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Republican Brand to Undergo Extremist Makeover With the departure of Arlen Specter and its party identification flat-lining at 20%, the GOP is launching a national rebranding effort. As part of its National Council for a New America, the Party of No will host public forums around the country for its rag-tag band of tea-bagging faithful and anyone who else wants to attend. As it turns out, this is the Republicans' second attempt at reinvention in 12 months. A year ago, former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis warned... more Posted on April 30, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Specter Switches Parties in Final Hamlet Act The Washington Post and AP are reporting that Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter will officially change parties. But while Specter's gambit to escape both his reactionary party and an uphill battle in the 2010 GOP primary could provide Democrats with a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate, President Obama's allies shouldn't be so sure. After all, whether involving his tortured indecision and reversals over NSA domestic surveillance, the U.S. attorneys purge, presidential signing statements, the Employee Free Choice Act and... more Posted on April 28, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Conservatives Politicizing Crime. Again. Dating back to at least the presidency of George H.W. Bush, conservative defenders of the Republican faith have turned to the "criminalizing politics" evasion when confronted with the lawlessness and wrong-doing of their leaders. And so it is once again with the fierce debate regarding the potential prosecution of the architects of the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture. Now, after deploying the criminalization of politics defense for everything from Iran-Contra and the U.S. attorneys purge to the Scooter Libby... more Posted on April 23, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP's Seinfeld Defense of Torture During one of the more memorable episodes of Seinfeld, George Costanza helps Jerry prepare for a lie detector test by advising, "it's not a lie if you believe it." And so it is with Republican defenders of the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture. As it turns out, Marc Thiessen, David Rivkin, Peggy Noonan, Michael Hayden, Michael Mukasey and Dick Cheney are just some of the cavalcade of conservatives whose tortured defenses of the indefensible sound like catch-phrases from the... more Posted on April 21, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Defining Political Deviancy Down In 1993, Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously warned that American society was "defining deviancy down." To the approval of conservatives, Moynihan cautioned that when it came to crime, family breakdown and other social pathologies, "we have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the 'normal' level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard." Now 16 years later, so it is with American political culture. As this week's... more Posted on April 18, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	10 Republican Lies for Tax Day The truth may set you free, but not if you're a Republican and the subject is taxes. After all, 95% of American families as promised received a tax cut from the Obama stimulus package. And while three-quarters of Americans support President Obama's proposal to roll back the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 to their Clinton-era levels, it turns out that affluent voters, too, chose Barack Obama over John McCain. Making matters worse, a Gallup poll Monday revealed... more Posted on April 15, 2009 \| Comments (13)

	Conservatives Tormented by Gay Elephants When it comes to conservative politics, it's a very small world indeed. Here in the United States, Pastor Rick Warren canceled an Easter appearance on ABC's This Week after his comic reversal on Prop 8 produced a firestorm of criticism from his allies in the religious right. And while Politico Friday reported a split in the ever-shrinking ranks of gay Republicans, in Poland a conservative city councilor decried the existence of gay elephants altogether. As the 2004 imbroglio over gay... more Posted on April 12, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Tea Baggers Protest No Taxation with Representation If nothing else, the conservative movement is an irony producing machine. Aided and abetted by their echo chamber at Fox News, on Tax Day next week members of the raging right will gather at so-called Tea Parties around the country. There, the protesters, at least 95% of whom received a tax cut courtesy of President Obama and Democrats in Congress, will in essence decry "no taxation with representation." And if their misunderstanding of the Boston Tea Party wasn't bad enough,... more Posted on April 10, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	Mitt Romney Reinvents Himself. Again. As a downtrodden Republican Party battles to rebound from its November beat-down, one 2012 GOP White House hopeful is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. While Bobby Jindal disgraced himself on national television and the Palin clan became icons for petty crime and failed family values, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is again positioning himself as the Republicans' next best hope. In his latest extreme makeover, Mitt is selling off ostentatious mansions, bankrolling GOP candidates nationwide and pushing as... more Posted on April 9, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	From Republican Rhetoric to Right-Wing Terror The slaughter of three Pittsburgh policemen by an assailant who "didn't like our [gun] rights being infringed upon" has again highlighted the growing danger from incendiary Republican rhetoric spawning right-wing terror. After all, just days ago, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced, "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous." Fox News host Glenn Beck warned of a "Constitution under attack" and predicted a coming "civil war" while featuring guests like NRA chief Wayne Lapierre whose group spent millions in 2008... more Posted on April 5, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Phony War on Catholics Barack Obama, in the telling of some Republican leaders and their amen corner in the media, is "declaring war on Catholics." So says former Bush speechwriter turned Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson in parroting the wishful thinking and trumped-up controversy of conservatives in a diatribe this week. Sadly for the right-wing echo chamber, both with their votes and their attitudes on a wide range of social issues, American Catholics are with Barack Obama. The manufactured outrage over Obama's Notre Dame... more Posted on April 4, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	GOP "Death Tax" Fraud Back from the Grave In 2001, President Bush waged a largely successful campaign to curb the estate tax. But eight years after denouncing that scourge of the ultra-rich, Republicans have resurrected their "death tax" talking point, complete with its repeatedly debunked claims about the impact of estate levies on small businesses and family farms. Even as they decry the deficit spending the Bush recession has required, Congressional Republicans aided and abetted by some Democrats are pushing an estate tax windfall for the wealthiest Americans... more Posted on April 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	April Fools: GOP Budget a New Windfall for the Wealthy It may be April Fool's Day 2009, but the Republican Party is playing the same joke on the American people. After brushing off last week's calamitous Republican "road to recovery" blueprint as a "marketing document," Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled the GOP's alternative budget in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. In it, Ryan offers the same snake oil his party has been selling since the days of Reagan and Bush. The cure for what ails the U.S. economy, it turns out,... more Posted on April 1, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	The Republicans' Deficit Attention Disorder "Reagan," Dick Cheney once famously declared, "proved that deficits don't matter." Not, that is, when a Republican is sitting in the Oval Office, as the tripling of the U.S. national debt under Ronald Reagan and doubling under George W. Bush confirmed. Now with the mystery budget unveiled to great fanfare - and even greater laughter - by House Republicans last week, the on-again/off-again deficit hawks of the GOP are at it again. Having blasted Barack Obama's supposed "banana republic" budget... more Posted on March 31, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Right Denounces Online Tactics It Uses Every Day Across the right-wing blogosphere, red meat reactionary Andrew Breitbart is being hailed as a visionary hero for his call to arms, "online activists on the right, unite!" In his jeremiad, Breitbart warns that a "digital war has broken out, and the conservative movement is losing" and insists the right's "embrace of Judeo-Christian ideals" has prevented it from adopting its opponent's "propaganda techniques that were perfected in godless communist and socialist regimes." Of course, from astroturfing and paid blog commenters to... more Posted on March 30, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Issa: No More Laura Bushes The blogosphere is buzzing with the news that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is pushing for new requirements in federal law to mandate First Lady Michelle Obama open her policy work to the public. But what Issa first started in 2008 as a campaign to rein in a future President Hilary Clinton and first spouse Bill could well have been a reaction to another out-of-control presidential wife. Given her high-profile White House roles on AIDS, gangs and Burma, Congressman Issa may... more Posted on March 28, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Newt Gingrich and the Great Republican God Swap Nothing, it would seem, defines the modern Republican Party more than belief in free markets and God. So it is only natural that leading lights of the GOP would find rapture at the intersection of the two. Following in the footsteps of John McCain, Sam Brownback and Bobby Jindal, with his looming conversion to Catholicism Newt Gingrich is just the latest Republican presidential hopeful past and future to enter the marketplace of faith and exchange his religion for another. As... more Posted on March 26, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Judd Gregg and the GOP's Triple-Double on National Debt Timing, they say, is everything. On the very night President Obama suggested Republican critics of his $3.6 trillion budget plan have a "short memory" when it comes to the sea of red ink he inherited, PBS' Frontline offered a stinging reminder in a documentary titled "Ten Trillion and Counting." Featured prominently among the Republican amnesiacs was Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), who just one day earlier slammed Obama's "banana republic" budget. Absent, of course, from Gregg's recollection for PBS was the... more Posted on March 25, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Spreading the Wealth to Sarah Palin's Alaska Last week, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin joined the parade of 2012 Republican White House hopefuls posturing for GOP primary voters by refusing their states some of the $787 billion recovery package. Now facing a bipartisan firestorm at home from communities desperate for the stimulus spending, Palin is backtracking from her rejection of funds she mocked as "intended to just grow government." But whether she ultimately takes the money or not, Sarah Palin's Alaska will continue to rely on the kindness... more Posted on March 24, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Red State Socialism and the Politics of the Stimulus In just their latest posturing for the 2012 Republican presidential race, governors Sarah Palin (R-AK) and Mark Sanford (R-SC) joined Texas' Rick Perry, Mississippi's Haley Barbour and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal in announcing they would reject some of the federal stimulus funds allocated to their states. But as the steady one-way flow of tax dollars and earmarks spreading the wealth from Washington to their states shows, de facto red state socialism is alive and well. As a 2007 analysis (above) of... more Posted on March 22, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Sarah Palin and the 3-Step Libby Legal Defense Fund Facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees over her myriad ethics woes, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced she may launch a legal defense fund. Decrying "the political blood sport" including the "the politically motivated Troopergate probe" which have engulfed her over the past year, Palin may turn to supporters to pay off the half-million dollar debt she has incurred. Luckily, there's already a proven model for bankrolling the legal fights of Republican wrongdoers. As Scooter Libby showed, it's... more Posted on March 21, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Meghan McCain's Ass, John McCain's Chelsea Clinton Joke Among the least compelling story lines in the continuing internecine Republican conflict is the war of words between Meghan McCain and Laura Ingraham. After Ingraham dissed as "plus-sized" the presidential candidate's daughter turned blogger, McCain responded by telling her to "kiss my fat ass." When McCain asked on ABC's The View, "What kind of message are we sending young women?" Ingraham used her radio show to advise her, "You're gonna have to deal with people teasing." If Meghan McCain had... more Posted on March 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Cheney's "Stuff Happens" Defense of Republican Failure Just days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pooh-poohed the escalating chaos in the streets of Baghdad, saying with a shrug, "stuff happens." Now six years later, former Vice President Dick Cheney has elevated Rumsfeld's flip response to the level of theory in defending the Bush administration's eight-year record of failure. Of course, whether it was 9/11, sectarian conflict in Iraq, the rise of Hamas, the Bush recession or Hurricane Katrina, Cheney and the leading lights... more Posted on March 15, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Myths Claim Bush, Not Obama, Inherited a Recession Two days after Americans learned that U.S. household wealth plummeted by a staggering $11 trillion (an 18% drop) in 2008, the Washington Post featured a critique of President Obama's rhetoric attributing the recession to George W. Bush. But while Obama's statement that "by any measure, my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster" is inescapably true, his Republican opponents continue to stand truth on its head. It was George W. Bush and not Barack Obama, they falsely maintain, who inherited a... more Posted on March 14, 2009 \| Comments (6)

	Michael Steele's Abortive RNC Chairmanship The modern Republican Party, it has been said, believes that life begins at conception and ends at birth. Troubled RNC chairman Michael Steele is learning that lesson the hard way. 24 hours after the publication of an interview in which he labeled abortion "an individual choice," Steele recanted. In the interim, Steele not only was on the receiving end of a hell storm from social conservatives, he apparently went back and read the 2008 Republican Party platform. To be sure,... more Posted on March 12, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans, Science and Manufacturing Uncertainty On Monday, President Obama as promised reversed George W. Bush's draconian restrictions on federal support for stem cell research in the United States. But just as important as that key step was its larger message that this White House rejects the politicization of science which has dominated Republican strategy for a generation. And at the heart of that cynical subservience to business interests and social conservatives alike has been one of the Republican Party's most destructive tactics, manufacturing uncertainty. After... more Posted on March 9, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	After Death Threats, O'Connor Responds to GOP Attacks on Judges On Tuesday, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote OurCourts.org, her new online civics education project. But while O'Connor's goal is to counter alarming statistics including "only a third of Americans can name the three branches of government," her understandable motivation was the growing right-wing war on American judges. After all, amidst the incendiary rhetoric of John Cornyn, Tom Delay and other conservative leaders, Justice O'Connor was among those receiving... more Posted on March 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	"George W. Bush is My President." Six weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, a growing chorus of voices among the leaders of the defeated and downtrodden Republican Party is calling for his failure. During a time of war and national economic crisis, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Delay, Michelle Malkin, Johan Goldberg and Rick Santorum are just some of the GOP politicians and pundits urging Americans to cheer against their president and his recovery program. Of course, that hyperpartisanship is a far cry from eight years ago,... more Posted on March 3, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Does CIA Still Deserve a Medal for Destroying 100 Interrogation Tapes? Back in December 2007, Americans learned that then-head of the CIA's clandestine service Jose Rodriguez two years earlier ordered the destruction of at least two videotapes of detainee interrogations. Today, government lawyers revealed the number of tapes destroyed was much higher, totaling almost 100. That shocking revelation prompts two questions. First is the issue of whether the videos might have revealed enhanced interrogation techniques constituting torture, actions which might have both jeopardized detainee prosecutions and led to legal action against... more Posted on March 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Last Time the Top Tax Rate was 39%... The last time the top income tax rate was 39%, the United States enjoyed a booming economy, rising incomes, low unemployment and expanding budget surpluses. Unfortunately, that simple truth has been ignored by Republican propagandists and mainstream media alike during the debate over President Obama's stimulus plan and budget proposal. In his budget, Barack Obama has basically called for the status quo ante Bush when it comes to the taxes paid by upper income Americans. By letting the 2001 Bush... more Posted on March 1, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP and the Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat As the beaten and battered conservative faithful gather at the CPAC event in Washington, casual incitements to violence against the President, Democratic leaders and liberal Americans once again are filling the air. While former UN ambassador John Bolton produced guffaws with the specter of Obama's hometown being destroyed in a terrorist attack, Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher earnestly suggested some members of Congress should be shot. Meanwhile readers of the web site of Fox News host Sean Hannity voted on "what... more Posted on February 27, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	CPAC and the Dumbing Down of the Republican Party Even as this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) kicks off today in Washington, the transformation of the Republican Party into a cartoon is almost complete. In the same week in which Bobby Jindal extinguished his own rising star in a now legendary response to President Obama, the GOP's know-nothing every man Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher will be among the CPAC headliners offering wisdom to the right-wing faithful. But it's not merely the leading lights of the GOP but its... more Posted on February 26, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	For Holtz-Eakin, Bush Budget Lies Equal the Truth During the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain's chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin took more positions on the federal budget deficit than Newt Gingrich has had wives. Within a matter of weeks last year, Holtz-Eakin alternately claimed John McCain would balance the budget by either 2013 or 2017, all before announcing in April, "I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction." It is that comical record which makes Holtz-Eakin's criticism of Barack Obama's pledge to halve the... more Posted on February 24, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP's New Up-and-Down Vote Strategy During the height of the battle over judicial nominees in 2005, the Republican Party debuted its short-lived "up or down vote" talking point. Of course, after being reduced to minority status in the 2006 midterms, the GOP was quick to abandon that gambit, instead easily shattering the record for filibusters in the Senate. But in the aftermath of the passage of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package, Republicans hoping to have it both ways have introduced the sound bite's successor,... more Posted on February 24, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Gerson and Kudlow Laud Recession as Economic Enema The recession is good for you. At least, according to former Bush speechwriter turned Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson. Praising the "recession's hidden virtues," Gerson on Sunday reassured Americans that their financial hardships may be a boon to their physical health and personal morality, all while helping foster cultural renewal. As it turns out, Gerson is just following in the footsteps of Reagan adviser and CNBC host Larry Kudlow, who last April lauded the "cleansing" and "therapeutic" effects of recession... more Posted on February 23, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Obama Hosts Republican Party of Fiscal Irresponsibility To the displeasure of many on both sides of aisle, President Obama on Monday will host the so-called Fiscal Responsibility Summit at the White House. While some Democrats question the timing of Obama's expenditure of political capital on Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement reform, obstructionist Republicans are ridiculing the event even as they hype the myth of Republican fiscal discipline. And a myth it surely is. Far from the deficit hawks of Republican legend, the modern Republican Party from... more Posted on February 23, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Peddle Lie About Small Business Taxes. Again. In his first budget, President Obama apparently plans to keep his campaign promise to let the Bush tax cuts expire for Americans making over $250,000 a year. And just as during the election, Republican leaders are falsely claiming that Obama's proposal constitutes a tax hike on small business owners. This time, it is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoing John McCain and Joe the Plumber in spreading the lie. McConnell's myth-making came during an appearance Sunday on CNN's "State of... more Posted on February 22, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	The Republicans' Next $2.7 Trillion Lie As the New York Times detailed this week, the Obama administration will end George W. Bush's fuzzy math when it comes to the federal budget and budget deficit. But by accurately reflecting the true costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Medicare reimbursements, disaster responses and the AMT, the Obama White House is now projecting an extra $2.7 trillion increase in debt over the next decade. Which means that the groundwork has been laid for the Republicans' next lie.... more Posted on February 21, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	UBS, the IRS and Phil Gramm News that the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Swiss banking giant UBS is just the latest chapter in the curious case of Phil Gramm. Just one day after UBS agreed to pay a $780 million criminal fine and admitted to conspiring to defraud the IRS, the DOJ demanded access to 52,000 accounts as part of its broad tax evasion probe. Which is more than just a little ironic. After all, before he became a UBS vice-chairman in 2002,... more Posted on February 20, 2009 \| Comments (20)

	AP Perpetuates Myth of GOP Fiscal Discipline In the wake of Congressional Republicans' unified rejection of President Obama's just signed $787 billion economic recovery program, the AP's Liz Sidoti wrote Tuesday that "GOP tries to restore image of fiscal discipline." Sadly, that image is now as ever a myth. Far from the deficit hawks of Republican legend, the modern Republican party from Reagan forward devastated the U.S. treasury, leaving mounting debt and hemorrhaging red ink for as far as the eye can see: As the chart below... more Posted on February 17, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	John McCain, Generational Thief In the months since their bitter contest last fall, Barack Obama time and again reached his hand out to former rival John McCain, only to get slapped in the face for his troubles. Within days of Obama's pre-inauguration dinner honoring the Arizona Senator, McCain decried the President's supposed lack of bipartisanship on the $787 billion stimulus bill, a package he continues to denounce as "generational theft." As it turns out, of course, it is John McCain who has long supported... more Posted on February 16, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The Second Coming of Kristol and Gingrich They're baaaaack! As I detailed previously, the lockstep Republican obstructionism which greeted President Obama's stimulus plan in Congress was almost a perfect replay of the GOP's treatment of Bill Clinton's economic program in 1993. Then as now, Newt Gingrich and Bill Kristol helped mobilize a minority Republican Party afraid not that a new Democratic president would fail, but that he would succeed. The only difference with this second coming is the emergence of Gingrich's Mini-Me, Eric Cantor. Back in 1993,... more Posted on February 15, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	On Stimulus, Republicans Party Like It's 1993 As predicted, House and Senate Republicans on Friday maintained their unified front in turning their backs on President Obama's economic recovery package. As it turns out, Obama wasn't the first Democrat to learn the hard way that bipartisanship is a one-way street for the GOP when it comes to the economy. In 1993, Bill Clinton's $496 billion stimulus and deficit-cutting program passed without a single Republican vote. But in 1981 and again in 2001, substantial numbers of Democrats acquiesced in... more Posted on February 14, 2009 \| Comments (7)

	Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln, from Today's GOP Three months after Barack Obama praised Abraham Lincoln in his victory night speech in Chicago, the first African-American President is celebrating the 200th birthday of the first Republican at several events this week. But across the Republican Party's last remaining bastion in the South, the AP reported on Tuesday, the Lincoln bicentennial is being marked by reactions ranging from indifference to outright disdain. And almost on cue, Missouri Republican Bryan Stevenson that same day deemed Lincoln's salvation of the Union,... more Posted on February 12, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Repeats History of One-Way Bipartisanship The Senate's passage Tuesday of the economic recovery package followed a now-familiar 30 year pattern. The Democratic President Barack Obama, like Bill Clinton before him in 1993, faced a monolithic wall of GOP opposition to his economic program. But Republicans Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush 20 years later enjoyed substantial Democratic support for their dangerously irresponsible and regressive tax cuts that as predicted drained the federal treasury. Now as then, for Republicans the road to economic stimulus... more Posted on February 10, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Lincoln, Darwin and the Know-Nothing Republicans What do Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin have in common? As it turns out, two centuries after their shared February 12th birthdays and on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's theory, today's Republican Party largely rejects the achievements of each. Of course, from basic science and global warming to economics 101, the GOP's know-nothingism hardly stops with Lincoln and Darwin. Abraham Lincoln may have been of and by the Republican Party, but today it's hard to imagine he... more Posted on February 9, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	The Return of the Hoover Party As the American auto industry teetered on the brink of collapse in December, Vice President Dick Cheney beseeched his GOP allies in Congress to back an aid package, warning, "If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever." Now as they seek to obstruct President Obama's recovery program even in the face of catastrophic job losses, Capitol Hill Republicans have clearly decided to shun Cheney's advice and go for a full Hoover. As... more Posted on February 8, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Hoekstra Just Latest Republican to Leak Security Secrets As CQ Politics first reported yesterday, former House Intelligence Committee chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) leaked word of his delegation's secret trip to Iraq. Hoekstra, who in 2006 decried "unauthorized disclosures of classified information [which] only help terrorists and our enemies - and put American lives at risk," used Twitter to inadvertently announce the presence of high-ranking American officials in Baghdad. As it turns out, Pete Hoekstra is just the latest Republican politician to reveal classified national security information in recent... more Posted on February 7, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Tentative Stimulus Deal Confirms Krugman's Law As I noted earlier, the Senate has apparently reached a $780 billion compromise stimulus package after supposed moderates amputated over $100 billion in funding for health care, education and other vital initiatives. While many of my liberal allies disagree with my assessment that President Obama got rolled by bringing a knife to a gun fight with Congressional Republicans, it's hard to disagree with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's January 5th prediction of what would come to pass. Call it... more Posted on February 6, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Remember When: Congress Passes $1.4 Trillion Economic Package As President Obama finally starts to fight for his economic stimulus bill, roadblock Republicans in the Senate continue to decry the price tag. While John Thune (R-SD) described how many times $1 trillion worth of $100 bills would circle the earth, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proclaimed "Americans can't afford a trillion-dollar mistake." Of course, back in 2001, the GOP had no qualms (along with some invertebrate Democrats) in passing George W. Bush's much larger $1.4 trillion tax cut package.... more Posted on February 6, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Kristol Calls for a Repeat of 1990's GOP Obstructionism When it comes to blocking President Obama's economic stimulus plan, what is old is new for the conservative movement. Fearing a permanent Democratic majority if Bill Clinton succeeded in passing his health care reform package, Bill Kristol in 1993 famously rallied Republicans with a memo urging his party to halt it at all costs. With Congressional Republicans and right-wing talking heads alike now circling the wagons, history is apparently repeating itself. Afraid not that Obama's plan might fail, but that... more Posted on February 4, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Remembering Bush-Style Bipartisanship on the Economy With Senate Republicans threatening a filibuster over the President economic stimulus package, the Washington Post on Monday offered its assessment that "as Obama talks of bipartisanship, definitions vary." For the likes of Rush Limbaugh, that definition is George W. Bush. As Bush showed in 2001, bipartisanship on the economy meant jamming his catastrophic $1.4 trillion tax cut package down the throats of Congress largely unchanged, backed by many pliable Democrats. For the Republican leadership and their newly anointed spokesman Rush... more Posted on February 3, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Senate Republicans May Filibuster Obama Stimulus Package Last year, the Roadblock Republicans of the 110th Congress set the all-time filibuster record. Forcing 104 cloture votes by October 2008, the Senate's GOP minority easily eclipsed the old mark of 61 filibusters. And now, fresh on the heels of "elated" and "celebrating" House Republicans' refusal to provide a single vote in support of President Obama's $825 economic recovery package, Senate Republicans are now suggesting they will filibuster the stimulus bill. That's the word from ThinkProgress, which Friday afternoon offered... more Posted on January 30, 2009 \| Comments (6)

	Republicans Brand Ronald Reagan Socialist Welfare King Among the most predictable frauds in the Republican war against the Obama stimulus plan is the bogus claim that it offers to tax credits to Americans "not paying taxes." But while voters on Election Day rejected the cries of "socialism" from John McCain and Sarah Palin, GOP leaders from Rudy Giuliani and John Kyl to Jim Demint continue to deride Obama's proposed tax credits for working Americans as "welfare." As it turns out, that puts them on the opposite side... more Posted on January 30, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	2001 Flashback: Dems Vote for $1.35 Trillion Bush Tax Cut For those keeping score, Wednesday's final was Immovable Object 1, Irresistible Force 0. For all of his unprecedented outreach to Republican leaders on his economic stimulus package passed by the House yesterday - the poetry of post-partisanship, larding the bill with business tax provisions he opposed, meeting three times with GOP leaders, a rare presidential trip to Capitol Hill - Barack Obama was rewarded with no Republican votes. And if Mark Halperin is to be believed, Obama's shutout yesterday is... more Posted on January 29, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Obama's Outreach to Earn Zero Votes from House GOP? In November, the American people elected Barack Obama not so much to change the tone in Washington as to change the direction of the country. One week into his tenure as President, it's clear that the Republican minority in Congress will help with him neither. After all of his outreach to the GOP - incorporaing business tax cuts he opposed, three meetings with Republican leaders, the paeans to bipartisanship, the unprecedented trip Tuesday to Capitol Hill - President Obama may... more Posted on January 28, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Barack the Appeaser Back in May, President Bush, John McCain and the conservative echo chamber slandered Barack Obama's proposed diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East as "appeasement." Of course, President Obama is no appeaser of America's enemies abroad. But as his latest capitulation to Congressional Republicans over contraceptive funding in the stimulus bill suggests, Obama's willingness to appease his political foes at home is another matter. Obama's economic recovery package is quickly becoming a case study in the iron law of Washington: the... more Posted on January 27, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	GOP on Stimulus: Obstructionism Now, Obstructionism Forever When it comes to blocking President Obama's economic stimulus plan, what is old is new for the conservative movement. Fearing a permanent Democratic majority if Bill Clinton succeeded in passing his health care reform package, Bill Kristol in 1993 famously rallied Republicans with a memo urging his party to halt it at all costs. With Congressional Republicans and right-wing talking heads now circling the wagons, history is apparently repeating itself. Afraid not that Obama's plan might fail, but that it... more Posted on January 26, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Latest GOPer to Show Democrats Better for the Economy On Friday, the New York Times provided a jaw-dropping analysis of the dismal state of the economy under George W. Bush. Just days after the Washington Post documented that Bush presided over the worst eight-year economic performance in the modern American presidency, the Times charted his historic failure in expanding GDP, producing jobs and fueling stock market growth. As it turns out, Bush is just the latest Republican to confirm the maxim that Wall Street and the economy overall almost... more Posted on January 24, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner Recycles GOP's "Club Gitmo" Talking Point On the very day President Obama signed an executive order calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center within one year, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) regurgitated one of the GOP's tried and untrue talking points in its defense. Claiming the facility "has more comforts than a lot of Americans get," Boehner is just the latest Republican to present that blight on America's international standing as "Club Gitmo." At a press conference today, Boehner rejected the notion... more Posted on January 22, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Blocking Holder Cornyn's Latest Defense of Bush Crimes Less than a week into the Obama presidency, Texas Senator John Cornyn has emerged as the new face of the obstructionist Republican Party in Congress. Rejecting President Obama's calls for a new spirit of cooperation, Cornyn on Tuesday delayed the inevitable confirmation of Secretary of State Clinton. The next day, Cornyn pushed back the confirmation of Eric Holder as Attorney General by at least a week out in hopes of a extorting a pledge not to pursue torture prosecutions against... more Posted on January 22, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Cornyn Blesses Detainee Torture, Threats to Judges Among the lowlights of the confirmation hearings for Eric Holder this week was a jaw-dropping endorsement of torture by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). Having watched one too many "ticking time bomb" scenarios on the Fox series 24, Cornyn asked the would-be Attorney General if he "would still refuse to condone aggressive interrogation techniques like waterboarding to get that information." But as the record shows, John Cornyn is an aggressive advocate of illicit violence not just against terrorism suspects, but towards... more Posted on January 17, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Mocking Obama, Right Lauds Bush as Abraham Lincoln With Barack Obama's inauguration just days away, the conservative commentariat is outraged about comparisons between the 44th president and the 16th, Abraham Lincoln. The true successor to the Great Emancipator, the right-wing noise machine continues to insist, is George W. Bush. And as it turns out, no one has made that comical analogy more frequently - or forcefully - than Bush himself. Over at CQ, guest columnist Richard Connor is just the latest to echo the right-wing line that "history... more Posted on January 15, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Red States Show Highest Teen Birth Rates Just days after Bristol Palin officially became the poster child for her mother's failed abstinence-only sex education policy, a new report from the CDC revealed that in 2006 Alaska experienced the nation's fastest growing teen birth rate. While Mississippi suddenly surpassed Texas to earn the dubious leadership distinction, it comes as no surprise that the 10 worst performing states all voted for George W. Bush in 2004. Overall, teen birth rate jumped in 26 states, combining to reverse a 15-year... more Posted on January 8, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Yoo, Bolton and Saltsman Lead GOP Irony Machine Beaten and battered, the Republican Party long ago was reduced to an irony-producing machine. But for sheer productivity, Monday's hypocrisy generation by leading lights of the conservative movement was impressive. In the span of 24 hours, would-be RNC chairman and distributor of "Barack the Magic Negro" Chip Saltsman announced his party needed to improve its outreach to minority communities. Meanwhile, John Yoo and John Bolton, two men who helped gut the Geneva Conventions, called for Congress to uphold its role... more Posted on January 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Republicans' Old Black Magic While the controversy over would-be RNC chairman Chip Saltsman's distribution of a CD featuring a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro" continues, the transformation of the GOP into a Southern rump party appears to be virtually complete. After four decades in which race-baiting became a central Republican electoral strategy, Saltsman's gambit is finding both quiet supporters and vociferous defenders within the Party of Hate. That Mike Huckabee's former campaign manager would cap the 2008 election with a racist parody which... more Posted on January 3, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Loyal Bushie O'Beirne Protests Obama Changes at the Pentagon 10 days ago, the Obama transition team notified about 90 of the Pentagon's 250 Bush political appointees that their services would no longer be needed after Inauguration Day. But despite DoD spokesman Geoff Morrell's declaration that holdover Republican Defense Secretary Robert Gates was "absolutely satisfied" with way the transition was being handled, one loyal Bushie at the Pentagon was anything but. Jim O'Beirne - the same Jim O'Beirne who famously populated the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad with Republican campaign... more Posted on January 1, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Crime Pays for Palin Clan Sarah Palin is once again proving that nothing succeeds like failure. Within days of the overwhelming defeat of the McCain/Palin ticket came rumors that the Alaska Governor could reap a $7 million windfall for a book deal. Now just 24 hours after the birth of her son, MSNBC is reporting that the daughter of the abstinence-only sex education Governor stands to earn $300,000 for pictures of her baby. And as it turns out, Bristol Palin can thank the drug arrest... more Posted on December 30, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Award Winner Colson on Watergate Source Mark Felt The death today of Mark Felt, the Washington Post's legendary "Deep Throat" source during the Watergate scandal, capped two weeks which spurred inevitable comparisons between the lawbreaking of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. Felt's passing followed days after Newsweek identified former DOJ official Thomas Tamm as the whistleblower who brought President Bush's illegal NSA domestic surveillance to the light of day. As it turns out, that revelation came less than a week after Bush bestowed the Presidential Citizens Medal... more Posted on December 19, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Conservatives Push Romney as Fox-in Henhouse Car Czar As the American auto industry teeters on the edge of total collapse thanks to the union-busting efforts of Senate Republicans, others on the right have adopted a different strategy for punishing the UAW. Two days after Fred Barnes nominated "nation of whiners" scold Phil Gramm for "car czar," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is gaining traction as the GOP's point person for its fox-in-the-henhouse approach. After all, given his history as a union-bashing venture capitalist and recent call to "let... more Posted on December 12, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Mike Huckabee Needs a Taste of "Milk" Within days of Barack Obama's victory, new polling showed that Mike Huckabee is the early leader among the Republican faithful for the GOP's nomination in 2012. No doubt, Huckabee's strong showing is due in part to his high-profile defense of California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. At the very time that many voters are reconsidering their views of marriage equality in the wake of Prop 8 and the new film, Milk, the former Arkansas governor and... more Posted on December 11, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bagging Blagojevich or How the Right Learned to Love Patrick Fitzgerald News this morning that U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has indicted Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich predictably brought cheers from the conservative chattering classes. Blagojevich's arrest over the "pay for play" Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama and myriad other jaw-dropping corruption schemes Fitzgerald simply deemed "staggering" led the right-wing Hot Air blog among others to proclaim "Fitzmas arrives early this year." Of course, when the crime was obstruction and perjury over the outing covert CIA operative Valerie Plame as political... more Posted on December 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Abramoff, MZM Scandals Still Threaten GOP Over the past two election cycles, the Republican Party in Congress has been decimated thanks in part to its myriad scandals and the accompanying stench of corruption. But recent developments in the Abramoff affair and the unfolding drama of crooked defense contractor MZM suggest the body count is not yet complete for the GOP. For Democrats, Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham bagman Mitchell Wade remain the gifts that keep on giving. The Abramoff imbroglio, which to date has featured 15... more Posted on December 1, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, Obama United Against GOP War on Dogs Harry Truman once famously said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." For all of his faults, President Bush followed Truman's advice and like his father welcomed man's best friend to the White House. In his interview with Barbara Walters Wednesday, Barack Obama signaled that he, too, wanted a "big rambunctious dog" in his administration. As it turns out, this rare moment of bipartisanship is a welcome relief from the extreme anti-dog agenda of the Republicans who... more Posted on November 27, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	History Repeating as GOP Looks to Block Health Care Reform When it comes to blocking Barack Obama's health care plan, what is old is new for the conservative movement. Fearing a permanent Democratic majority if Bill Clinton succeeded in passing his health care reform package, Bill Kristol in 1993 famously authored a memo urging Republicans to halt it at all costs. Now in the wake of the GOP's latest blowout at the ballot box, its water carriers in right-wing think-tanks and media are calling for history to repeat itself. In... more Posted on November 24, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Romney to Detroit: Drop Dead During the Michigan primary in January, former Massachusetts Governor and son of auto magnate Mitt Romney blasted John McCain for saying he didn't want to raise "false hopes that somehow we can bring back lost jobs." Now as the American auto industry teeters on the brink of collapse, Romney in a New York Times op-ed Wednesday has a much different message for Detroit: drop dead. In January, Romney was singing a different tune about the need to save Michigan's car... more Posted on November 19, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	New Huckabee Book Adds GOP Blame Game to Culture War In this the season of their discontent, Republican leaders are pointing the finger of blame, all the while positioning themselves to take over their battered and bruised party in 2012. So it is with Mike Huckabee. In his new book, the former Arkansas Governor, Baptist minister and Fox News host skewers presidential rival Mitt Romney and castigates leaders of the religious right who cast their lot with someone else. But while Huckabee looks forward to the future battle for the... more Posted on November 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The National Review's Nazi Self-Parody As Georgia Congressman Paul Broun learned last week, politicians and pundits of all stripes should resist the temptation to compare their opponents to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Apparently, the staunch conservatives at the National Review didn't get the memo. Facing both conservative calamity at the polls and defections in its own ranks, the Review's Deroy Murdock suggested that a 1930's Nazi-style purge is just what the doctor ordered for the Republican Party. As the New York Times detailed Monday,... more Posted on November 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	How the GOP Learned to Love the Judicial Filibuster Nothing focuses the mind, the expression goes, like the sight of the gallows. And so it is for beaten and battered Senate Republicans when it comes to the use of the filibuster to block the judicial nominees of President Barack Obama. After years of insisting President Bush's picks for the bench deserved an "up or down vote," Arizona Senator Jon Kyl and his allies in the GOP minority are now threatening to turn to the judicial filibuster. Of course, after... more Posted on November 14, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Complaining Now, Palin Called Hillary Clinton a Whiner If nothing else, Sarah Palin has a short memory. Literally days after branding Barack Obama a "socialist" who "pals around with terrorists," Palin responded to her ticket's crushing defeat by announcing, "God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family." And as she returned to Alaska to complain about the media's accurate reflection of her jaw-dropping ignorance and campaign profligacy, Sarah Palin conveniently forgot having called Hillary Clinton a whiner when it comes to the press. During a Women and Leadership... more Posted on November 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Conservatives Blame Bush Recession on Obama Unsurprisingly, it took less than 24 hours for the conservative chattering classes to blame the Bush recession on President-elect Barack Obama. The usual suspects, including Rush Limbaugh, Fred Barnes and Dick Morris, pinned two days of steep stock market declines on Obama's election. Of course, the recent bloodbath on Wall Street has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with what John McCain deemed "the fundamentals of our economy" being weak. And as history shows time and again,... more Posted on November 7, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	The Republican War on Religious Freedom No doubt, Senator Elizabeth Dole's attack on Democrat and Sunday school teacher Kay Hagan as "godless" was one of the low points of the 2008 campaign. Dole's subsequent smiting by the voters of North Carolina was fitting electoral, if not divine, retribution. But as it turned out, Dole's slander against atheist Americans was hardly an isolated case of religious bigotry on the part of the Republican Party. From John McCain and Mitt Romney on down, the GOP waged a war... more Posted on November 6, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Five Lessons Learned on Election Day 2008 No doubt, the sweeping victory of Barack Obama was a historic milestone for the American people. But while Obama defied the odds and shattered stereotypes, the exit polls suggest his election confirmed as much conventional wisdom as it upended. Here, then, are five lessons learned from the 2008 election: Taxation with Representation. During the campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly stated, "if you make $200,000 a year or less, your taxes will go down." Apparently, voters making more than $200,000 were just... more Posted on November 5, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The Two Speeches That Defined McCain and Obama On this Election Day, the fates of John McCain and Barack Obama are now - finally - in the hands of Americans voters. But their respective destinies may have been determined by speeches each gave years ago. At the 2004 Democratic convention, Barack Obama introduced himself to the American people with a message of national unity and transformational change that has hardly changed since. But in May 2006, John McCain took to the stage of Reverend Jerry Falwell's Liberty University... more Posted on November 4, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Palin, Like Bush, Slanders Democrats on Terrorism With each passing day, Sarah Palin resembles more and more "George Bush in lipstick." Two days ago, she like George W. Bush in 2000 was duped by Canadian pranksters posing as foreign leaders. And today, Palin like President Bush in 2006 essentially accused her Democratic opponents of being terrorist sympathizers. Palin's slander came during a speech in Missouri. Claiming that Democrats want to slash defense spending, John McCain's running mate picked up his earlier treason charge and amplified it: "What... more Posted on November 3, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Will Obama Win the Character War? Back in May, I argued that with the American electorate's across-the-board preference for Democratic policies and a historically unpopular Republican president, John McCain's campaign would turn the November election into a "character war." In September, campaign chairman Rick Davis confirmed the GOP would follow its tried and true strategy from 2000 and 2004 when he announced "this election is not about issues" but instead about "a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." On Tuesday night, Americans... more Posted on November 3, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	New Keating Revelations Dog McCain As he launched his first presidential run in 2000, John McCain said of the Keating Five scandal that nearly ended his career, "it was the wrong thing to do, and it will be on my tombstone and deservedly so." But on the eve of his final bid for the White House, McCain is still being buffeted by new revelations from his involvement with the convicted S&L villain in the late 1980's. As it turns out, his wife Cindy continued her... more Posted on November 3, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Final Campaign '08 Disappearing Act Zero and 26. Those two numbers tell the tale when it comes to the toxic effects of President Bush on the candidacies of John McCain and his Republican colleagues. Zero is the number of public appearances Bush has made on behalf of GOP candidates this election cycle. 26 is the number of seconds George W. Bush and John McCain have been seen together in public since McCain earned the President's endorsement in March. And as the New York Times and... more Posted on November 1, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Adds 1st Amendment to Her Constitution Woes On the same day a new poll showed that 59% of Americans found her unqualified for the second highest office in the land, Republican Sarah Palin offered yet more confirmations of their wisdom. Palin, who on at least three occasions displayed a total ignorance of the constitutional role of the vice president, on Friday revealed that the First Amendment is alien to her as well. Palin's latest unfortunate run-in with the United States Constitution came during an interview with conservative... more Posted on October 31, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain on Obama: "He's Centrist" After two weeks in which his campaign has tried to brand Barack Obama a "socialist" and worse, John McCain took one small step back from the specter of the red menace. Appearing on the Larry King show Wednesday, McCain admitted that his Democratic opponent is no socialist. But as Election Day nears, don't expect John McCain to repeat his 2005 assessment of Obama, "he's centrist." The Republican smearing of Obama has included comical charges that the man backed by Warren... more Posted on October 30, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain Disagrees with McCain, Joe the Plumber on Social Security One day after failing to repudiate Joe the Plumber's slanderous claim that Barack Obama represents "death to Israel," John McCain will share a Miami stage with his ersatz working man. As it turns out, Florida is a fitting location for their next joint appearance. No doubt, the elderly voters there will enjoy the spectacle of John McCain's retreat on Social Security, which he recently called "an absolute disgrace" and his new domestic policy adviser/plumber Joe Wurzelbacher blasted as "a joke."... more Posted on October 29, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Surrogate Fiorina to Auto Industry: Drop Dead Back in January, John McCain helped doom his chances in the Michigan primary with his declaration that he didn't want to "false hopes that somehow we can bring back lost jobs." Now on the eve of the election, McCain's renegade surrogate Carly Fiorina only magnified his problems in the Rust Belt states with her insistence "the auto industry cannot be saved from its own bad bets." Even as the Bush White House was scambling to find new measures to help... more Posted on October 28, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Attacks Bush for Economic Policies They Share One day after proclaiming on Meet the Press that he and George W. Bush share a common philosophy, John McCain took to a stage in Cleveland Monday to attack the President's economic policies. As it turns out, of course, when it comes to ideology and policy on the economy, John McCain and George W. Bush are virtually indistinguishable. The feebleness of McCain's effort to distance himself from Bush was revealed in its brevity. Despite the AP's headline that "McCain says... more Posted on October 27, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Despite Media Myths, Obama Dominant Among Hispanic and Jewish Voters Among the enduring myths of the 2008 election have been the purported struggles of Barack Obama in securing the support of Hispanic and Jewish voters. But as new polls suggest, Obama will not only dominate John McCain among these groups, he may outperform Al Gore and John Kerry as well. A recent survey from Gallup revealed a 50 point edge for Obama among Jewish voters. Starting from a two-to-one lead in June, Obama now enjoys triple the support of John... more Posted on October 27, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Fear-Mongering Now Includes Holocaust, Gay Uncle The Republican Party may no longer be able to manufacture votes, but it can still produce its fair share of ironies. On the stump in Iowa, Sarah Palin warned supporters of the party of Mark Foley, Ted Haggard and Larry Craig to beware "Uncle Barney Frank." And in Pennsylvania, the McCain campaign official responsible for helping perpetrate the Ashley Todd hoax defended an email claiming an Obama presidency would augur a second Holocaust. For her part, Governor Palin went for... more Posted on October 26, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The McCain Campaign's Susan Smith Moment Back in 1994, South Carolina mother Susan Smith earned the revulsion of the nation when she blamed a mysterious black assailant for the abduction of her two sons, children she ultimately admitted having murdered herself. With today's revelations that it helped foster a hoax about the supposed assault of one of its volunteers by an African-American backer of Barack Obama, John McCain's presidential campaign has joined Smith as a race-baiting fraud. The fabricated assault on Ashley Todd, the young white... more Posted on October 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Palin, Abortion and the Right-Wing Terror Threat Just one week after John McCain stunned Americans with his sneering contempt for the "health of the mother" needing an abortion, his running mate Sarah Palin refused to condemn anti-abortion terrorists as terrorists. By giving a pass to convicted killers like Eric Rudolph and James Kopp, Palin is just the latest in a long line of leading conservatives to provide the kindling for far right domestic terrorism. As recent history shows, when it comes to abortion, gay Americans, immigration or... more Posted on October 24, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Sarah Palin, Welfare Queen In a 21st century update to the Republican war on "welfare queens," John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin have tried to brand Barack Obama's tax-cutting policies as "welfare" and "socialism." But as it turns out, it is Palin who has emerged as the welfare queen of the 2008 campaign. From her family's taxpayer-funded travel and gubernatorial perks in Alaska to her toney $150,000 wardrobe courtesy of the Republican National Committee, Sarah Palin is living the high life by depending... more Posted on October 23, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Tells Dobson McCain Supports Draconian GOP Platform For the second time in 48 hours, Sarah Palin praised the ultra hardline Republican platform which ignores John McCain's past stands on abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research. One day after a CBN interview in which she extolled the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage it calls for, Palin told James Dobson that her running mate supports the extremist platform planks he in fact long opposed. As it turns out, McCain's acquiescence in the writing of the Republican platform revealed... more Posted on October 22, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Palin, Like Quayle, Stumped by Grade School Student Back in 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle famously misspelled "potato" during a grade school spelling bee. Now 16 years later Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has just had her own Dan Quayle moment. Asked by a Colorado third grader what the vice president does, Palin revealed that she failed to read - or at least understand - the United States Constitution. As ThinkProgress recounted, Palin's hot potatoe came during an interview with NBC affiliate KUSA: Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know,... more Posted on October 21, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Joe Klein Latest to Be Ejected from McCain Plane Just three weeks after booting New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd from the campaign plane, Team McCain grounded Time magazine's Joe Klein as well. Apparently, when the going gets tough, John McCain tells the tough to get going. Unable to withstand Klein's documentation of the McCain campaign's descent into the gutter, the Straight Talk Express banished him instead: Campaign spokesperson Michael Goldfarb responded that "we don't allow Daily Kos diarists on board either." Once upon time, Joe Klein lauded John... more Posted on October 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	John McCain's Human Shields As his appearance on Fox News Sunday showed once again, "Joe the Plumber" is John McCain's newest human shield. Wurzelbacher is just the latest prop rolled out to either lend McCain attributes he obviously lacks or to offer the supposed maverick a cloak of invulnerability to criticism. As it turns out, he joins a long list of McCain's metaphorical bodyguards including David Petraeus, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and even John Lewis. While the miraculous creation of Joe the Plumber now... more Posted on October 19, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Blasts Reagan, Self as Socialist In much the same way that night follows day, a desperate John McCain predictably played the "socialist" card against Barack Obama. Ratcheting up his recent scurrilous attacks that Obama's tax cuts for working Americans constitute "welfare," McCain in his Saturday radio address followed running mate Sarah Palin and Ohio Senator George Voinovich in branding Obama a socialist. Sadly for McCain, his thundering diatribe against refundable tax credits makes him a sworn enemy of his hero Ronald Reagan and, as it... more Posted on October 18, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's "Welfare" Charge Insults American Taxpayers In his speeches and with his latest ad, John McCain is committing a double-fraud when it comes to tax policy. In a spot featuring ersatz plumber and BFN (best friend for now) Joe Wurzelbacher, McCain called Barack Obama's tax plan for working families "welfare." As his duplicitous spot reveals, John McCain apparently knows very little about payroll taxes paid by virtually all American workers. And as it turns out, the self-proclaimed "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution" knows even less... more Posted on October 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain and His Plumber Hate Social Security In the wake of last night's third and final presidential debate, a media frenzy has surrounded John McCain's latest human shield, "Joe the Plumber." But while reporters and bloggers continue to plumb the depths of Republican Joe Wurzelbacher's voter registration, unpaid taxes, distant links to Charles Keating, business license and other miscellany, one useful nugget for voters has emerged. As it turns out, John McCain and his new best friend for life both hate Social Security. In an interview earlier... more Posted on October 16, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Attack Boomerangs, Shows GOP Extremism on Abortion For the past two weeks, the McCain campaign and its allies have been waging an aggressive smear campaign designed to portray Barack Obama as out of the mainstream on the issue of abortion. But with his dripping condescension about the "health of the mother" in Wednesday's final presidential debate, John McCain turned the tables on himself. His adolescent "air quotes" not only confirmed his caustic disregard for the health and rights of American women. With his scorn, McCain also reminded... more Posted on October 16, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	The Record: Stock Market, Economy Do Better Under Democrats On Wednesday, the New York Times performed an election year public service with an analysis that was part history lesson and part thought exercise. Taking the example of the S&P 500 going back to Herbert Hoover, the Times rightly concluded that the Democratic Party "has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole." But the Democrats' proven track record isn't limited to the S&P index. As history has proven time and again, Wall Street and the economy overall... more Posted on October 15, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	"Comeback McCain" Recycles 2004 Convention Speech for Bush After a weekend of rampant speculation that Monday would produce yet another incarnation of John McCain, the only comeback from his campaign appears to be the text of his 2004 speech to the Republican National Convention. McCain's latest transformation - after McCain the Goldwater disciple, the Reagan footsoldier, the Maverick, the neocon, the experienced one, the change agent, Maverick II and, most recently, the race-baiting smear merchant - is once again that of "the fighter." And if you think you've... more Posted on October 13, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The 2008 Nobel Prizes for Conservatives Coming just 12 months after Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, news that Princeton professor and New York Times economist Paul Krugman garnered the 2008 award for economics once again has some conservatives apoplectic. But while some (for example, here and here) take solace that Krugman was not recognized for his punditry, many rugged individualists on the right remain hopping mad that they never win prizes designed to recognize contributions to, well, the rest of humanity. To once again... more Posted on October 13, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's So-Called Adviser John Lewis Calls Him Out Back in August, Republican presidential candidate John McCain stunned the audience at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Forum by citing Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis as one of the "wisest people that you know that you would rely on heavily in an administration." On Saturday, Lewis offered McCain some sage advice - and a stern warning - about the disgusting turn his increasingly ugly campaign had taken. Unsurprisingly, the supposed maverick shunned his supposed adviser's wisdom that the... more Posted on October 13, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Flip-Flops on Mortgage Bailout for Homeowners Desperate to resuscitate his diminishing hopes for the White House, John McCain during tonight's presidential town hall meeting dramatically reversed course on a mortgage bailout for home owners. This spring, McCain adamantly stated "it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." Now with his presidential campaign and the economy in dire straits alike, John McCain decided to open the federal wallet after all. McCain's... more Posted on October 7, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	McCain Smears Trigger Keating Five Backlash On Monday, John McCain again proved the old adage that a man who lives in 11 glass houses shouldn't cast stones. Two days after unleashing running mate Sarah Palin to deliver a salvo of smears against Barack Obama which CNN among others simply termed "false," McCain is now on the receiving end of an Obama barrage regarding his disgraceful role in the Keating Five affair of the 1980's. Foreshadowing his extensive lobbyist ties today, McCain's intervention then with federal regulators... more Posted on October 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Palin Dodges Draconian GOP Abortion Platform - Again - in Couric Interview Lost in the myriad accounts of Sarah Palin's jaw-dropping gaffes and mind-numbing misstatements in her interview with Katie Couric is Palin's all-too-familiar ploy when it comes to abortion. As in her chat with ABC's Charles Gibson, Palin passed off as merely a "personal" opinion her past calls for banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest. And it's not just Sarah Palin who wants to make that extremist view the law of the land; it's the stated platform of... more Posted on October 1, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Echoes Bush on the Joys of Dictatorship From the beginning of the general election race, the central challenge facing John McCain has been to distance himself from the wildly unpopular occupant of the White House. In June, McCain whined that "you will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy." The previous month, McCain water carrier Lindsey Graham threw down the gauntlet for his man, "good luck making him George Bush." Sadly, McCain yesterday shot himself in the foot once again, this time by... more Posted on October 1, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The Party of Hate Strikes Again Faced with the prospect of a woman or African-American opponent in the 2008 presidential race, the Republican Party back in February initiated diversity training of sorts. The RNC commissioned focus groups and polls to learn how to safely attack either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton because, as GOP strategist Kellyanne Conway put it, "You can't allow the party to be Macaca-ed." Sadly for the Party of Hate, top Republican officials in Nevada and New Mexico didn't read the memo. Over... more Posted on September 29, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	Debate Night Cowardice from McCain and Palin Friday's first presidential debate may well be best remembered for the unique combination of cowardice displayed by the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Unlike Barack Obama, John McCain couldn't look his opponent in the eye during the contest. And unlike Joe Biden, Sarah Palin wouldn't look into television cameras after. McCain's childish refusal to even acknowledge Obama's presence immediately struck commentators doing the event post-mortem. On MSNBC, Richard Wolfe noted that McCain "curiously couldn't look Obama in... more Posted on September 27, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's M.O. - Our Pain, His Gain As John McCain heads to Mississippi for the presidential debate he held hostage for the past two days, his cynical ploy is being panned across the political spectrum. While Chris Dodd blasted the Republican's bungled bailout intervention as "a rescue plan for John McCain," GOP colleague Mike Huckabee called it simply a "huge mistake." Sadly, McCain's self-proclaimed white knight role is now a sadly familiar routine. Down in the polls and facing a national crisis exposes him at his weakest,... more Posted on September 26, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Camp Takes Credit for Advancing - and Killing - Bailout While the post-mortem on Thursday's collapse of the bipartisan Wall Street bailout deal is still being written, one aspect of John McCain's double-dealing is beyond dispute. According to campaign mouthpieces Tucker Bounds and Lindsey Graham, John McCain is responsible both for moving the $700 billion compromise package forward and for killing it. That act of political schizophrenia took only hours to accomplish. Early Thursday, Democrats led by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) announced that a consensus... more Posted on September 25, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Palin Adopts Bush's "Ongoing Investigation" Plamegate Dodge With each passing day, Sarah Palin's handling of TrooperGate grows more and more reminiscent of George W. Bush's management of the PlameGate affair. President Bush, after all, in October 2003 proclaimed "I want to know the truth" about who outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame and promised to fire anyone in his administration responsible. Now, after pledging in July that voters should "hold me accountable" in the dubious firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, Sarah Palin like Bush... more Posted on September 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Keating Five Flashback: "You're a Liar" The implosion of Wall Street this week comes as a triple-dose of bad news for John McCain. No doubt, his daily-changing response to the crisis confirmed McCain's self-proclaimed ignorance of economics. Perhaps even more damaging, America's financial nightmare conjured images of the savings and loan scandal 20 years ago, one in which McCain's close ties to political sugar daddy Charles Keating almost ended his career. And to be sure, flashing back to McCain's 1989 temper tantrum in response to his... more Posted on September 21, 2008 \| Comments (8)

	Snub of Spain Just McCain's Latest Europe Bashing In one of the more bizarre developments of campaign 2008, John McCain's campaign has announced that he won't be rolling out the White House welcome mat for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, prime minister of America's NATO ally Spain. But if McCain's posture seems like an adolescent temper tantrum aimed at a critical member of Washington's Atlantic alliance, it's hardly an isolated episode. With his vitriolic Paris and Berlin-bashing in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, John McCain stood... more Posted on September 18, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Excluded Workers from "Economic Fundamentals" - Until Now On Wednesday, the New York Times blasted John McCain's cynical attempt to escape from his repeated proclamations that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Facing a backlash over his latest declaration even as Wall Street imploded Monday that all is well, McCain just hours later tried to redefine "economic fundamentals" to refer to American workers. Noting that the "Mr. McCain lavished praise on workers, but ignored their problems," the Times branded McCain's double-talk "the real insult." But even more... more Posted on September 17, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	History Lesson: Wall Street, Economy Do Better Under Democrats As the meltdown on Wall Street continues, American voters would do well to regard John McCain and his Republican Party with suspicion when it comes to the resuscitating the economy. But McCain's acknowledged ignorance on economic issues, happy talk about strong "fundamentals," ties to lobbyists and disturbing involvement in the 1980's savings and loan disaster aren't the only reasons voters should flock to Barack Obama for solutions to the mushrooming financial crisis. As history has proven time and again, Wall... more Posted on September 16, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	McCain Camp Admits Issues, Truth Don't Matter There's an old saying that "everyone is entitled their own opinion, not their own facts." Not according to John McCain. In the face of an avalanche of criticism across the political spectrum over John McCain's endless lies, distortions and smears, his campaign continues to insist that the truth doesn't matter. For John McCain, facts themselves are subject to debate. The downward trajectory of the McCain, as I predicted months ago, was revealed by campaign chairman Rick Davis' admission two week... more Posted on September 15, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Lies About Palin's Expertise on Energy Reviewing the avalanche of lies, distortions and smears emanating from the presidential campaign of John McCain, NBC's Mark Murray asked Saturday, "Wheels come off Straight Talk Express?" But Wheeler's litany of McCain falsehoods omitted a whopper that goes directly to the heart of Sarah Palin's sham qualifications for the vice presidency. McCain, after all, claimed that "she knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America." As it turns out, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has... more Posted on September 14, 2008 \| Comments (10)

	ABC's Gibson, The View Ignore Ultra Hard-Line GOP Platform On Friday, ABC's Charles Gibson and its hosts of The View again exposed the differences on abortion and stem cell research between John McCain and his hard-line GOP running mate Sarah Palin. But lost in their interviews is any mention of the 2008 Republican Party platform. As it turns out, that radical document demands far more draconian restrictions than either McCain or Palin will acknowledge. To be sure, John McCain now supports overturning Roe v. Wade, a reversal of his... more Posted on September 13, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The Bush Doctrine for Dummies, Sarah Palin Edition No safe havens for terrorists. Preventive war. Democracy expansion. Those are the three central tenets of the Bush Doctrine, the guiding theory of unilateral American foreign and national security policy since 9/11. And today, on the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin revealed she never heard of it. Emerging Thursday from her undisclosed location for her first encounter with the press, John McCain's stealth running mate displayed a shocking... more Posted on September 11, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	eBay McCain's Answer for Recession and Palin's Plane The mythical role of online auction powerhouse eBay in John McCain's presidential campaign took on a new dimension today. Not only did his running mate Governor Sarah Palin not sell an Alaska government jet on eBay (as she has repeatedly claimed), the state's chief procurement officer acknowledged "It was the practice of the state to dispose of items such as this via eBay." No doubt, John McCain will continue to peddle this eBay myth just as he has a previous... more Posted on September 10, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	*Sexism Flashback: McCain Used Hillary Btch Episode to Raise Money** Judging by the recent polls, the McCain campaign has skillfully played the sexism card in defense of Sarah Palin. Last Tuesday, McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina decried the "sexist treatment of Governor Palin." And by Sunday, campaign manager Rick Davis declared that Palin would do no interviews until the media "is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference." (That first appearance has since been scheduled with the reliably subservient Charles Gibson of ABC.) What a difference a... more Posted on September 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McClatchy, WaPo and Romney Warn About McCain's Out of Control Temper In a disturbing expose Sunday, the McClatchy papers joined the growing list of press, pundits and politicians to raise a red flag about John McCain's out-of-control temper. Following on the heels of the devastating revelations from the Washington Post in April, McClatchy documents many of the tantrums, outbursts and eruptions that continue to call McCain's presidential temperament into question. And as Mitt Romney's campaign revealed in January, those McCain tirades are directed at friend and foe alike. Starting with an... more Posted on September 8, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Caves on Draconian GOP Abortion Platform In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric Wednesday, Cindy McCain seemed surprised to learn that her husband John wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned. But as it turns out, the surprises hardly end there for the McCains when it comes to abortion and the 2008 Republican platform. By rejecting John McCain's limited proposed exemptions for cases involving rape, incest and the life of the mother, the GOP's hard-line abortion banning plank echoes not its presidential nominee, but his running... more Posted on September 7, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Recycled '04 RNC Riff to Close '08 Convention Speech For the most part, John McCain's Republican National Convention speech was generally panned. While former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson called the performance ''pretty disappointing," CNN's Jeffrey Toobin deemed it "the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980." But McCain did get some high marks for his rousing finish, which exhorted Americans to "stand up" and fight. As it turns out, he probably knew that part by heart. After all, he delivered pretty much the... more Posted on September 5, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Abramoff Gets Four More Years. Delay to Get Off? Even as John McCain took to the stage of the Republican convention to belatedly decry his party's surrender to "the temptations of corruption", two of its leading miscreants were back in the news. In Washington, GOP lobbyist extraordinaire and scandal architect Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison. But meanwhile in Texas, indicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay won a technical victory that could keep him out of jail altogether. Comparing himself favorably to Osama Bin Laden,... more Posted on September 5, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Governor Palin, You're No Harry Truman In the run-up to Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday, many across the political spectrum were tempted to compare the Alaska Governor to Bush 41's dubious VP choice of legend, Dan Quayle. But while her admittedly powerful performance in St. Paul last night was surely never matched by Bush the Elder's master of the malapropism, it nevertheless featured its own Quayle moment. Seeking to pad her reed-thin resume as a small town mayor, Sarah Palin compared herself to President Harry Truman. Well,... more Posted on September 4, 2008 \| Comments (8)

	Exotic Dancers and Temper Tantrums: Fred and Mitt on McCain As McCain adviser Rick Davis cynically announced this week, "This election is not about issues," but instead "about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." In that case, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney did John McCain no favors in providing the bookends for his biography this week at the Republican Convention. Because while Fred introduced America on Tuesday to the rebellious hellraiser that was the young John McCain, Mitt back in January documented that the volcanic... more Posted on September 3, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Opportunism First: McCain and the GOP Platform Coming on the heels of his pandering pick of Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican Party platform is another case study in the opportunism of John McCain. On abortion, same-sex marriage, stem cell research and immigration, the GOP bucked McCain's stated positions each and every time. As it turns out, McCain's acquiescence doesn't merely reflect his weakness (which it surely does) as much as his disinterest. As McCain himself admits, he just doesn't care about details of policy; his campaign is... more Posted on September 3, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	McCain, Palin and Red State Failure on Teen Pregnancy The struggles of Sarah Palin's family with the pregnancy of her teenage daughter are their business. But the disaster of the abstinence-only sex education programs she and John McCain fervently support is all of ours. After all, abstinence programs aren't merely a complete - and well documented - failure. As it turns out, teenage pregnancy rates are highest in precisely those reddest of states that vote Republican. To be sure, the McCain/Palin ticket has a proven track record of opposing... more Posted on September 2, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Palin Family Focus Recalls McCain's Chelsea Clinton Joke Once upon a time, the children of American politicians were off limits to the press and the public alike. But while an indignant McCain campaign announced today that the 17-year old daughter of Republican vice presidential Sarah Palin is pregnant, a revelation made in response to the "mud-slinging" of liberal blogs, it is worth remembering John McCain's own checkered past when it comes to slandering the children of his political foes. As the history shows, the same John McCain who... more Posted on September 1, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Eight Years Ago: Bush at the Republican Convention Across the right-wing blogosphere and conservative commentariat, the water carriers of the Republican Party can hardly contain their glee that Hurricane Gustav has washed out an appearance by the wildly unpopular President Bush at their Minnesota conclave. Over at the Weekly Standard, "gets Bush out of St. Paul" tops their list of benefits that the national disaster of Gustav brings the GOP. In the everything-is-good-news-for-McCain department, the Politico reports that "for many delegates gathering here, that's not a bad thing"... more Posted on September 1, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	RNC Gustav Plans Reopen Issue of the McCains' Charitable Giving On Sunday, Cindy McCain announced she was "offended" by Barack Obama's critique of her husband as an out-of-touch politician of privilege who "doesn't know" about the economic challenges Americans face. If so, Hurricane Gustav may provide her just the opportunity to refute the point. With the GOP hoping to capitalize on the potential tragedy by converting the Republican National Convention into a massive telethon, the McCains can give early, often and generously. And then, Cindy McCain can come clean about... more Posted on August 31, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Palin Pander Raises Age, Ends Experience Issue With his unexpected selection today of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain stayed true to form. Not as the mythical maverick, but as the craven opportunist willing to do anything to capture the presidency. Desperate to pander to whatever disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters may remain, McCain turned to a 44 year old woman virtually unknown on the national stage. More important, by putting his campaign and not the country first, the now 72 year old McCain... more Posted on August 29, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	Romney Blasts McCain's Out of Control Temper During the Democratic Convention, the desperately seeking second Mitt Romney has been John McCain's faithful attack dog. On Tuesday, Romney announced that John McCain had "earned" his too-many-to-remember houses with his "hard work," while playing the false Rezko card against Barack Obama. On Wednesday, Romney upped the ante, suggesting that McCain's multiple mansions were reasonable compensation for "being homeless for five years." But as it turns out, back in January Mitt Romney sounded a lot more like Democrats Harry Reid,... more Posted on August 28, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Camp Joins Bush and Delay: There Are No Uninsured As I've noted previously, what passes for John McCain's health care plan is virtually identical to the stillborn scheme from George W. Bush. Now, the McCain campaign has joined President Bush and indicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay in offering a novel solution - denial - to the problem of America's 46 million uninsured. As it turns out, they simply don't exist. That's the word from the architect of John McCain's health care proposals, John Goodman. No one in... more Posted on August 28, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Kudlow Rewrites History, Blames Dow's Slide on Democrats Monday was a miserable day for the Dow, with the market suffering a 242 point drop. But rather than joining "so-called market analysts" in attributing the sell-off to credit market woes, higher oil prices and a fluctuating dollar, the National Review's resident class warrior Larry Kudlow found a predictable villain. Despite the inescapable history that the stock market does better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones, Kudlow blamed the market steep slide on the opening of the Democratic Convention in... more Posted on August 26, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Technicality May Keep Tom Delay Out of Jail Almost three years after his indictment on conspiracy and money laundering charges, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay may escape prosecution. Thanks to a technicality in Texas' money laundering statute, the man who once compared himself to Jesus may walk out of court, if not on water. The Austin Statesman reported this morning that the charges against Delay and his two co-conspirators John Colyandro and Jim Ellis "may be dismissed because the 2002 campaign finance case involved checks and not... more Posted on August 25, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, McCain, Rice and Romney Fail 21st Century History Test No doubt, history will not be kind to George W Bush. And to be sure, Bush is already returning the favor. Apparently stunned by the Russian assault on Georgia, President Bush forgot his invasion of "sovereign" Iraq and declared, "Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century". As it turns out, John McCain, Condoleezza Rice and Mitt Romney all failed the same test on 21st century history. While unwilling to acknowledge that he had misread Vladimir Putin's soul back... more Posted on August 24, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Romney's Riches, Attacks on McCain Doom VP Choice? Timing, as they say, is everything. On the very day that John McCain publicly lost track of how many homes he owns, rumors swirled that Mitt Romney, another multiple mansion owner, would be his running mate choice. That Romney is the embodiment of the country club Republican is bad enough for McCain right now. Making matters worse, Mitt's all-out January 2008 attack on John McCain's incendiary temper gives Democrats a handy road map to follow. Mitt's Mansions. To be sure,... more Posted on August 22, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's Houses Gaffe Echoes Bush 41's Scanner Episode Sometimes, a single gaffe - real or imagined - comes to symbolize an entire presidential campaign. With Americans struggling as unemployment topped 7% in 1992, President George H.W. Bush saw his reelection prospects dimmed by his reported amazement at a simple grocery store checkout scanner. But while Bush 41's defining out-of-touch moment may be the stuff of political mythology, John McCain's stunning ignorance about how many homes he owns may soon come to define his run for the White House.... more Posted on August 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Abramoff Update: Ney Released, Reed to Hold McCain Fundraiser Senator John McCain may have helped investigate the Jack Abramoff affair, but the stench of the scandal continues to engulf McCain's campaign and his Republican Party. On Friday, convicted friend-of-Jack and former Ohio congressman Bob Ney was released from a Cincinnati halfway house. And on Monday, McCain will attend an Atlanta fundraiser hosted by former Christian Coalition wunderkind Ralph Reed, who partnered with Abramoff in extracting millions of dollars from tribal Indian clients. In Ohio, Bob Ney was released after... more Posted on August 16, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Dueling Ads: "True Conservative" or "Original Maverick?" Yesterday, John McCain unveiled a disingenuous new ad touting himself as the "Original Maverick." Designed to distance himself from President Bush, the spot portrays McCain as a rebel battling the special interests in his own party. Of course, during the Republican primaries McCain was telling a much different story. Then, the original Maverick was a "True Conservative." Desperate to win over the party's hard right base heading into Iowa and New Hampshire, McCain adopted virtually the entire Bush agenda while... more Posted on August 6, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Trent Lott in Hot Water in State Farm Case The leading lights of the Republican Party like to endlessly badmouth trial lawyers. Endlessly, that is, until they need one. Former Mississippi Senator Trent Lott is no exception. Back in 2004, Lott ridiculed John Edwards, saying of John Kerry's running mate, "He's a charming guy who was a suing lawyer -- that's S-U-I-N-G lawyer." But when his own house was demolished by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, Lott was only too happy sue State Farm Insurance to pay for it.... more Posted on August 3, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Anthrax Pretext for War with Iraq Republican presidential nominee John McCain is fond of claiming, "I know how to win wars." Apparently, he also has ideas about how to start them. In the fall of 2001, McCain suggested the recent anthrax attacks that so terrified Americans might be a perfect pretext for war with Iraq. That revelation comes via ThinkProgress in the wake of this morning's revelations about the suicide of Bruce Ivins, the Fort Detrick biodefense researcher about to be indicted for the 2001 attacks.... more Posted on August 1, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	"High Horse, Low Road": Bush Was Right About McCain As the events of the past few days demonstrate, George W. Bush was right all along about John McCain. McCain, the so-called maverick who promised to run a "respectful" campaign, has turned to the gutter politics of sleazy ads, baseless attacks and outright lies in his desperate effort to beat Barack Obama. And as Bush said of McCain in 2000, "he can't take the high horse and then claim the low road." Which is exactly the road John McCain is... more Posted on July 31, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Doesn't Speak for McCain In the wake of Phil Gramm's disastrous "whiners" remarks three weeks ago, John McCain claimed his close friend and key economic adviser "does not speak for me - I speak for me." Sadly for Mr. Straight Talk, Gramm that very day was in New York meeting with the Wall Street Journal editorial board to explain McCain's economic policies. Now, as it turns out, on issues from the economy and foreign policy to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, John McCain... more Posted on July 27, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Meet Wrong-Way McCain This week, Americans were introduced to Wrong-Way McCain. To be sure, it's the same John McCain ("McSame") who would continue the policies of George W. Bush that 80% of Americans believe have put the country on the wrong track. It's also the same "Jukebox John" who has changed his tune 61 times on issues foreign and domestic, including a dizzying 10 times in two weeks back in June. But as he showed repeatedly over the past several days, Wrong-Way McCain... more Posted on July 15, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain to Hispanics: Trust Me on Immigration U-Turns In San Diego today, John McCain will make a most unusual pitch to Hispanic voters at the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza. Having performed a complete 360 degree turn on the immigration reform package he once championed, McCain now insists that he's "earned" the trust of Latino voters. In his remarks, McCain will ask the attendees to join him in a bout of selective amnesia by forgetting his just-in-time abandonment of his own comprehensive immigration bill... more Posted on July 14, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain and Gramm on Recession: It's All Mental Just two weeks after John McCain's latest declaration that the American economic slowdown is "psychological," his top adviser Phil Gramm also insisted the recession is all in our heads. The American people are not merely experiencing a "mental recession," Gramm announced, but are "a nation of whiners" for complaining about it. In an interview Wednesday with the Washington Times, the UBS vice chairman followed McCain's lead in decrying Americans' imaginary financial woes: "You've heard of mental depression; this is a... more Posted on July 10, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	CBS Shows GOP "Emergency Room" Health Care Plan in Action In a disturbing report on Wednesday, CBS News offered Americans a glimpse of their health care future under President Bush, John McCain and their Republican allies. Detailing two cases of patients dying untreated and unnoticed in New York and Los Angeles emergency rooms, the story shows the exceptions that may increasingly become the rule. Call it the Republicans' "Emergency Room" health care plan. During a July 2007 visit to Cleveland, President Bush unveiled his emergency room cure for the ills... more Posted on July 3, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain in Central America as His 1987 Assault on Nicaraguan Revealed Earlier this year, Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran said the prospect of his "erratic" and "hotheaded" GOP colleague John McCain becoming President "sends a cold chill down my spine." Now we know why. As the Biloxi Sun Herald reported today, Cochran witnessed an out-of-control McCain disrupt a tense 1987 diplomatic mission in Nicaragua by grabbing an associate of Sandanista leader Daniel Ortega by the shirt collar. As Cochran told the Sun Herald, then freshman Senator McCain was part of the... more Posted on July 2, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Romney Said to Top McCain's VP List Despite Past Feud Mike Allen of the Politico reports this morning that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney now tops John McCain's list of potential running mates. The GOP insiders he spoke to claim that Romney's business background, dazzling teeth, perfect hair, high-profile family roots in swing state Michigan - and his ability to "raise $50 million in 60 days" from the Mormon community nationwide - have boosted Romney's VP stock. Unfortunately, many in the McCain camp remain suspicious of Romney, if for no... more Posted on June 30, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Murphy's Law for McCain and Romney If nothing else, a Republican ticket of John McCain and Mitt Romney would offer Americans the potential for great theater. For openers, the fact that the two men essentially hate each other could make for great drama. And as his comments yesterday suggest, the return of their common ex-adviser Mike Murphy to the stage could bring much needed - if unintended - comedy all the way to November. Murphy, who served as a campaign strategist for Senator McCain in 2000... more Posted on June 26, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's "Bring 'Em On" Election Strategy While a terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland would be a tragedy for the American people, it would apparently be viewed as a blessing by the campaign of John McCain. On the same day that USA Today reported that terrorism is the only issue on which Americans clearly prefer John McCain to Barack Obama, McCain senior strategist Charlie Black admitted of another terror strike here, "certainly it would be a big advantage to him." As it turns out, John McCain... more Posted on June 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	New Report Demolishes "Gitmo 30" Talking Point Used by Scalia and McCain Earlier this week, I detailed how John McCain, John Yoo and Justice Antonin Scalia in the wake of the Court's Boumediene decision all continued to peddle the discredited Republican talking point about "30 former Guantanamo detainees" who had "returned to the fight." Now a devastating new report released Tuesday from Seton Hall professor Mark Denbeaux puts to rest the Scalia's "urban legend." That figure of 30 terror recidivists unleashing a bloodbath had been debunked by earlier studies from Denbeaux's team... more Posted on June 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	WaPo's Gerson Blasts Franken, Ignores GOP "Vulgarians" In case there was any doubt that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson is now performing the same role for the Republican Party on the Washington Post opinion pages, today's column should put it to rest. Labeling former comedian turned Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken a "vulgarian," Gerson proclaimed the Democrat's satirical writing of the past the "Federalist Papers of lifestyle liberalism." As it turns out, Gerson not only has no sense of humor, he has no sense of balance: the... more Posted on June 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Issa Adds Russert Outrage to His Hall of Shame As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, the execrable California Congressman Darrell Issa used the occasion of Tim Russert's wake to appropriate the memory of the late Meet the Press host for political purposes. Of course, Issa had guaranteed himself a particularly hot seat in Dante's inner circle long before he enlisted Russert on the House floor today to make a case for off-shore oil drilling. From attacking the families of dead Blackwater contractors and accusing Valerie Plame of perjury to playing... more Posted on June 17, 2008 \| Comments (10)

	McCain, Scalia and Yoo Peddle Discredited "Gitmo 30" Sound Bite In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Bush administration torture architect John Yoo thundered against the Supreme Court's restoration of habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo detainees. Branding the Boumediene decision "judicial imperialism of the highest order," Yoo like Justice Scalia and John McCain raised the specter of those 30 released Gitmo terrorists as a warning of the carnage the Court's ruling is certain to produce. Alas, as with so much else passing over John Yoo's lips, it simply isn't true.... more Posted on June 17, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Sets a New Record: 10 Flip-Flops in Two Weeks In his eternal quest for the Republican presidential nomination, the supposed maverick John McCain has repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised purportedly core principles. From the Bush tax cuts, the religious right and immigration reform to overturning Roe v. Wade, proclaiming Samuel Alito a model Supreme Court Justice and bashing France (just to name a few), McCain changed sides as changing political conditions dictated. But over the past two weeks, McCain's rapid fire, acrobatic flip-flops have produced whiplash, at least... more Posted on June 17, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	GOPers Claim Court's Gitmo Decision "Worse Than Dred Scott" Just in case Republicans still wonder why the GOP routinely garners less than 10% of the African-American vote, the reactions of some of their leading lights to the Supreme Court's Guantanamo detainee decision should provide a quick reminder. While John McCain Friday simply called the Court's Boumediene ruling "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," right-wing legal analyst David Rivkin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were much more specific. The Court's restoration of habeas corpus,... more Posted on June 16, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	McCain, RNC to Keep $300,000 from Disgraced Texas Fundraiser Back in 1976, WABC-TV weatherman Tex Antoine was fired for joking on air to his New York audience, "'If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it." 32 years later, John McCain abruptly cancelled a fundraiser at the home of Texas oilman Clayton Williams, who it turns out happens to have told the same grotesque quip during his failed 1990 gubernatorial run. As for the $300,000 Williams raised, that the McCain campaign plans to keep. As the New York Times... more Posted on June 14, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's Sins of Military Commission On the stump in New Jersey today, John McCain launched a thundering two-pronged assault on yesterday's Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus rights for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Again raising the specter of "unaccountable judges," McCain picked up on his earlier, right-wing handbook assault against so-called judicial activism. Then turning to fear-mongering, McCain proclaimed "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country" will lead to more attacks against the American people. But lost in McCain's red-faced... more Posted on June 13, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	5 Years Ago Today: McCain Proclaims Mission Accomplished in Iraq One day after he proclaimed that it is "not too important" when U.S. troops return from Iraq, John McCain commemorated an unfortunate five year anniversary. In the annals of McCain's dismal record of flawed forecasts and calamitous calls on Iraq, June 11, 2003 stands out. On that one day, George W. Bush's would-be Republican successor both defended his proclamation of mission accomplished while insisting that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction would surely be found. As MediaMatters documented, McCain's daily-double came... more Posted on June 11, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Proclaims Himself a Fool in New Ad Just three days after his calamitous "green screen" speech, John McCain today released his first general election ad, one which may prove similarly damaging. Declaring "only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war," McCain invited Americans to revisit his still-jaw dropping "bomb bomb Iran" joke during an April 2007 town hall meeting. As you'll remember, McCain in April 2007 famously responded to a question about when America would "send an air mail message to Tehran." Singing... more Posted on June 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain and Friends Rewrite History on Iraq Aided and abetted by the conservative echo chamber, John McCain this week launched a campaign to rewrite his dismal history of faulty forecasts and disastrous predictions on Iraq. Demonstrating that experience is truly no substitute for judgment, John McCain like President Bush was sadly wrong at almost every turn in promoting the invasion and occupation of Iraq. From his predictions of a short war and claims U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators to his announcements of mission accomplished, his... more Posted on June 5, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	John McCain's Extreme Makeover In a doddering performance Josh Marshall deemed "frighteningly sad," John McCain tried to steal Barack Obama's thunder on Tuesday night. As he lambasted Obama and reached out to Hillary Clinton's supporters, McCain laid out his strategy for the fall campaign. Making a mad dash to the center for the general election, the born-again 2000 maverick is running away from his party, his president and his "true conservative" record he relied to win the Republican nomination. To gauge the extent of... more Posted on June 4, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain, Like Romney and Cheney, Runs Afoul of Iran Divestment Pledge Addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) today, Republican presidential nominee John McCain called for a global campaign of divestment from Iran. He might want to start with his own campaign manager, Rick Davis, whose work on behalf of Ukrainian mogul Rinat Akhmetov included business dealings with Tehran. As it turns out, John McCain is following Mitt Romney and Dick Cheney as just the latest hard-line Republican to run afoul of his own plans for Iranian disinvestment. McCain used... more Posted on June 2, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	McCain's Future Perfect Presidency After being pilloried by Barack Obama and the press for his erroneous assertion that "we have drawn down to pre-surge" troop levels in Iraq, John McCain once again resorted to grammatical sleight of hand to extricate himself. Speaking about possible future events as if they happened in the past, McCain claimed credit in the present. But as his jaw-dropping "2013" speech earlier this month revealed, that rhetorical device isn't merely a defensive tactic, but an essential campaign strategy. Call it... more Posted on June 1, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Gordon Smith, UnRepublican In a little reported development a few weeks back, senior McCain adviser Charlie Black relabeled his man, "slightly right of center." After having already adopted virtually the entire Bush agenda and just weeks after running an ad titled "True Conservative" during the Republican primaries, John McCain had started his mad dash back to the political center for the general election. But when it comes to running away from his moribund party, its discredited brand and its wildly unpopular president, no... more Posted on May 31, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Is McCain "Sick at Heart" Over His Own Iraq Mistakes? Senator John McCain used this Memorial Day to ask Americans to remember others' roles in the calamity that unfolded in Iraq. First proclaiming himself "sick at heart by the many mistakes made by civilian and military commanders" in the run up and conduct of the war, McCain then declared of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, "I cannot be complicit in it." But as his words and deeds over five years show, John McCain is not merely complicit in propelling the... more Posted on May 27, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	High Stakes for McCain in Grassley's Televangelist Probe Just days after rejecting the endorsements of his "ministers of war" John Hagee and Rod Parsley, John McCain may be about to confront another faith-based conundrum. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) is facing withering criticism from prominent conservatives and evangelical leaders over his Senate probe into the finances of Kenneth Copeland and other so-called "prosperity gospel" televangelists. Republican nominee McCain may have to choose between his party's increasingly disgruntled religious right base and a fellow Republican Senator he once called a... more Posted on May 26, 2008 \| Comments (15)

	McCain Does the Hokey Pokey You put your right hand in. You put your right hand out... Like an overexcited kid at a birthday party, John McCain has been doing the political equivalent of the hokey pokey for the past two years. That is, after first running hard to the right to woo conservative primary voters, McCain then veered sharply left since wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination. And as the imbroglios this week over his shifting stands on immigration and embracing the religious right... more Posted on May 25, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	McCain's Friday Document - and Pastor - Dump Now for a pop quiz. What will the main media story about John McCain be on Tuesday after the long Memorial Day break? If you guessed John McCain's limited health disclosure, Cindy McCain's limited tax disclosure, or the meaning of the supposed maverick's failed pandering to madmen ministers Hagee and Parsley, you're probably wrong. By taking a page from the Bush playbook, McCain's Friday document - and pastor - dump virtually guaranteed that Tuesday's tale will the be the gathering... more Posted on May 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Finally Rejects Hagee Endorsement He Sought 85 days after they shared a San Antonio stage to announce their partnership, John McCain finally rejected the endorsement of end times Texas Pastor John Hagee. After weeks of retreat in the face of Hagee's bigoted comments, McCain surrendered altogether on the day after Hagee's past statements about Adolf Hitler's divinely mandated role in driving European Jewry to Israel became public. Today, McCain played dumb, claiming ignorance regarding the man whose endorsement he sought and whose Armageddon-accelerating organization (Christians United... more Posted on May 22, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Scorned on the Issues, GOP Tries to Manufacture "Character Gap" A flood of recent polls suggests the 2008 election will once again display the "Iron Law" of 21st century Republican presidential politics. That is, with Americans showing an overwhelming preference for Democratic positions across virtually the entire spectrum of issues, the GOP has to make the race about something else. This year as in 2000 and 2004, the Republicans will try to turn the race into a presidential personality contest. And to win it, they need to manufacture a "character... more Posted on May 21, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Defended North on Iran-Contra; North Returns Favor On Monday, the Republicans' campaign of appeasement smears against Barack Obama went from the sublime to the ridiculous. In an amazing if predictable display of chutzpah, Fox News commentator and Iran-Contra mastermind Oliver North rushed to John McCain's defense over the GOP nominee's spurious charges regarding talks with Iran. Of course, he was only repaying McCain the favor. Back in 1986 and 1987, as the New York Times noted, John McCain "defended Ronald Reagan during the Iran-contra inquiry." As a... more Posted on May 20, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Unexceptionalism In the New York Times today, Bill Kristol elevated Republicans' wishful thinking into the GOP's presidential election strategy this fall. Dragged down by President Bush's record-setting unpopularity and a brand one of its own leaders likened to tainted dog food, the GOP's last best hope, according to Kristol, lies in the "exceptionalism" of John McCain. That is, the GOP can maintain its grip on the White House precisely because John McCain is a different kind of Republican animal able to... more Posted on May 19, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Defended Reagan, North During Iran-Contra Scandal Just 48 hours after jumping on the Bush appeasement bandwagon, John McCain is probably regretting his leap. First, it was revealed that the tough-talking Republican presidential nominee was for negotiating with the Hamas government in the Palestinian territories before he was against it. Then Americans learned that in 2003, Mr. Straight Talk favored engagement with the terror-sponsoring state of Syria. Now in his accusations against Democrat Barack Obama, John McCain conveniently forgot Ronald Reagan's dealings with Tehran during the Iran-Contra... more Posted on May 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	House GOP Makes, McCain Breaks 2012 Balanced Budget Promise The once-vaunted Republican marketing machine has fallen and can't get up. On Monday, House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) unveiled a new slogan for the GOP, only to learn that "The Change You Deserve," was fittingly already in use to market the anti-depressant drug Effexor. Now a central promise of the Republicans' 2008 rebranding effort, to balance the budget by 2012, is dead on arrival. As it turns out, Republican nominee John McCain already abandoned his short-lived, first term balanced... more Posted on May 14, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	After Hagee Apology to Catholics, McCain Still Silent on Armageddon Views Facing increasing scrutiny over his statements describing the Catholic Church as "the great whore" and a "false cult system," Texas pastor and John McCain endorser John Hagee today issued a letter of apology to his "Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ." But while Hagee's chosen candidate previously distanced himself from the minister's slurs towards Catholics and residents of New Orleans, on the topic that may matter most, Mr. Straight Talk has remained silent. Does John McCain agree with Pastor John... more Posted on May 13, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The Bush Wedding Everyone Missed While all eyes this weekend were on the Crawford, Texas wedding of first daughter Jenna Bush, another Bush marriage this year has gone largely unnoticed in the press. After a stormy eight year courtship, George W. Bush and John McCain tied the knot at a March ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. During the well attended but little understood nuptials, John McCain finally promised to love, honor and obey his new partner. Committing themselves to be together "us richer... more Posted on May 12, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's Double Flip-Flop on Abortion In just the latest blow to his tattered maverick myth, the McCain camp is signaling its man will perform yet another about-face on abortion. Eight years after attacking George W. Bush's defense of a Republican platform which called for banning all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother, John McCain too will kowtow to the GOP's radical right. As it turns out, that surrender follows Mr. Straight Talk's earlier reversal on overturning... more Posted on May 11, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Adviser Black: McCain "Slightly Right of Center" Just in case you needed any more evidence that John McCain is planning to run away from his party and president in the November election, senior adviser Charlie Black put any doubts to rest this weekend. In Sunday's New York Times, Black described McCain, as "slightly right-of-center." Apparently, with the Republican nomination now safely secured, McCain the self-proclaimed "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution" is trying to reverse the hard right turn he took in the GOP primaries. In the... more Posted on May 10, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Mothers' Day, Global Warming and McCain's Character Campaign What do Mothers' Day and global warming have in common? Both, as it turns out, are essential ingredients in John McCain's "character" campaign for the White House. That is, given the staggering unpopularity of his party's platform and president, John McCain is now running away from both. From here on out, the McCain campaign will be about the character of the man. And on Mothers' Day this Sunday, that includes a portrait of John McCain as the good son. Appearing... more Posted on May 10, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	*McCain to Bush in 2000: "Don't Give Me That Sht. And Take Your Hands Off Me."** Four days after Arianna Huffington first reported it, John McCain's 2000 VoteGate has become the election issue du jour. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have all run stories confirming Huffington's account that in 2000 a still steaming McCain did not vote for George W. Bush, the man who savaged him and his family during the Republican primaries. But as the fevered denials from his campaign show, the story of McCain's hate-love relationship with... more Posted on May 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	John McCain's Top 10 Out-of-Touch Moments In another sign of the media's sheepish acceptance of the Barack Obama "elitist" story line, the New York Times on Tuesday described the Illinois Senator as "tagged as elitist." But just as disturbing as the Republicans' apparent success in establishing the "out of touch" narrative as a fixture in campaign coverage is John McCain's seeming inoculation from it. After all, John McCain isn't merely fabulously well off, courtesy of his wife Cindy's $100 million beer distribution fortune. At almost every... more Posted on May 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Polls, 2004 GOP Say Cindy McCain Wrong Not to Disclose Taxes Today, John McCain's wife Cindy declared she would never release her tax returns. Unfortunately, the McCains are bucking the tide of public opinion regarding her income and $100 million fortune. The American people by lopsided margins overwhelmingly believe presidential candidates should disclose their tax returns. And as they showed four years ago in the imbroglio over Theresa Heinz Kerry, the leading lights of the Republican Party and the conservative movement used to agree. The polling data is clear. Last week,... more Posted on May 8, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Voting Record Contradicts Maverick Myth On Wednesday, John McCain's home state Arizona Republic did some good excavation work in the ongoing demolition of the GOP nominee's maverick myth. Analyzing his Senate voting record since 1999, the paper found McCain rarely strayed from the Republican Party line. But that's only a small part of the unraveling of the McCain maverick fable. As I previously detailed, John McCain in his eternal quest for the GOP nomination has repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised core principles to curry... more Posted on May 8, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Meet the McCain Court. Same as the Bush Court. Speaking at Wake Forest University today, Republican presidential nominee John McCain reassured his party's conservative base that he has adopted George W. Bush's judicial philosophy hook, line and sinker. The same John McCain who once expressed doubts about judges in the mold of Samuel Alito today extolled him as a model for the Supreme Court, all the while chanting the right-wing battle cry against so-called judicial activism. Given his past flip-flop on Roe v. Wade (he now supports overturning the... more Posted on May 6, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Take the Lindsey Graham Challenge: "Good Luck Making McCain George Bush" The record of politicians issuing challenges to the press is not a happy one. Just before his Donna Rice scandal broke in 1987, Democratic frontrunner Gary Hart dared the media to "follow me around." The rest, as they say, is history. Now, South Carolina Senator and John McCain water carrier Lindsey Graham has issued a challenge of his own. Claiming on CNN McCain "is his own guy," Graham then threw down the gauntlet, "Good luck making him George Bush." Challenge... more Posted on May 5, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	GOP: Baghdad Still Safer Than U.S. Cities From the outset of the Iraq war, Republican leaders and their amen corner in the right-wing media have sought to calm squeamish Americans by favorably comparing the violence there to life in U.S. cities. Now, John March, a developer planning (believe it or not) a "Disneyland-style" theme park in Baghdad, says the carnage in the Iraqi capital is no different than the "drive-bys" in Southern California. But while grotesque, the analogy is not novel: it has already been repeatedly deployed... more Posted on May 5, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain Tries to Make Age Issue a Laughing Matter On Sunday, septuagenarian and Republican presidential nominee John McCain's advanced age once again jumped to forefront of the 2008 campaign. Over at the Politico, Jonathan Martin pondered whether McCain's age will emerge as an issue. Meanwhile, the New York Times editorial page demanded 71-year old Arizona Senator finally release his medical records, a long overdue disclosure especially important in light of his bouts with skin cancer. For everyone but John McCain himself, the man who has repeatedly joked about himself... more Posted on May 4, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Townsend Joins Snow on Conservative News Network (CNN) Politico is reporting that President Bush's former homeland security adviser and current intelligence advisory board member Fran Townsend is joining CNN as a contributor. Joining former White House press secretary Tony Snow as the second Bush sycophant to join the network in the last two weeks, Townsend's addition is apparently designed to help make CNN the "right choice" during its election '08 coverage. While George W. Bush may be most disliked President in modern American history, his one-time mouthpieces are... more Posted on May 4, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain, Bush Staffs Coordinate on W Separation Strategy John McCain's presidential campaign has apparently found help to battle its extreme case of Bush separation anxiety. Desperate to distance the Republican nominee from the most unpopular president in modern American history, the McCain camp is closely coordinating with the White House to create the facade of separation between John McCain and George W. Bush. As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, senior McCain advisor and GOP lobbyist extraordinaire Charlie Black detailed a close working relationship with President Bush's staff. Acknowledging that George... more Posted on May 3, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Poll: Sharp Partisan Divide on Character vs. Issues in '08 Race Just one day after I analyzed poll data suggesting an early lead for John McCain lead in the 2008 presidential "character war," a new survey from Rasmussen delivered some bad news for the GOP. By a 52% to 36% margin, the Americans surveyed contend that a candidate's policies on the issues matter more than his or her character. Unsurprisingly, Republicans responded that character counts most. Unsurprising, that is, because given Americans' overwhelming preference for Democratic positions and priorities, the GOP... more Posted on May 2, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Obama Disavows Wright; McCain Still Silent on Hagee, Armageddon and Iran Barack Obama in no uncertain terms today made a clear break with his incendiary former minister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But despite Obama's disavowal of his one-time pastor's outrageous statements, the media spotlight continues to shine on Wright. Meanwhile, John McCain has maintained his silence on the dangerous vision of Armageddon and Iran held by his own pastoral supporter, John Hagee. In the wake of Wright's erratic grandstanding at events on Sunday and Monday, Senator Obama made it clear he... more Posted on April 29, 2008 \| Comments (9)

	Democrats Losing the Character War Two recent polls suggest that Democrats are winning minds but losing hearts in the war for the White House in 2008. Despite surveys showing that Americans consistently prefer Democratic positions over those of Republicans across virtually every issue, a new Rasmussen poll found voters trust John McCain more than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. And last week, an AP/Yahoo poll revealed no difference in voters' candidate preferences even when it came to the election's most important issue, the economy.... more Posted on April 29, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain-Hagee Armageddon Watch: Day 61 On Sunday, Barack Obama appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace and marked an end to the right-wing network's 772-day "Obama Countdown Clock." Meanwhile, another clock, this time for Republican John McCain, keeps on ticking. 61 days after accepting his endorsement, the media has not asked - and John McCain has not answered - whether or not he agrees with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy of Armageddon. On February 27,... more Posted on April 28, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Supreme Court OKs Indiana ID Law, GOP Vote Suppression Strategy Just one day after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told Americans to "get over" the 2000 decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush, the Supreme Court today rubber stamped an essential tactic in the all-out Republican war to suppress the turnout of minority - and likely Democratic - voters. By a 6-3 vote, the Court upheld an Indiana voter identification law purportedly designed to address what most experts deem a non-existent problem. By so doing, the Roberts Court... more Posted on April 28, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's Answer for Poverty? eBay! In Martin County, Kentucky this week, John McCain added another one his "Forgotten Places" to the growing list of places his campaign would now like to forget. With a straight face, McCain told the residents of the economically devastated region that eBay represents their economic future. And he did so by appropriating the words of Meg Whitman, who just happens to be not only McCain's national campaign co-chair, but the former CEO of eBay. As NPR reported this morning, McCain... more Posted on April 25, 2008 \| Comments (134)

	McCain, Hagee and the Media's Missing Question on War with Iran In New Orleans as part of his so-called "Forgotten Places" tour, former Navy airman John McCain found himself evading incoming flak over the most recent comments of Pastor John Hagee. Coming just days after George Stephanolous lobbed him a Hagee softball, McCain faced questions over Hagee's assertions that "God's hand" was behind Hurricane Katrina because New Orleans was a "sinful city." But still absent from the media discussion about John McCain and his supporter the End-Times Pastor Hagee is the... more Posted on April 24, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	VP Hopeful Mitt Romney Attacked McCain's Temper In the wake of the Washington Post's article Sunday on John McCain's legendary temper, pundits, politicians and armchair psychologists alike are weighing in on the Arizona Senator's litany of f-bombs, fisticuffs and frothing. But while McCain spokesman Mark Salter called the Washington Post piece "99% fiction," one national Republican leader has already taken great pains to back up its account. Mitt Romney, the man who would be John McCain's running mate, in January decried "the McCain way" of uncontrolled fury... more Posted on April 22, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain Retreats in his War on the UN The Los Angeles Times reports today that Republican nominee John McCain has begun a quiet retreat from the centerpiece of his foreign policy vision, a so-called "League of Democracies." First unveiled in May 2007 and a highlight of his March 26 national security address, McCain despite his past angry criticism of America's European allies envisioned a league of democracies which could "act with great influence and power, both economically and militarily." Unfortunately for McCain, what thrills his neoconservative backers is... more Posted on April 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's 24 Hour Flip-Flop on the Bush Economy Ever since Ronald Reagan famously asked Americans in 1980 if they were better off now than four years ago, answering the question has been a pre-requisite for aspiring White House hopefuls. This week, Republican nominee John McCain twice tried to supply a response when asked about the eight years of the Bush economy. His changing answers of "yes" and "no" on consecutive days set a new flip-flopping record, even for John McCain. On April 17th, Senator McCain was interviewed on... more Posted on April 20, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	10 More Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked In the wake of Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous' abominable performance in the ABC Democratic debate Wednesday, I created a list of 10 debate questions John McCain will never be asked. (The Real McCain author Cliff Schecter subsequently featured my list over at The Huffington Post, AmericaBlog and Crooks and Liars.) Now, as it turns out, this Sunday's guest on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous is none other than Arizona Senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Here, then,... more Posted on April 19, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	10 Debate Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked While the liberal blogosphere and media critics alike are fuming over the deplorable gotcha-fest that was the ABC Democratic debate yesterday in Philadelphia, conservative talking heads are positively ecstatic. In the New York Times, David Brooks called the questions on lapel pins and the Weather Underground "excellent." The excreable Michelle Malkin snarked, "How dare they explore questions of character, truthfulness, and judgment?" And over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey offered "kudos to ABC News" while noting "John McCain has to... more Posted on April 17, 2008 \| Comments (26)

	Laura Bush, Cindy McCain to Host Morning Shows In case anyone still doubted the transformation of American politics into just another form of entertainment, news that Laura Bush and her would-be Republican successor Cindy McCain will soon be hosting NBC's Today Show and ABC's The View should be a case in point. And to be sure, millions of Americans will see the two Republican women presented as the very models of the modern First Lady. On Tuesday, April 22nd, Mrs. Bush will co-host the 9 AM hour of... more Posted on April 17, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Deficit Attention Disorder Back in 2002, Vice President Cheney famously told Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." Now just two months after promising to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term, self-described Reagan foot soldier John McCain has decided he agrees. Before abandoning his balanced budget pledge during his Pittburgh address yesterday, McCain had made it a feature on the campaign trail. For example, during a February 15th rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, "McCain promised... more Posted on April 16, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	For McCain, Silence on Religion is Golden Just one day before lambasting Barack Obama over his recent comments about religion, John McCain was a no-show at Sunday's CNN Compassion Forum on faith. That's because when it comes to discussing his own religious beliefs, the Republican presidential nominee believes that silence is golden. And judging by the fawning stories from the Washington Times, CNN and the Politico, the press corps seems to agree. But McCain's reticence to speak about his faith doesn't represent a generational preference for private... more Posted on April 15, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	April 15th is John McCain Tax Flip-Flop Day As ABC News helpfully reminds us, April 15th is John McCain Tax Flip-Flop Day. McCain, as you'll recall, twice voted against President Bush's budget-busting tax cuts for the richest Americans who need them least. But having undergone a supply-side conversion on the road to the White House, John McCain now wants to make them permanent. John McCain's gymnastic flip-flop on the Bush tax cuts ranks among his greatest acts of political contortion. What he once opposed as fiscal recklessness and... more Posted on April 14, 2008 \| Comments (17)

	Right Assails Diversity Staging at Obama Event Over at the Weekly Standard, Michael Goldfarb takes the Obama campaign to task for deploying the "diversity police" during an appearance by Michelle Obama today at Carnegie Mellon University. But while the campaign staff's efforts to produce a multi-racial backdrop may have been ham-handed, they pale in comparison to the comic Republican attempts to create the illusion of any minority support at all. As the university's student paper described it: While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the... more Posted on April 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Israeli Settlements and the Return of McCain's Hagee Problem Just when it seemed John McCain had weathered the storm over endorser John Hagee's rabid anti-Catholicism, the Texas pastor announced his latest effort to accelerate Armageddon. In the face of U.S. policy opposing the expansion of Isaeli settlements in the West Bank, Hagee's Christian United for Israel (CUFI) announced a $6 million donation to help do just that. So while John McCain may believe that in Washington John Hagee is "doing the Lord's work in Satan's city," he certainly is... more Posted on April 7, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	John McCain's Health Care Crisis John McCain is facing a major health care crisis. Not so much his own, though questions abound about the Republican presidential nominee's bouts with skin cancer. No, as the Boston Globe details, it is the feeble McCain health care plan itself which is terminally flawed. Which isn't to say McCain's age and medical history aren't a concern of his campaign. While the McCain camp has repeatedly delayed releasing his medical records, the New York Daily News is reporting that McCain... more Posted on April 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	CNBC's Kudlow to McCain: Americans Need an Economic Enema The American economy is in recession and according to Larry Kudlow, that is a cause for celebration. On Friday, the National Review regular and CNBC host praised three months of job losses as "an economic cleansing" and beamed that "recessions are therapeutic." And by all indications, Kudlow's prescription of an economic enema for the American people is one shared by John McCain. Given the confluence of grim economic news, Kudlow's flippant "let them eat cake" attitude was all the more... more Posted on April 5, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Top 10 Darrell Issa Hall of Shame Moments Darrell Issa's (R-CA) stunning statement reducing the 9/11 attack on the United States to a "simple" plane crash is just the latest outrage from the execrable California Republican. After all, the one-time accused car thief turned car alarm magnate attacked the families of dead Blackwater contractors, accused Valerie Plame of perjury and played a vital role in purging a U.S. attorney, just to name a few others. Yet less than five years after he cried like a baby while announcing... more Posted on April 4, 2008 \| Comments (13)

	The Politico's Half-Story on McCain's Religion In the Politico this morning, Jonathan Martin offers what the New Republic deemed a "smart piece" about John McCain's religious beliefs. But in describing McCain's reluctance to speak publicly about his faith ("McCain Shies Away from Religion Talk"), Martin tells only half the story. Given that John McCain is now the de facto leader of God's Own Party, his contradictory and suspiciously-timed statements regarding his religious conversion is a story that still needs telling. In his piece today, Martin notes... more Posted on April 3, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	John McCain's Bio Waste All this week, Republican presidential nominee John McCain is highlighting his biography during a "Service to America" tour designed to reintroduce himself to voters. Unfortunately, with each new stop, McCain only raises disturbing new questions about his past. McCain's bio-waste troubles started almost immediately. At his first appearance Monday in Meridien, Mississippi, McCain used the context of the nearby naval air station named for his grandfather to extol his family's long history of military service. But while he boasted that... more Posted on April 2, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	New Baptist John McCain Returns to His Old Episcopal High School In the latest stop on his biographical trip down memory lane, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain returned to his old high school in Alexandria, Virginia. As it turns out, that may have been an odd choice for a man trying to reintroduce himself to the American people. Years after leaving the august halls of Episcopal High School, John McCain became a Baptist. To be sure, John McCain's visit to his old stomping grounds certainly won't convince many Americans that... more Posted on April 1, 2008 \| Comments (30)

	Ralph Reed Joins Scooter Libby as Right-Wing Novelist In conservative political circles, you can't keep a bad man down; he'll just come back and write a novel. And so comes word that former Christian Coalition wunderkind, Jack Abramoff crony and failed Georgia GOP candidate Ralph Reed is joining Scooter Libby, Lynne Cheney and Bill O'Reilly among the pulp pushers of the right. On Monday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Reed will soon publish his first novel, Dark Horse. As to its subject, the AJC speculates only, "The... more Posted on April 1, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Premature Iraq Elation George W. Bush is suffering from another severe case of premature Iraq elation. That's the inescapable diagnosis after a week which featured sunny statements from the President even as Baghdad and Basra descended into chaos. On last week's fifth anniversary of his invasion of Iraq, President Bush was blissfully unaware of the tumultuous three-way Shiite conflict just days in the offing. Now, Bush is portraying setbacks as proof of success and escalating violence as a sign of a healthy democracy.... more Posted on March 28, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain/Romney '08? News that Mitt Romney has joined John McCain on the campaign trail is fueling speculation that the Arizona Senator may tap his defeated rival for the Republican VP slot. Which would make perfect sense. Back by the Bush braintrust and conservative chattering classes, Romney claims to know something about the economy, a topic on which John McCain admits to knowing little. Both men conflate all Muslims worldwide into a single, unified terrorist threat while sharing a common desire to follow... more Posted on March 27, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	From Maverick to Prostitute: The Untold Story of John McCain As much as anything else, presidential campaigns are won and lost by the media narratives that rightly or wrongly come to define a candidate. In the case of Repubican nominee John McCain, the seemingly unshakable narrative of the political "maverick" could not be further off the mark. At almost every turn, McCain in his eternal quest for the White House has reversed long-held positions, compromised core principles and swallowed his pride in order to curry favor with both the leading... more Posted on March 26, 2008 \| Comments (219)

	U.S. Health Care in Red and Blue A new study released last week revealed a Republican Party ever more out of touch with the mushrooming crisis of the American health care system. Predictably, 68% of Republicans believe the U.S. has the best health system in the world, compared to only three in 10 Democrats. Ironically, those findings come just as new studies show a growing "income gap" in Americans' life expectancy and the painful impact of rising health care costs on Americans' stagnant wages. Most ironic, the... more Posted on March 24, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	The Resurrection of Tom Delay Just in time for Easter, the Houston Chronicle has a report on the resurrection on Tom Delay. While the disgraced, indicted former House Minority Leader is still awaiting trial on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to launder money, the Hammer is once ramping up his right-wing rage machine in an effort to propel himself back to the top of the conservative movement. That, at least is the message from Delay's former spokesman, Jonathan Grella: "I think it's going to... more Posted on March 23, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Four Strikes and You're Out: McCain on Al Qaeda and Iran If the contest for the White House followed the rules of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," John McCain would be going home empty-handed. At last four times in the past month, George W. Bush's would-be Republican successor sounded the alarm over a non-existent Al Qaeda-Iran alliance in Iraq. But for a lifeline from Joe Lieberman, McCain would have been booted off the stage by now. As ThinkProgress detailed this morning, McCain's confusion over friend and foe began at least... more Posted on March 20, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Mike Huckabee's Conveniently Missing Sermons After Barack Obama himself, no politician in America may have had a greater stake in Obama's critical speech on race yesterday than former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The former Baptist minister, after all, hasn't been shy about his interest in being John McCain's choice for vice president. Like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Huckabee's closet of sermons may be full of skeletons. Which may just explain why minister Huckabee was quick to defend Obama today, and even quicker to ensure that... more Posted on March 19, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Wrong Again: McCain Proclaims Al Qaeda-Iran Alliance As I documented just two day ago, John McCain has been wrong from the start about virtually every aspect of the Iraq war. From Ahmed Chalabi and Saddam's WMD to the prospects of Americans troops being greeting as liberators and the certainty of a "rapid" U.S. victory in "three weeks," John McCain had it wrong at every turn. Today in Jordan, the Republican presidential nominee made a much fundamental - and shocking - mistake. Would-be commander-in-chief John McCain literally doesn't... more Posted on March 18, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	McCain: Everything I Know About the Economy, I Learned from Alan Greenspan Timing, as they say, is everything. By that measure, John McCain is having a very bad day. First, just one day after his own visit to Baghdad, Vice President Dick Cheney showed up in Iraq to remind Americans that McCain is inextricably linked to President Bush. Then just as the Federal Reserve rushed into to bail out faltering Wall Street investment banks and avert a financial panic, its former chairman Alan Greenspan disavowed any responsibility for it. Sadly, everything John... more Posted on March 17, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Cheney in Iraq: Back and Wronger Than Ever! Just one day after John McCain's drive-by photo op in Baghdad, Vice President Cheney too made a surprise visit to Iraq. Announcing "it's good to be back," Cheney no doubt reminded Americans that John McCain represents the third term Bush agenda on Iraq. And to be sure, Dick Cheney's latest pronouncements reminded Iraqis on one of their own, former Saddam Minister of Information Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, also known as Baghdad Bob. Wrong at almost every turn in the past, the... more Posted on March 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Forever Wrong: Five Years of John McCain on Iraq Just in time for the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain made an unannounced visit to Iraq. While McCain deemed the visit a "fact-finding" mission, his secret visit to Baghdad is just part of an extended photo opportunity in the Middle East and Europe designed to highlight his national security credentials. Unfortunately for McCain, his excellent Baghdad adventure could well produce the opposite effect. After all, this week's looming anniversary highlights that at almost... more Posted on March 16, 2008 \| Comments (15)

	Did Wright Create Obama's "Where's the Beef" Moment? For months, Hillary Clinton has been desperately trying to manufacture a defining moment that would crystallize voters' doubts about Barack Obama. That "Where's the Beef" moment may have come on Friday, not from Obama himself, but in the guise of his long-time pastor and spiritual adviser Jeremiah Wright. While Obama was quick to denounce Wright's histrionic sermons now available to all on video, the hateful words of the minister - and Obama's close relationship to him - may come to... more Posted on March 15, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	John McCain: Unfit for Command Over the past week, Democrat Hillary Clinton has proclaimed her potential Republican rival John McCain to be the gold standard of wartime presidents. But lost in Clinton's fierce barrage against Barack Obama's national security experience is the inescapable conclusion about John McCain's own suitability as Commander-in-Chief. McCain's mistake-filled record, questionable judgment, calamitous misreading of history, nonchalance about American casualties and notorious short fuse all combine to make him a dangerous choice to lead an America at war. Simply put, John... more Posted on March 10, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	Pastor Hagee and the Unpology of John McCain Facing growing pressure to renounce the anti-Catholic bigotry of End Times Pastor John Hagee, John McCain on Friday resorted to that most Republican of accountability avoidance tactics, the Unpology. Desperate to reassure Catholic voters without alienating Hagee's evangelical allies, McCain offered only the facade of contrition by conditionally repudiating Hagee's inflammatory comments only "if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics." To fully appreciate McCain's cowardly evasion, a little history is helpful. In 1997, Seinfeld introduced Americans to the "unvitation."... more Posted on March 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain to Bush in 2000: "Take Your Hands Off Me" In his eternal quest for the White House, John McCain has demonstrated repeatedly that no indignity suffered at the hands of George W. Bush is too great to be forgiven. To appease conservative GOP primary voters, McCain reversed many of his long-held positions in order to appropriate the third term Bush agenda. And yesterday, McCain accepted Bush's Rose Garden endorsement as coming from" a man who I have a great admiration, respect and affection" for. But while John McCain now... more Posted on March 6, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	Cornyn Appears with McCain Wednesday, Slams Him Saturday When he's not threatening judges or comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn keeps busy by raising hypocrisy to an art form. On Wednesday, Cornyn joined John McCain and John Hagee on stage at the Texas pastor's endorsement event. Just three days later, Cornyn lambasted McCain, comparing his grudging support for the prospective nominee of his party to the grieving process. In San Antonio last Wednesday, Senator Cornyn accompanied John Hagee to the podium as the End... more Posted on March 4, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain Joins Bush in War on "Democrat Party" With each passing day, John McCain seemingly deepens his commitment to a third term Bush agenda. As the GOP primaries approached, McCain experienced just-in-time reversals on making the Bush tax cuts permanent and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Like President Bush, McCain butchers history in comparing a 100-year presence in Iraq to the U.S. defense of allies like South Korea. And now, John McCain is even mimicking the adolescent petulance of George W. Bush in using the "Democrat Party"... more Posted on February 29, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain, Hagee and Armageddon as Foreign Policy Few developments provide greater schadenfreude for liberals than division and conflict among the ranks of the American Taliban. So watching the Catholic League's Bill Donahue burst a blood vessel over John McCain's embrace of the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee is must-see entertainment for Democrats. But as I first wrote almost two years ago, when it comes to his End Times vision of conflict with Iran, John Hagee is no laughing matter. In San Antonio on Wednesday, the Texas pastor... more Posted on February 28, 2008 \| Comments (50)

	RNC Orders Diversity Training for the Party of Hate In one of the more hilariously ironic developments of Campaign '08, the Politico reports that the GOP is undertaking a crash course in diversity training of sorts. Desperate to avoid another devastating "Macaca moment" in the fall campaign, the Republican National Committee is "working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election." Unfortunately, that's a tall order for a fractured party united only by its common disdain for immigrants, blacks, gay Americans... more Posted on February 26, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	WaPo Praises McCain on Signing Statements, Ignores Bush Betrayal Today's Washington Post praised John McCain's "ironclad refusal to issue signing statements." While his Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton defended using "signing statements in very rare instances," the Post lauded McCain's "sharp break" from the unprecedented practice of the Bush administration. But what the Washington Post neglected to mention was why John McCain has such a visceral dislike for presidential signing statements. The answer, as it turns out, dates back to December 30, 2005, when President Bush betrayed... more Posted on February 25, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Wilkes, Ney Keep Spotlight on GOP Corruption While debate rages over the New York Times' bizarre allegations regarding John McCain's relationship with a DC lobbyist, two other legendary Republican scandalmakers are keeping GOP corruption in the spotlight. On Tuesday, Duke Cunningham bagman Brent Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years in prison. And just yesterday, former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney was transferred to a halfway house to serve the remainder of a 30 month term for his role in the Jack Abramoff affair. In March 2006, California's Duke... more Posted on February 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	NY Times Endorsed McCain Before Running Scandal Piece The blogosphere is abuzz with the New York Times story about presumptive GOP nominee John McCain and the nature of his relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. It remains unclear why the paper sat on the story since December. But whether or not the New York Times has had the goods on John McCain, it didn't stop them from endorsing him in the state's Republican primary last month. On January 25th, the New York Times gave McCain its stamp of approval... more Posted on February 20, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	McCain Blasts Obama for Bush's Attacks in Pakistan In his Wisconsin victory speech this evening, John McCain wasted no time in firing shots across Barack Obama's bow. Hoping to highlight the Democratic frontrunner's inexperience, McCain to partisan cheers ridiculed Obama's promises as "eloquent but empty." But in a preview of Republican duplicity to come, McCain blasted Obama's past advocacy of unilateral American attacks against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, attacks the Bush administration itself is now finally carrying out. In August, as you'll recall, Barack received a hellstorm... more Posted on February 19, 2008 \| Comments (16)

	Michelle Obama and the Right's "Hate America" Myth One of the most consistently insulting and fatiguing myths perpetuated by the conservative chattering classes is the right's age-old fraud that liberals hate America. Which is why Michelle Obama's latest misstep is all the more frustrating. Just days after implying she'd withhold her active support should Hillary Clinton become the Democratic presidential nominee, Mrs. Obama inadvertently provided the Republican amen corner with more ammunition to keep firing its "hate America" salvoes. Speaking to an audience in Madison, Wisconsin, Michelle Obama... more Posted on February 19, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	The Coming Right-Wing Blog Boom In the span of just six weeks, conservative angst over the comparatively feeble state of the right-wing blogosphere has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. After first trumpeting the supposed decline in traffic at liberal blogs, conservative heads nodded in agreement as Red State's Erick Erickson blamed abortion and capitalism for the abysmal state of the right's online presence. But for all of its hand-wringing, the right-wing blogosphere may be on the verge of a boom. After all, as... more Posted on February 17, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Huckabee Decries, Then Gets Cayman Islands Payday Thursday was a very taxing day for Mike Huckabee. His hated former rival Mitt Romney threw his support - and his delegates - behind John McCain, virtually assuring the Arizona Senator's nomination. That unwelcome development came as Huckabee traveled to cash in on speaking fees in the Cayman Islands, ironically one of the offshore tax havens he has decried throughout his campaign. And hot on the heels on the Senate's probe of Huckabee televangelist backer Kenneth Copeland, another pastor confirmed... more Posted on February 14, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	Romney to Follow McCain to the Gates of Hell CNN is reporting that failed Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will endorse his former rival John McCain. During the Boston press conference, Romney will apparently also call for his GOP delegates to support McCain at the Republican National Convention this summer. While the announcement comes as no surprise, it is a remarkably swift reversal for Romney, who just days ago pilloried McCain for everything from immigration policy and taxes to insufficient fealty to the ghost of Ronald Reagan. But on... more Posted on February 14, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain Backs Bush on Torture Despite '05 Betrayal With his "no" vote yesterday on the Senate bill to ban waterboarding by the CIA, John McCain caved in the face of yet another betrayal by George W. Bush. President Bush, after all, stabbed McCain in the back with a 2005 signing statement that defanged the Detainee Treatment Act the now-presumptive GOP presidential nominee championed in the Senate. But in his never-ending quest to appease his party's conservative base, McCain revealed that no humiliation at the hands of George Bush... more Posted on February 14, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The Real Right-Wing Flag Flap As the Carpetbagger Report details, the conservative blogosphere has its panties in a twist over word that an office used by some Obama volunteers in Texas displayed a flag featuring the likeness of Che Guevara. (As even the local Fox station notes, that office is unaffiliated with the official Obama campaign.) But lost in the right-wing goosestepatariat's comical calls for the Obama campaign to renounce Che Guevara and Fidel Castro is the actual conservative endorsement of a much more dangerous... more Posted on February 12, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The Abominable Ted Olson on "Clinton v. Obama" In case there was any remaining uncertainty, Ted Olson reminded Americans today why he must never be on the Supreme Court. The former Bush Solicitor General and 2000 Florida recount mastermind took the pages of the Wall Street Journal to crow about the ultra-tight Democratic nominating process which he prays ends up in the courts. Hoping to add insult to injury, Olson looks forward to seeing Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton use the excreable Bush v. Gore decision to undo... more Posted on February 11, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Limbaugh and McCain United - Against Chelsea Clinton As the war of words between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain reached a fever pitch this week, it took MSNBC reporter David Schuster to remind Americans that the two right-wing titans share some common values. For all of their current disagreements over the direction of the Republican Party, Limbaugh and McCain agreed on one thing. They both called a young Chelsea Clinton ugly - and worse. As Molly Ivins recalled, Rush's 1993 slur against the 13 year old daughter of... more Posted on February 9, 2008 \| Comments (8)

	Mitt Romney's Greatest Hits At the CPAC conference today, Mitt Romney mercifully brought his campaign of gymnastic flip-flops to an end. Yielding to the inevitability of John McCain's nomination, Romney shuffled off into the Republican sunset. But before exiting the stage (no doubt to return in 2012), Romney regurgitated the bromides, mean-spirited attacks and downright ignorance that characterized his failed campaign. Romney again excluded many from his American community, claiming "Americans love God, and those who don't have faith, typically believe in something greater... more Posted on February 7, 2008 \|