PERRspectives: Republicans Archives

Republicans Archives

	Palin's Lawyer Threatens to Sue Bloggers, Media 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 a criminal investigation involving the Governor: To the extent several websites,... 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 (7)

	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 (2)

	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 (12)

	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 (4)

	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 (1)

	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 (0)

	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 (3)

	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 (0)

	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 (0)

	"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 (11)

	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 (6)

	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 (2)

	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 (3)

	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 (1)

	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 (0)

	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 (3)

	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 (3)

	"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 (5)

	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 (5)

	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 (2)

	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 (5)

	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 (8)

	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 (13)

	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 (2)

	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 (2)

	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 (0)

	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 (35)

	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 (3)

	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 (9)

	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 (6)

	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 (13)

	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 (5)

	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 (1)

	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 (10)

	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 (10)

	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 (1)

	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 (3)

	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 (4)

	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 (7)

	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 \| Comments (4)

	30 Things John McCain Needs to Know About Mike Huckabee One of the more fascinating story lines in the wake of the Super Tuesday primaries involves rumors that GOP frontrunner John McCain is considering Mike Huckabee as his VP choice. The two didn't merely combine in Tuesday's nationwide vote to send Mitt Romney to the Republican equivalent of the glue factory. Throughout the primaries, McCain and Huckabee have lavished praise and respect upon each other. But while Mike Huckabee might love John McCain, his party and the American people won't... more Posted on February 6, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Romney Attacks Another War Hero - Bob Dole Desperate men say desperate things. In Mitt Romney's case, that often mean reversing positions he held for as long as a lifetime or as little as fifteen minutes. But in attacking Bob Dole on Monday, the former Massachusetts Governor showed he's not only desperate, he's not too bright, either. Yesterday, the former Kansas Senator and 1996 GOP presidential nominee wrote Rush Limbaugh, asking the radio host to dial back his attacks on John McCain. In response, Romney while appearing on... more Posted on February 5, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Fox Brings You the Super Bowl Sunday Rightacular! On Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, the Fox Network will add its unique brand of right-wing propaganda to the mix of football and ads millions of Americans tune in to see. Before its pre-game show and Super Bowl XLII coverage, Fox stations will first air three hours of Fox News Super Tuesday political "analysis." Since the New York Giants and New England Patriots hail from the bluest of blue states, viewers should expect Fox and friends to wear red-tinted glasses in... more Posted on February 2, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Yet Another 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism Heading into Super Tuesday, the faith-based candidacy of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is running on fumes. Falling short in South Carolina in what was his last best chance to turn the GOP nominating process into chaos, Huckabee limped to a distant fourth place showing in Florida. Now out of momentum and out of cash, Mike Huckabee is being left behind, so to speak, by John McCain and Mitt Romney. While Mike Huckabee seems destined to leave the Republican stage,... more Posted on January 31, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	Romney Rejects, Then Claims Reagan's Legacy Tonight in Simi Valley, California, Mitt Romney and new GOP frontrunner John McCain will face off in the final Republican debate before the 22 Tsunami Tuesday contests on February 5th. It is altogether fitting that this key battle for conservative hearts and minds occurs at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Romney, after all, claimed the Reagan mantle from the beginning of his campaign. Sadly, that would be the same Reagan legacy the former Massachusetts Governor utterly rejected in 1994. In... more Posted on January 30, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Nathan Tryst Fund, YouTube Debate Doomed Giuliani As Floridians head to polls today, a likely dismal showing by former GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani will effectively end his campaign. In a rare moment of candor on Monday, the former New York mayor acknowledged as much, telling reporters "Wednesday morning, we'll make a decision." But while pollsters and pundits will attribute Giuliani's epic collapse to his cataclysmic decision to effectively skip Iowa and New Hampshire, his authoritarian arrogance or his 9/11 Tourette's Syndrome, Giuliani's fate was sealed during a... more Posted on January 29, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Morphs into Bush Last week, I described the perils and pitfalls of Mitt Romney's sales pitch to replace George W. Bush as America's MBA President. Now, new developments from the campaign trail suggest that the morphing of Mitt Romney into George Bush is well underway. The first hints of Romney's transformation came late last year. In the face of eventual Iowa winner Mike Huckabee's critique that "Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad," Romney rushed to President Bush's... more Posted on January 27, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Fibbing in Florida: GOP Candidates Stay Untrue to Form Facing off in last night's debate just days before Florida's make-or-break primary, the assembled Republican White House hopefuls were, so to speak, untrue to form. While Mitt Romney performed new backflips to extricate himself from the flip-flops that define so him, John McCain tried to evade his past confessions of his ignorance of economics. And once again, Mike Huckabee pretended to disavow the theocratic agenda obviously central to his campaign. Mitt Romney's latest rhetorical contortion came in response to a... more Posted on January 25, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Romney Aims to Succeed Bush as MBA President In the run-up to the critical Republican primary in Florida next Tuesday, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is stressing his business background. With the economy turning sour and the GOP candidates predictably turning to talk of tax cuts, Romney is touting his CEO credentials. Unfortunately, history shows that what's good for Mitt Romney's business isn't always good for America. Worse still, Romney desire to be the nation's second MBA president only serves to remind Americans that their experience with the... more Posted on January 24, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Sports Night on Huckabee and the Confederate Flag Over at Slate, Christopher Hitchens asks why the press is ignoring Mike Huckabee's shocking statement about the Confederate flag. While the media were quick to highlight Huckabee's shameless pandering to South Carolina's far right, the press generally preferred to avoid any discussion of Huckabee's blatantly racist appeal to the Palmetto State's antebellum boosters. Sadly, for the clearest analysis of Huckabee's message, one should turn not to the news, but to the 1990's primetime TV show, Sports Night. In South Carolina... more Posted on January 22, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	The Unbearable Whiteness of Mitt Romney On this celebration of Martin Luther King Day, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney showed once again that he is completely out of his element when it comes to matters of race and ethnicity. First, Romney offered his own rendition of "Who Let the Dogs Out" to a group of African-Americans in Jacksonville. Then that same day Romney, who insisted in the past that "we cannot be a bilingual nation," began running Spanish language ads in Florida. As CBS reported Monday,... more Posted on January 22, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	John McCain's Free Ride In the wake of his New Hampshire and South Carolina victories, the once-and-future GOP frontrunner John McCain is enjoying a charmed life when it comes to the press. Just days after John King's puff piece on CNN, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz offered a glowing review of McCain's accessibility to the press. But as he conveniently continues his retreat from his past positions on immigration and tax cuts as the Republican race heads to Florida, John McCain should be receiving... more Posted on January 21, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	Five Observations from Nevada and South Carolina With the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina Republican primary now history, it is once again time for the post-mortem. From the blatantly obvious to the possibly outlandish, here are five observations from Saturday's presidential primary action. 1. The Incredible Shrinking Legacy of Bill Clinton On Friday, I worried that Bill Clinton's descent into attack dog politics in the service of his wife Hillary's campaign threatened to diminish his reputation and popularity among Democrats in particular and Americans in general.... more Posted on January 20, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	The Weekly Standard's Hypocritical Praise for John McCain With John McCain's return to the front of the Republican pack, the conservative Weekly Standard is reexamining the Arizona's vices and virtues. But while Dean Barnett bemoans McCain's "uncanny ability to drive virtually all conservatives nuts," Adam White and Kevin White praise McCain's record on the confirmation of right-wing judges. Not because McCain's position on the so-called "nuclear option" was right in principle. No, the Standard lauded McCain's success with the "Gang of 14" because it preserved the ability of... more Posted on January 19, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Anyone-But-Huckabee Race for the GOP? The latest polls from South Carolina show former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is within striking distance of John McCain in the Palmetto State's GOP primary on Saturday. A win there by Huckabee could upend the conventional wisdom about the fractured yet wide-open Republican race. After Saturday, the GOP contest could be less about picking the Republican presidential nominee then ensuring that Mike Huckabee isn't it. While Huckabee's cavalcade of gaffes in the past week (amending the Constitution to meet "God's... more Posted on January 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The Wall Street Journal's "Liberal Hatemongering" Sham Once again demonstrating its gift for fiction, the Wall Street Journal offered a hilariously pathetic treatise on the hate-mongering and intolerance of liberals. Just three weeks after Bruce Bartlett took to the Journal's opinion pages to insist that Americans overlook the Republicans' racist present to instead focus on Democrats' racist past, Arthur C. Brooks today in "Liberal Hatemongers" argued that "that political intolerance in America is to be found more on the left than it is on the right." Sadly,... more Posted on January 17, 2008 \| Comments (10)

	Michigan: The Mitt Stays in the Picture The early results from Michigan are in and it appears that self-proclaimed favorite son Mitt Romney has survived to fight another day. A quick glance at the Republican exit poll suggests that the dismal wintry weather and the aborted Democratic primary kept independents at home, much to the dismay of John McCain. (Independents were only 25% of Michigan voters, compared to 37% in New Hampshire.) The overwhelming importance of the economy in hard-hit Michigan also played into Romney's hands: a... more Posted on January 16, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Huckabee Calls for Faith-Based Constitution As the chaotic and unpredictable GOP presidential primary process grinds on, there is one thing we know for certain. Mike Huckabee is unashamed and unapologetic about his incendiary blend of politics and religious zealotry. Just one week after extolling New Hampshire congregants to be "soldiers for Christ" in "God's Army," the former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister told a cheering Michigan gathering that Americans must "amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards." Huckabee's latest faith-based salvo should come as... more Posted on January 15, 2008 \| Comments (10)

	Romney Counts on Bogus Bio in Michigan As his make-or-break Michigan primary approaches, Mitt Romney is betting on his biography. Positioning himself as the home state boy done good who will do right by his home state, a new Romney ad says the contest there is "personal." But while a New York Times headline proclaimed that "Romney embraces his Michigan roots" and the Politico announced "Romney plays nostalgia card in Michigan," less attention is apparently being paid to Romney's revisionist history. His claims notwithstanding, the man who... more Posted on January 15, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Memo to Hillary & Barack: The Race Card is in the GOP Deck While the clown-car that is the Republican presidential field seemed headed over a cliff, Democratic primary voters enjoyed a generally high-minded debate among candidates they generally liked. That is, until the New Hampshire primary. Now, the simmering feud between the Clinton and Obama campaigns over supposed racial politics is casting a pall over what had been an uplifting competition. Worse still, as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and even John Edwards battle over purported racial insensitivities, one fact remains undeniable. The... more Posted on January 14, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Supreme Court Hears GOP Vote Suppression Case Today The Supreme Court today will hear a set of voter identification cases which could well determine the outcome of the 2008 election. In a narrow legal sense, the cases will address the constitutionality of new voter ID laws in Indiana and other states that purport to address what most experts deem a non-existent problem. But more important, the Roberts Court will decide whether to rubber stamp an essential tactic in the all-out Republican war to suppress the turnout of minority... more Posted on January 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Latest Romney Laugher: "Just a Guy from Detroit" In his campaign of gymnastic flip-flops and mind-bending distortions, Mitt Romney topped himself Monday with his hilarious claim that he's just "a guy from Detroit." While Detroit and Romney's suburban childhood home in tony Bloomfield Hills might be separated by just a few miles, his privileged life there was light years away from Motor City. Romney's latest uproarious Mitticism took place in an interview with Katie Couric on CBS News. Asked if he's frustrated with his primary campaign showing so... more Posted on January 8, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Huckabee Delivers Sermon on "God's Army" in NH Riding an evangelical wave to victory in Iowa, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee by necessity has taken a decidedly more secular line in New Hampshire. Without the religious right base to tap into in the Granite State, Huckabee had focused instead on taxes, immigration and other more mundane issues of this world. But on Sunday in Windham, New Hampshire, the former Baptist Minister returned to his roots and delivered a sermon on being "soldiers for Christ" in "God's Army." Echoing... more Posted on January 7, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Romney Follows Bush's Iron Law of Bin Laden As the New Hampshire primary approaches, a desperate Mitt Romney has emerged as a vocal defender of the foreign policy of George W. Bush. On Sunday, Romney developed a full-blown case of Bush envy, echoing the President's 2001 spaghetti western threat by saying, "I want to get Osama bin Laden dead or alive." To be sure, by alternately downplaying or emphasizing the importance of capturing Bin Laden as political circumstances require, Romney has indeed taken a page straight from the... more Posted on January 7, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Huckabee: Tax Prostitutes and Drug Dealers As Perrspectives detailed here and here, the ever-charming GOP frontrunner and surprise Iowa winner Mike Huckabee is probably the most alarming extremist thrown up by either party in a generation. But while his most dangerous pronouncements involve his zealous determination to save souls for the next life, his radical tax proposals would surely impoverish them in this one. One key, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister tells us, is to tax sinners like prostitutes and drug dealers. That, at... more Posted on January 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	WSJ Extends GOP "Criminalizing Politics" Defense to CIA Tapes It was only a matter of time before the conservative chattering classes extended the Republicans' perpetual "criminalization of politics" defense to the exploding CIA tapes scandal. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal obliged, claiming the Justice Department's probe into the spy agency's destruction of detainee interrogation videos was the equivalent of "criminalizing the CIA." Following the script from the Tom Delay, Valerie Plame outing, U.S. attorneys purge and other Republicans scandals, the Journal's contortion is just the latest right-wing effort... more Posted on January 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Iowa Aftermath: Immigration the New GOP Wedge Issue in '08 Lost in the media focus on the victories of the supposed "change" candidates in Iowa last night are the dramatic differences in the priorities of each party's voters. As Iowa Democrats headed to their caucuses in record numbers last night, the sputtering American economy topped their list of concerns. But in a disturbing hint of things to come from the GOP, Iowa Republicans instead were looking for someone to blame in making immigration their most important issue. Americans' concerns over... more Posted on January 4, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Bloomberg God's Gift to the GOP? From the beginning, God has been at the center of the Republican presidential race. And He has not been kind to the GOP or its would-be leaders. While John McCain back-tracked from his claim that "the most important thing is that I am a Christian", Rudy Giuliani left it to the priests to decide whether he is a good Catholic. A desperate Mitt Romney delivered a speech on faith in which he ejected Muslims and atheists from the American community.... more Posted on December 31, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	That's Entertainment: Hyperpartisanship and Politics as Theater As the 2008 campaign begins in earnest, one of the emerging storylines is so-called hyperpartisanship, the bitter and increasingly divisive conflict between Democrats and Republicans that is said to be fueling cynicism - and apathy - among voters. In Iowa, Barack Obama proclaims that he will transcend partisan cleavages, while John Edwards vows to fight. Meanwhile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will meet in Oklahoma next week with prominent figures from both parties to encourage the 2008 candidates to form... more Posted on December 30, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Huckabee: Bhutto Did Not Graciously Submit to Woman's Role The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has given the White House hopefuls of both parties ample opportunities for grandstanding. While Hillary Clinton predictably played up her past relationship with Bhutto, John McCain touted his foreign policy experience. The co-chair of New Hampshire's Veterans for Rudy Giuliani declared his candidate would chase Muslims "back to their caves." But for the most disturbing - and ironic - reaction, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is in a class by himself. Bhutto was killed, Huckabee... more Posted on December 28, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Supreme Court Test for GOP Vote Suppression Strategy As the Washington Post detailed on Tuesday, the Supreme Court this term will decide a set of voter identification cases which could well determine the outcome of the 2008 election. In a narrow legal sense, the cases will address the constitutionality of new voter ID laws in Indiana and other states. But more important, the Roberts Court will decide whether to rubber stamp an essential tactic in the all-out Republican war to suppress the votes of minority - and likely... more Posted on December 26, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Misdirection: Bartlett Ignores GOP's Racist Present for Dems' Racist Past In one of the most disgusting and disingenuous acts of political misdirection in recent memory, former Reagan and Bush 41 advisor Bruce Bartlett is asking Americans to ignore the Republican Party's racist present and instead focus on the Democratic Party's racist past. Taking to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Bartlett extracted a catalog of quotes from Jefferson to Biden to document the Democratic Party's' shameful past history when it comes to African-Americans. But no amount of sleight of... more Posted on December 24, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Romney Adopts GOP "Give Me Death" Line on Civil Liberties In an unprecedented and blistering "undorsement" on Saturday, the Concord Monitor implored New Hampshire voters not to support GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney under any circumstances. Labeling Romney "a disquieting figure" who "most surely must be stopped," the Monitor profiled the serial flip-flopper whose pronouncements on national security and civil liberties issues "are often chilling." Just how chilling, it turns out, Salon's Glenn Greenwald detailed the very next day. While Americans by now have grown accustomed to Romney's tough... more Posted on December 24, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Medals of Dishonor: How the Right Rewards Cover Ups & Payback On Friday, right-wing mouthpiece and failed Bush Labor nominee Linda Chavez demonstrated the Iron Law of Republican scandal management. Claiming the CIA official purportedly responsible for destroying detainee interrogation tapes "deserves a medal," Chavez showed the conservative commitment to rewarding those who conceal White House wrong-doing. The corollary, of course, is the GOP Payback Principle: those exposing Bush administration criminality should be prosecuted. In her Friday column titled "Destroying CIA Tapes Deserves a Thank You," Chavez argued that the 2005... more Posted on December 23, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	New Divorce Research Best News in Bad Week for Giuliani These last few days have not been kind to Rudy Giuliani. New revelations in the Bernard Kerik case are keeping the spotlight on the former New York mayor's ethical woes. New polls show Giuliani's national lead in the GOP White House race has evaporated and the prospect of dual losses in Iowa and New Hampshire threaten his national campaign strategy. Adding insult to injury, Giuliani checked into a Missouri hospital yesterday after experiencing flu-like symptoms. But in one aspect of... more Posted on December 20, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Romney Laments Hypothetical Loss of Son, '94 Planned Parenthood Gift The past 24 hours have been deservedly cruel for former GOP Iowa frontrunner Mitt Romney. In New Hampshire Monday, Romney got teary at the thought of losing one of his five sons in combat, despite having previously lauded their work on his campaign as their service to America. And on Tuesday, ABC released a photograph of Senate candidate Romney at a 1994 fundraiser for Planned Parenthood, a group he previously claimed he could not recall himself or his wife supporting.... more Posted on December 18, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	10 More Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism Last week's "Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism" provided a snapshot of the dangerously radical zealot who now also happens to be a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. But as more skeletons emerge from Governor Huckabee's closet, Americans are getting a fuller picture of a man who seeks to render the wall separating church and state, to paraphrase Alberto Gonzales, quaint. As it turns out, Mike Huckabee isn't merely a religious extremist who threatens mainstream America values, but... more Posted on December 18, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	The Republican War on Dogs Harry Truman once famously said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Judging by the current crop of Republican presidential candidates, a GOP victory in 2008 won't be a very good deal for the dog. As we found out this weekend, the son of Republican frontrunner Mike Huckabee joined Mitt Romney among the tormentors of man's best friend. As Newsweek details, then 17 year old David Huckabee was dismissed in 1998 from his job as a Boy... more Posted on December 17, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Gonzales Stripped of ABA Lawyer of the Year Title The indignities never seem to end for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. On Wednesday, I reported that the Journal of the American Bar Association had named Gonzales its 2007 "Lawyer of the Year". Now, just two days later, the ABA has bowed to the public outcry and announced it would strip Gonzales of his title. Instead, the ABA is bestowing a Miss Congeniality prize on him, relabeling Gonzales the "Newsmaker of the Year." Apparently, the ABA was too smart by... more Posted on December 15, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	"Republican of the Year" Awards We'd Like to See This week, the Journal of the American Bar Association announced the selection of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as its 2007 Lawyer of the Year. In a process that prioritized the absolute value of the contenders' beneficial or deleterious contributions to the legal profession, Gonzales edged out such notables as Duke lacrosse team prosecutor Michael Nifong, Hatch Act hatchet woman and loyal Bushie Monica Goodling, and Plamegate villain Scooter Libby. As Edward A. Adams, the Journal's editor and publisher, described... more Posted on December 13, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Verdict is In: Romney Speech a Double Failure The verdict on Mitt Romney's over-hyped speech on "Faith in America" is in, and the results are not pretty. It's now clear the address was a double failure. As a statement of political philosophy, Romney's new religious test proclaiming the exclusion of Muslims and atheists from the American community was rejected by most commentators (save his friends at the National Review and its online allies). But more importantly for Mitt Romney's fading prospects in Iowa, his primary audience of skeptical... more Posted on December 12, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Lessons of Colorado: Tony Perkins and Right-Wing Terror In response to the tragic church shootings in Colorado, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins naturally pointed the finger of blame at the "secular media." The senseless massacre of several deeply religious people by one of their own reflected, he claimed, "hostility that is being fomented in our culture from some in the secular media toward Christians." Of course, Perkins has it almost exactly backwards. Whether concerning abortion, gay Americans, immigration or judicial appointments, the line connecting the rhetoric of... more Posted on December 11, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism As former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee catapults to the top of the 2008 Republican presidential race, amazed media on-lookers ponder his meteoric rise. The authentic, charismatic former minister, they say, is swaying disheartened conservative voters, especially the legions of evangelicals in Iowa and other states, disillusioned with President Bush and unimpressed with his potential successors. But despite emerging stories from his checkered past such as the Wayne Dumond affair or his past AIDS bigotry, a true portrait of Mike Huckabee... more Posted on December 10, 2007 \| Comments (12)

	Reagan Debunked Huckabee's AIDS Bigotry - in 1987 Like all of the 2008 Republican White House hopefuls, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is quick to claim the mantle of Ronald Reagan. But when it came to the AIDS crisis, President Ronald Reagan was positively enlightened compared to the extremist Senate candidate Huckabee years later. As it turns out, everything Mike Huckabee argued in response to the AIDS epidemic in 1992 - quarantining victims, blaming gay Americans, decrying federal funding to fight the disease - Ronald Reagan himself debunked... more Posted on December 9, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Mitt Romney Creates His Own Religious Test In his overdue and over-hyped address today on "Faith in America," GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney sought to disarm evangelicals' fears about the role of his Mormon faith, fears that threaten his campaign's prospects in the lynchpin state of Iowa. But while he likely failed in that task, Romney assuredly succeeded in redefining the U.S. Constitution's ban on religious tests for political office. According to Romney's notion of public service, Muslims and atheists need not apply. In a speech... more Posted on December 6, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Huckabee Proclaims Ignorance of Iran NIE, Evolution Mike Huckabee is quickly learning that the frontrunner's life isn't always an easy one. After first brushing off questions Tuesday about his creationist beliefs, the former Arkansas Governor went on to display complete ignorance of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran now dominating the news and debate in Washington. But while Huckabee might be excused for being a foreign policy neophyte, the former Baptist minister is an old hand when it comes to promoting creationism at the expense of... more Posted on December 5, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Hypocritical Huckabee Dodges the Mormon Question After collecting the endorsement of 60 religious leaders today, newly minted Iowa frontrunner Mike Huckabee dodged the question about whether he considers Mitt Romney's Mormonism to be a cult. But while Huckabee declared he would not "go off into evaluating other people's doctrines and faiths," his campaign seems content to do just that. And when it comes to Islam, the former minister has proven rather eager to stand in judgment. Claiming he respects "anybody who practices his faith," the former... more Posted on December 4, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Mitt Romney, You're No Jack Kennedy Mitt Romney's announcement that he will deliver a major address Thursday concerning his Mormon faith confirms three fundamental truths about the former Massachusetts Governor. First is Romney's desperation in the face of evangelical darling Mike Huckabee's surge in Iowa, a development that threatens his entire campaign. Second, with his insistence that the President be a "man of faith" and his promised exclusion of Muslims Americans from his cabinet, Mitt Romney brought this faith-based trap on himself. And last, to paraphrase... more Posted on December 3, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Texas Previews a Huckabee Presidency The state of Texas this week offered Americans a preview of a Mike Huckabee presidency. In Austin, the veteran science director of the Texas Education Agency was forced to resign after coming under withering assault by creationism advocates. Judging by his words and deeds, the former Arkansas Governor and Baptist minister promises a similarly grim future for the teaching of evolution and the scientific method in the United States. Despite opponents' claims that her ouster was purely a "personnel issue,"... more Posted on December 2, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Giuliani's Dog Day Afternoon There are three certainties about life in the United States: death, taxes, and the predictably explosive reaction of Americans to the mistreatment of dogs. With the latest revelations that New York residents paid the NYPD to walk the dog of Giuliani mistress-turned-third wife Judith Nathan, the mushrooming scandal surrounding Rudy's Tryst Fund is about to go to the dogs. As Talking Points Memo highlighted this morning, Giuliani's surreptitious taxpayer-funded Hampton frolics weren't limited to those 11 trips to Judith Nathan's... more Posted on December 1, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	The Weekly Standard Laments the Party of Hate Debate Over at the conservative Weekly Standard, there is despair and consternation at the picture of the Republican Party presented at last night's CNN/YouTube debate. While one column feared the "vaguely threatening parade" of the assembled GOP White House hopefuls, editor and Fox News commentator Fred Barnes lamented a debate that was "mortifying to the candidates." Apparently, the truth is not setting them free. Because the Party of Hate Americans saw on stage last night wasn't a caricature, but the reality... more Posted on November 29, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	The Gospel According to Rudy In last night's Republican CNN/YouTube debate, Rudy Giuliani provided Americans with a rare moment of candor about the Bible and himself. Asked if every word of the Bible was literally true, Giuliani replied that much of it was "allegorical." Given his repeated distortions, exaggerations and outright falsehoods, Giuliani could have been describing his own campaign. In the Gospel According to Rudy, the tale of the 9/11 hero fighting terrorist evil isn't literally true, either. Following a question as to whether... more Posted on November 29, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Mike Huckabee: Rudy Giuliani's New Best Friend Rudy Giuliani has a new best friend. With Mitt Romney holding twin leads in Iowa and New Hampshire and Rudy's former wingman Bernard Kerik now under indictment, Giuliani's position as the national GOP presidential front-runner seemed increasingly precarious. Enter former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, whose surge in Iowa is just what the doctor ordered. The Giuliani-Romney clash has been shaping up along familiar battle lines. Giuliani, the consensus front-runner with broad name recognition and support of the party establishment, is... more Posted on November 28, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Romney: No Muslims in My Cabinet When it comes to the demographic make-up of his future cabinet, Republican White House hopeful and legendary flip-flopper Mitt Romney proved he can completely reverse his position in the span of just a single day. Appearing on CNN's Situation Room Monday, Romney told Wolf Blitzer he rejected the use of quotas in appointing cabinet members. But according to the Christian Science Monitor today, Mitt does indeed have a quota for the number of American Muslims in a future Romney cabinet.... more Posted on November 26, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Trent Lott's Next Career Washington is abuzz with the news that Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott will resign by the end of the year. Speculation abounds regarding the motivation for the Mississippi Senator's sudden departure as well as what comes next. (Rumors of health problems and an affair with the bastard love child of one of Strom Thurmond's bastard love children proved to be unfounded). But while the Politico and other outlets are reporting Lott's quick exit is fueled by his desire to evade... more Posted on November 26, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	McCain, Betrayed by Bush, Rejects Signing Statements This week, Republican White House hopeful John McCain denounced George W. Bush's unprecedented use of presidential signing statements. As well he should. After all, it was President Bush's December 30, 2005 signing statement on McCain's amendment to the Detainee Treatment Act that made waterboarding and other acts of torture the continuing policy of the United States. On Monday, McCain announced that as President, he would reject signing statements altogether: "I would never issue a signing statement. It is wrong, and... more Posted on November 23, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Massive New Citizenship Backlog the Latest Voter Suppression? A Washington Post report that the Bush administration is facing a massive backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications for U.S. citizenship is sadly unsurprising. After all, as the Katrina disaster and new passport fiasco demonstrated, incompetence is the hallmark of President Bush's Department of Homeland Security. But with the news that hundreds of thousands of immigrants - many of them Hispanic - may be unable to vote in the 2008 elections, Americans can be forgiven for suspecting something more... more Posted on November 22, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Mitt Romney Traps Himself on Faith In the span of just a few days, Mitt Romney's Mormon faith has moved to the front burner of the 2008 presidential election. In New Hampshire, mysterious opposition push polls branded Mormonism a cult, a smear Romney declared "un-American." That development came after the candidate suggested he would likely renege on an earlier promise to offer a Kennedyesque explanation of the role his religion would play in a potential presidency. While there are, of course, many legitimate reasons to not... more Posted on November 19, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's Double-Standard on Campaign Slurs Last week, Americans learned about John McCain's latest double-standard. Push-polls that slander his opponent Mitt Romney's Mormon faith are "disgraceful" and "outrageous"; a McCain supporter's inquiry featuring the "bitch" slur of Hillary Clinton is "an excellent question." Of course for McCain, his responses pose no contradiction. Each is designed to win the backing of Republican primary voters. McCain's outrage over the New Hampshire push polls attacking Mitt Romney is understandable. McCain, after all, was savaged by the Bush campaign during... more Posted on November 18, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Break the War Funding Deadlock: The Iraq Apology Amendment One day after the House approved an Iraq war funding bill mandating American troop withdrawals, Republicans blocked a similar measure in the Senate. With GOP intransigence and a certain veto from President Bush leading to a high-stakes showdown they seem destined to lose, Democrats need a different strategy - at least for now. One way forward is to give President Bush the money for his fiasco in Iraq with no strings attached save one: he must apologize for it. Call... more Posted on November 16, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	John McCain, Barbara Bush and the B-Word As Perrspectives has noted repeatedly (see here, here and here), John McCain since 2004 has kowtowed before his former tormenter George W. Bush, all part of his quest for the White House. Now, apparently, McCain is emulating the President's mother. Like Barbara Bush, McCain is content to condone a Democratic woman being labeled a "bitch." And like Babs in 1984, McCain is learning he will be rewarded by Republican voters for doing it. McCain's Hillary Clinton BitchGate episode harkens back... more Posted on November 15, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	FISA, Yahoo and the GOP Double-Standard on Telecom Immunity As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to debate the renewal of FISA revisions made in August, President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress are endorsing a unique double-standard when it comes to immunity for telecommunications firms. Within the United States, they argue, service providers such as AT&T and Verizon must cooperate with U.S. government demands for access to Americans' electronic communications and should be immune from citizens' lawsuits. But in China and elsewhere, as Republican reaction to this week's... more Posted on November 14, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Romney: Give Tax Breaks for Home Schooling In South Carolina last week, White House hopeful Mitt Romney up the ante in the Republican war against public education. No doubt playing to the Palmetto State's crucial evangelical primary voters, Romney announced he favored tax breaks for parents who home school their children. For Romney, American parents should not only be encouraged to abandon the public schools; they should be rewarded for it. At a gathering of 100 supporters at a children's museum, Romney signaled his willingness to undermine... more Posted on November 14, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Georgia Governor Perdue and the Top 10 Republican Prayers As a devastating drought continues to parch the Southeast, Republican Governors in Georgia and Alabama are turning to divine intervention to help replenish their dwindling water supplies. In Atlanta, Governor Sonny Perdue held a public vigil at the state house Tuesday to "pray up a storm." His plea follows on the heels on Alabama Governor Bob Riley's week-long "Days of Prayer for Rain" in June. As then-Governor George W. Bush showed with his 2000 proclamation of "Jesus Day," prayer is... more Posted on November 13, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Party of Hate In Washington, House Minority Leader John Boehner is struggling to rebrand a downtrodden and disheartened Republican Party in time for the 2008 elections. It's no wonder. Its agenda stymied and burdened by an unpopular war and an even less popular President, the GOP is being pulverized in the polls. And with its evangelical base splintered and big business supporters jumping ship, the only message seemingly uniting Republicans is disdain - of immigrants, of blacks, of gay Americans and above all,... more Posted on November 12, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Just in Time for Giuliani, Evangelicals Rethink Divorce Timing, as they say, is everything. In recent days, the religious right's discontent with the socially liberal, twice divorced and occasional cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani has begun to fuel rumors of a third party alternative for disgruntled Republican evangelicals. How convenient then for the self-proclaimed mayor of 9/11 that evangelicals themselves are now reconsidering their prohibition on divorce. That's the story in the current issue of Time magazine. Citing an article by British Evangelical scholar David Instone-Brewer in the influential Christianity... more Posted on November 6, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Bush Consumer Safety Chief After a brief hiatus, the Avenging Angel, punisher of right-wing miscreants, resumed delivery of conservative smitings. The retribution begins in Washington with Nancy Nord, the head of the Bush Consumer Products Safety Commission. First Nord demanded that Congress not increase the staffing and budget for her woefully under-funded agency in the face of massive Chinese product recalls. Just days later, the Washington Post revealed that she and her predecessor Hal Stratton received up to 30 paid trips from companies they... more Posted on November 2, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Giuliani Flip-Flops on Waterboarding, Jokes About Torture In Iowa yesterday, GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani followed Bush Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey in playing dumb on the subject of torture. It should come as no surprise that Giuliani would argue that whether waterboarding violates the Geneva Convention depends on what the definition of "torture" is. Even less surprising is that the same man who in May endorsed "every method they could think of" would now jokingly claim that he was a victim of torture himself. Asked in Davenport,... more Posted on October 25, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Choice for Me, Not Thee: Thompson & Delay on the Schiavo Affair As Fred Thompson's discussion of the Terri Schiavo case again highlighted this week, the so-called conservative "culture of life" contains a personal exemption. That is, when it comes to abortion, stem cell research and other such issues, the culture warriors of the right fervently oppose personal choice and potential medical breakthroughs - until they or someone they care about badly needs them. Then, as the likes of Fred Thompson, Tom Delay and Orrin Hatch show, the Republican mantra quickly becomes... more Posted on October 23, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The 2008 Values Voter Olympics Much to chagrin of its radical right organizers, this weekend's Values Voter Summit of GOP White House hopefuls produced only confusion. Despite the gymnastic contortions and acrobatic back-flips of Republican presidential candidates eager to win evangelical hearts and minds, no clear winner of the conference straw poll emerged. Thanks to his stuffing of the online ballot box, Mitt Romney edged Mike Huckabee, the clear favorite of actual conference goers, by 1,595 votes to 1,565. Eager to avoid a repeat of... more Posted on October 22, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Who's Counting? Bush and Giuliani on the Next World War President Bush's disturbingly flip comment Wednesday about Iran and World War III not only revealed his apparent comfort when discussing global conflagration. Bush's gaffe also showed the common vision between himself, the man most likely to succeed him as head of the Republican Party and those who advise them both. For George Bush, Rudy Giuliani and the likes of Norman Podhoretz, the only dispute about "world war" is whether we're already fighting it and what number we're on. For President... more Posted on October 18, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Romney's Seasonal Visa Program Begins at Home On the campaign trail in Michigan on Saturday, GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney announced his support for more seasonal visas for foreign workers laboring in tourism, agriculture and other sectors of the economy. As well he should. After all, Romney routinely hired illegal aliens to do the landscaping for his tony Boston area home. Never one for irony, Romney offered his prescription for addressing peak labor market shortages and the undocumented workers they attract. During a stop in northern... more Posted on October 15, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Conflates All Muslims in New Ad Just days after his comical "sit down with your attorneys" gaffe over military action against Iran, Mitt Romney has unveiled a new tough-on-terrorism ad. But taking a tough line against Iran's development of nuclear technology, Romney once again returned to his tried and untrue formula of conflating all Muslims into a single unified threat to the United States. The new "Jihad" spot depict a determined Romney outside his tony Belmont, Massachusetts home. Calling for a 100,000 more troops for the... more Posted on October 12, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Conservative Nobel Prizes We'd Like to See Predictably, the conservative chattering class and its amen corner in the right-wing blogosphere are apoplectic about the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore. But their rage and angst about the Nobel Committee's "politicized awards" for "mass exaggerators" and "deceptive rhetoric" isn't merely a function of the inconvenient truth of the success of Gore's global warming campaign. No, the rugged individualists of the right are just hopping mad that they never win prizes designed to recognize contributions to, well, the... more Posted on October 12, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	Supreme Irony: Frost Attacks Continue as Ex-Viacom Chief Wins Tuition Case While Republican politicians, conservative commentators and the right-wing blogosphere continued their jihad against the private school scholarship of 12 year old S-CHIP beneficiary Graeme Frost, the Supreme Court Wednesday quietly handed the son of multimillionaire former Viacom CEO Tom Freston private school tuition courtesy of New York taxpayers. Frost, as you'll recall, is the Maryland child who delivered the Democratic response on September 29th to President Bush's veto of the bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). Frost,... more Posted on October 11, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Leaked Bin Laden Tape Shows GOP Double Standard Today's revelations in the Washington Post regarding the Bush administration's September 7th leaking of an Osama Bin Laden videotape served to once again highlight the hypocritical Republican double-standard when it comes to the publication of classified national security information. As the CIA black sites and illegal NSA domestic surveillance stories all show, the President and his amen corner are quick to call for the prosecution of those who reveal White House criminality. But when Bush and his GOP allies through... more Posted on October 9, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Laughing at Torture The revelations last week concerning secret memos authorizing an uninterrupted policy of detainee torture by the Bush administration added a new chapter to the President's book of unchecked power, unbridled lawlessness and deceit. But even from national disgrace can come humor. Don Davis over at Satirical Political Report shows even torture can be laughed at. The Torture Advice Column by Devil's Advocate cheerfully helps guide would-be Gitmo interrogators and fans of the unitary executive up to the fine line of... more Posted on October 8, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Chris Matthews: Bush White House "Good Guys" Won't Silence Me At a party last night celebrating the 10th anniversary of his MSNBC show Hardball, Chris Matthews lashed out at the Bush administration for its efforts to control his editorial content. But if his claims that "they will not silence me" ring a little hollow, they should. After all, Chris Matthews has spent the last several years telling us that President Bush, his White House and the Republican leadership team are "good guys." Matthews' tough talk didn't end there. Without mentioning... more Posted on October 5, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	God Bites Man in GOP White House Race The past week provided yet more examples of God bites man in the Republican presidential primaries. As John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani perform backflips to appease their party's conservative Christian base, their faith-based contortions just continue to backfire. Just days after his abrupt Episcopalian to Baptist conversion, John McCain has more God trouble. In an interview with Beliefnet, McCain proclaimed "I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America... more Posted on October 4, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's Hat Trick with S-CHIP Veto As White House press secretary Dana Perino promised Tuesday, President Bush on Wednesday "quietly" and "without ceremony" vetoed the expansion of the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). Making good on his threat to block the additional $35 billion in funding over five years to boost the number of children covered under S-CHIP from 6.6 million to 10 million, Bush achieved three objectives - the proverbial hat trick - in one stroke of his veto pen. First, the President teed... more Posted on October 3, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	CBS News Resurrects Bill Frist In the age of Katie Couric, CBS Evening News has become synonymous with journalism as puffery and the interview as hagiography. But on Wednesday, Couric and correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reached a new low in a fawning profile of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. In just a few minutes, CBS helped abet the conversion of the Schiavo misdiagnosing, AIDS myth propagating, feline dissecting, partisan hatchet man into a noble crusader for children's health. As I wrote earlier this month,... more Posted on September 27, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	"$9.11 for Rudy" and Other Giuliani Fundraising Events As the AP reported this morning, Rudy Giuliani, the self-proclaimed mayor of 9/11 is now to be the beneficiary of a $9.11 fundraiser. Hoping to make his friend literally the leader of the Party of 9/11, Giuliani moneyman Abraham Sofaer is hosting an event in his Palo Alto, California home where guests will be asked to pony up the symbolic $9.11 contribution. Giuliani spokesperson Maria Comella disowned the unfortunately titled "$9.11 for Rudy," pinning responsibility on "two volunteers who acted... more Posted on September 25, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	James Dobson Trashes Fred Thompson Growing evangelical angst over its choices in the 2008 Republican presidential field reached new heights this week. Just two days after the GOP frontrunners skipped the supposed Values Voters Debate, Focus on the Family's James Dobson lambasted late entrant Fred Thompson. Dobson, whose previous crusades for moral righteousness included his campaign to out SpongeBob Squarepants, claimed he could not support Thompson under any circumstances. In a private email disclosed to the Associated Press, Dobson raged against the former Tennessee Senator... more Posted on September 20, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	GOP Leaders Fret Over Debate No-Shows, Minority Vote As I recently detailed, in recent weeks the GOP White House hopefuls have sent a powerful message to minority voters by skipping the Univision, NAACP, and upcoming PBS presidential debates. Now, even many Republican proponents of the race card worry the GOP has overplayed its hand. As the Washington Post reports, Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, Ken Mehlman and other leading lights of the Republican Party voiced concerns that the GOP's debate no-shows are alienating voters inside - and outside -... more Posted on September 19, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	McCain and the GOP's Faith-Based Follies John McCain's schizophrenia this week over his alternating Episcopalian and Baptist status is just the latest chapter in the faith-based follies of the GOP presidential hopefuls. In a delicious double Catch 22, those running as "men of faith" to win the nomination of what many of it own members call "God's Own Party" are now being called on it. Then, after performing unnatural contortions to assuage radical right primary voters, the Republican candidates must veer back to the middle to... more Posted on September 18, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Frontrunners Snub PBS/Smiley Debate at Morgan State Last week, I detailed the continuing aversion of the Republican White House hopefuls to participate in debates sponsored by minority organizations. Now hot on the heels of their collective snub of the Univision and NAACP presidential forums, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are skipping a PBS event hosted by Tavis Smiley at the predominantly black Morgan State University. Like the current Oval Office occupant, these Republicans apparently have no stomach for authentic, unscripted questions from the... more Posted on September 17, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Romney to UN: Indict Iran's Ahmadinejad Just days after highlighting his own foreign policy inexperience in a boomerang attack on his Democratic opponents, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is at it again. Returning to his favorite bogeyman in Tehran, Romney called on the United Nations to ban Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from speaking to the world body next week and instead indict him for genocide. Romney's penchant for grandstanding was on display in his letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Citing Iran's support of Hezbollah,... more Posted on September 17, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	"Return on Success" Added to Official GOP Iraq Talking Points In his speech to the nation Thursday night, President Bush unveiled the latest official White House talking point on Iraq. Destined for regurgitation from reliable Republican mouthpieces is "Return on Success." That business sounding jargon from our first - and failed - MBA president is designed to reassure the American people that after our troops fight them there, they can come home here: The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is "return on success." The more successful... more Posted on September 14, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Beyond "Small Price": Boehner's Iraq Demagoguery Twenty four hours after his reprehensible remark about the "small price" the U.S. is paying in Iraq, House Minority Leader John Boehner appears to be paying no price himself. While DNC Chairman Howard Dean and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) took Boehner to task, the mainstream media has remained largely silent. And far from disqualifying Boehner as a Republican mouthpiece on Iraq, diminishing the sacrifices of U.S. troops, leaking classified national security information and weeping on the floor of... more Posted on September 13, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Univision, the NAACP and the GOP's Devalued Voters No doubt, the proliferation of presidential debates held by every interest group under the sun has become one of the more fatiguing aspects of the 2008 campaign. But by adding this week's Univision Hispanic presidential forum to a growing list of events they've skipped, the GOP White House hopefuls are sending a clear message as to which American voters the Republican Party does - and does not - value. On Sunday, all but Joe Biden among the Democratic contenders came... more Posted on September 13, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Save the Children Endorses Bad Medicine with Dr. Bill Frist The non-governmental organization Save the Children has rightly earned a reputation for bringing the best practices in sustainable development and family health care to developing nations around the world. But in selecting Dr. Bill Frist as its front-man for its new "Survive to 5" campaign against childhood mortality, Save the Children has chosen the wrong prescription. The global Survive to 5 initiative is a laudable and natural extension to Save the Children's historic commitment to battling infant mortality. Preventable diseases,... more Posted on September 7, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Larry Craig Fails the GOP's Boy Scout Test On Tuesday, disgraced Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig made it clear he goes both ways. Just three days after announcing he "intends to resign" as a result of his guilty plea in the Minnesota men's room toe tapping case, a Craig aide signaled he might not step down after all. And that's sure to put the fear of God into his Republican colleagues, who have already proclaimed that Craig failed the GOP's Boy Scout Test. The Republicans' Boy Scout Test... more Posted on September 5, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Unpology of Larry Craig As I predicted on Tuesday, the Larry Craig saga quickly moved to the disgraced Senator's inevitable resignation. But as I also predicted, Larry Craig's parting statement featured that classic Republican denial of culpability, the Unpology. Announcing his September 30th resignation, the Idaho GOP Senator artfully avoided accepting accountability for his men's room escapades. Instead, he offered the appearance of apology only for their aftermath: "I apologize for what I have caused. For any public official at this moment in time... more Posted on September 1, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Katrina: Four Stories of Bush Failure With the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Americans can expect an onslaught of grim retrospectives and even gloomier forecasts for the Gulf Coast. Stories recalling the destruction of New Orleans, the calamitous response of the Bush White House, rampant corruption in the storm's wake and the proposals of the 2008 presidential candidates will flood the web, the airwaves and the printed page. Perrspectives, too, is here to offer its look back on the Katrina disaster and the death of New... more Posted on August 29, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Behind the Right's Double Standard on Craig and Vitter As the old expression goes, you are what you eat. And that imagery, apparently, is behind the growing conservative chorus calling for the resignation of disgraced Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig. Revelations that Craig pleaded guilty to charges of "lewd conduct" in a Minnesota airport men's room is producing right-wing revulsion absent during the recent prostitution woes of Louisiana's David Vitter. With more potential revelations rumored to be coming from his home state Idaho papers, Craig's near-term survival (let alone... more Posted on August 28, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	Romney Attacks Himself in Illegal Immigration Ad With former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in his crosshairs, 2008 GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney has begun running radio ads focusing on illegal immigration. Attacking sanctuary cities like Rudy's New York, Romney hopes to galvanize the fired-up anti-immigrant Republican base against Giuliani. As it turns out, Romney himself provided aid and comfort for illegal alien workers at his posh Belmont, Massachusetts estate. The new Romney spots try to paint Giuliani as weak on illegal immigration during his time... more Posted on August 21, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Michael Vick's Next Career: Right-Wing Pundit With his plea deal yesterday on charges of running a dog fighting operation, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick likely brought his NFL career to an end. But Vick's next calling awaits him as soon as he is released from prison. Michael Vick, it would seem, is supremely qualified to be a conservative pundit. Far from a barrier, a felony conviction is often a feather in the cap for the aspiring right-wing radio host, Fox News commentator or conservative movement mouthpiece.... more Posted on August 21, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	The Unpology: How Republicans Never Say They're Sorry In 1997, Seinfeld introduced Americans to the "unvitation." The unvitation enables the cynical person to seemingly satisfy the demands of social etiquette by extending an invitation to an event or gathering which they know the recipient will - or must - reject. As we fast forward to 2007, Americans are witnessing Republicans perfect a similar act of social hypocrisy and cynicism: the Unpology. Facing recriminations for ethical failings, racist behavior, sexist statements or outright criminality, this new generation of Republican... more Posted on August 18, 2007 \| Comments (8)

	The Base Politics of Karl Rove In the wake of the resignation of Karl Rove, most media post-mortems of the architect of the Bush presidency describe his legacy as one of ultimate failure. That is, in the end Karl Rove fell short of his goal to secure a permanent Republican majority monopolizing all three branches of government for the next generation. Instead, he leaves behind a Democratic Congress and an unpopular, enfeebled President Bush. But those accounts fail to capture the enduring dark cloud that Karl... more Posted on August 14, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Romney-Vick '08 Fresh off his underwhelming multi-million dollar victory in the Iowa straw poll Saturday, Mitt Romney's campaign is once again being dogged by, well, dogs. Appearing on Fox News with Chris Wallace, Romney was forced to once again defend his past penchant for rooftop canine waterboarding. At least Romney can take comfort in the availability of the perfect running mate for his White House run: Michael Vick. Given the universe of Romney's failings, Fox host Wallace took Mitt to task for... more Posted on August 12, 2007 \| Comments (8)

	Flashback: Pat Robertson Wins 1987 Iowa Straw Poll Mitt Romney's looming landslide in today's Republican straw poll in Ames, Iowa doesn't bode well for American democracy. After all, as Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the New York Times report, Romney is spending millions of dollars on fun, food and frolic to win the hearts, minds and stomachs of Hawkeye State Republicans. Mercifully, history shows that the winner of the Iowa straw poll rarely ends up in the White House. Just ask Pat Robertson. In 1987,... more Posted on August 11, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Giuliani Telling Tales on Terrorism Record Self-proclaimed terrorist fighter Rudy Giuliani is telling tall tales again. Just days after the Village Voice thoroughly refuted Giuliani's claims about his supposedly central role prosecuting the 1985 murder case of Leon Klinghoffer by PLO terrorists aboard the cruise ship Achille Lauro, the GOP presidential front-runner is at it again. In Ohio on Thursday, the former New York mayor favorably compared himself to World Trade Center rescue workers on and after 9/11: "I was at ground zero as often, if... more Posted on August 10, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Giuliani Still Flummoxed by Faith On Wednesday, I described how 2008 GOP presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani found themselves snared by a faith-based trap of their own making. Proudly declaring themselves men of deep faith, the GOP early front-runners then shied away from explaining their faith to voters. Today, the AP provides an addendum to the tale of Rudy Giuliani and the Pandora's Box he opened regarding his Catholic beliefs. As the AP details, the self-proclaimed mayor of 9/11 is only too happy... more Posted on August 10, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Romney, Giuliani and the Republicans' God Trap In a span of 24 hours, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney each fell victim to what can be called the Republicans' "God Trap." That is, running as "men of faith" to lead what many of its own members call "God's Own Party," Giuliani and Romney are being called on it. And while Rudy's Catholicism and Mitt's Mormonism are now rightly drawing the attention each invited, the second tier Republican candidates are waging a holy war on each other. The issue... more Posted on August 8, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	Romney: My Sons Serve America by Getting Me Elected Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney reached new heights - or lows - of banality in Iowa on Wednesday. Romney defended his five sons' choices not to enlist in the military, claiming instead they serve their nation by "helping me get elected." Mitt Romney, as you'll recall, avoided combat duty in the rice fields of Vietnam by getting multiple deferments to perform his Mormon mission in the vineyards of France. And while candidate Romney has called for a war against... more Posted on August 8, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	CNN to Add Bush Adviser Laura Ingraham? The disturbing descent of CNN into schizophrenia added a new chapter this week. The network asked Laura Ingraham to temporarily fill in for the outgoing Paula Zahn. As you'll recall, the right-wing radio host's resume includes her 2006 Democratic phone jamming operation. And most recently, as Oliver Willis now informs us, Ingraham served as informal adviser to President Bush. The addition of Ingraham is just the latest example of CNN's intermittent Fox envy. It comes just weeks after giving its... more Posted on August 2, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Romney's Love-Hate Relationship with Hezbollah In the latest chapter in the Mitt Romney book of flip-flops, the former Massachusetts governor has revealed his love-hate relationship with Hezbollah. Just weeks after including the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite terrorist group in his laundry list of Islamic enemies real or imagined, Romney told an audience today that Hezbollah is the living model of modern health care diplomacy. Responding to a question about whether he would continue President Bush's funding to combat AIDS in Africa, Romney extolled the virtues of... more Posted on August 1, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Giuliani Recycles Bush Health Care Plan While the field of 2008 GOP White House hopefuls continues to distance itself from President Bush, Rudy Giuliani today endorsed the moribund Bush health care plan lock, stock and barrel. And speaking on the eve of the President's looming veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) expansion, Giuliani made it clear he shares the same blighted market-driven philosophy as Bush. In New Hampshire today, Giuliani like Bush made a $15,000 family health care tax deduction to purchase private... more Posted on July 31, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Suppressing Votes - and Science Two stories this weekend presented different faces on the unwavering - and perhaps criminal - zeal of the Bush White House to acquire and maintain power. On Friday, PBS Now reported how a massive Republican "vote caging" scheme targeted minority (read Democratic) voters in key 2004 battleground states. And today, the Washington Post revealed that Bush HHS appointee William R. Steiger blocked the release of Surgeon General Richard Carmona's 2006 global health report for purely political reasons. Suppressing votes and... more Posted on July 29, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	UPDATED: The Bush/GOP Scandal Documents The Perrspectives Bush-GOP Scandal Document Library has been expanded to include the latest news, key reports, document releases and other essential materials surrounding Bush administration and GOP wrong-doing. From the U.S. attorneys purge, illegal NSA domestic surveillance and the Iraq war to PlameGate, torture scandals and the ongoing Jack Abramoff fall-out, it's all there: U.S. Attorneys Scandal Document Center NSA Domestic Surveillance Scandal Center Iraq Intelligence and WMD Document Center Plamegate CIA Leak Resources Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff Scandal... more Posted on July 29, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Specter's Latest Hamlet Act This week, Senator Arlen Specter offered his latest performance as Hamlet in the unfolding Alberto Gonzales drama. Just one day after essentially accusing Gonzales of perjury before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter once again backed away from taking action against the Bush administration and instead criticized his Democratic colleagues for "playing politics." As I've written before ("Specter's Failure to Launch"), Specter like Shakespeare's Danish prince simply can't bring himself to avenge the crimes of his king. Something certainly is rotten... more Posted on July 27, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Candidates to Add YouTube Event to NAACP Boycott? Like it or hate it, Monday's CNN/YouTube Democratic candidates debate may have represented a sea-change in direct citizen participation in the American presidential selection process. Which is why the GOP White House hopefuls appear to want no part of the September 17 YouTube event co-sponsored by the Florida Republican Party. As their empty podiums at the recent NAACP convention attest, like the current Oval Office occupant these Republicans apparently have no stomach for authentic, unscripted questions from the American people.... more Posted on July 27, 2007 \| Comments (1)