PERRspectives: Republicans Archives

Republicans Archives

	Welcome to the United States of Mississippi In the wake of her state's vote to ban marriage equality last week, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue caused quite a stir when she declared "We look like Mississippi." In response, Mississippi's Republican chief executive Phil Bryant call Perdue's remark "disappointing" and warned "I think she'll regret that after she's had some time to reflect on it." If so, that regret will pale in comparison to the remorse Americans will feel if they deliver the White and Congress to the... more Posted on May 15, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Mitt Romney and the Small Lie Like the force of gravity or the sun rising in the east, Mitt Romney's pathological lying is now taken for granted. As Steve Benen among others can attest, documenting Romney's runaway mendacity may now be America's greatest growth industry. Explaining the causes of Mitt's daily dissembling may be another. Rick Perlstein looked to Shakespeare, seeing Romney as an undoubting Hamlet determined to avenge his father's defeat most foul in 1968. Jonathan Chait turned to Freud, explaining there's even a clinical... more Posted on May 12, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Ask Americans to Remember Bush's Economic Disaster For months, Mitt Romney, John Boehner and other Republican leaders have falsely claimed that "President Obama made the economy worse." The same crowd which for years cried that George W. Bush "inherited a recession" accused Obama of blaming his predecessor for the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Now, the GOP has seized on President Obama's comment that "sometimes I forget" the magnitude of the calamity he faced on January 20, 2009. But while the Republican revisionists are intentionally... more Posted on May 11, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Strategy? Call the Kettle Black Two funny things happened this week on Mitt Romney's way to the White House. First, the man who cried "let Detroit go bankrupt" announced "I'll take a lot of credit" for President Obama's million-job saving rescue of the American auto industry. But just as telling was the Republican's claim that, despite Obama's "Forward" campaign slogan, it was the President who was "looking backward." After all, Mitt Romney isn't merely offering an even more reactionary resurrection of George W. Bush's failed... more Posted on May 10, 2012 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans, the Anti-Stimulus After this week's election results in France and Greece, press, pundits and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are questioning the future of draconian austerity policies in Europe. As well they should. Euro-region unemployment has reached its highest levels in 15 years. Across the channel, David Cameron's Tories have led the UK back into recession, with joblessness there forecast to increase through 2016. But while the U.S. economy under President Obama continues to outperform the austerians in Europe, American... more Posted on May 9, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	The Life of Mitt Conservatives this week were quick to mock the Obama campaign's "The Life of Julia," an online slideshow highlighting how government investments in education, health care, small business and retirement security help enable the children of working families to climb the ladder of social mobility. Republican critics dismissed that common path to the middle class as the "condescension" of "cradle-to-grave, government-supported existence" supposedly championed by Democrats. It is only fitting, then, that the Romney campaign offers its alternative vision. So here... more Posted on May 7, 2012 \| Comments (1)

	Sorry, Mitt: If You Want to Live Like a Republican, Vote Democratic Just days after telling college students to borrow money from their parents to start a business (advice his son Tagg took to the tune of $10 million), Mitt Romney offered voters another important lesson. As Romney explained in new video footage of a fundraiser held last month at the estate of pizza mogul John Schnatter: "What a home this is, what grounds these are, the pool, the golf course, you know if a Democrat were here he'd look around and... more Posted on May 2, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Growing Dissent in Israel Poses Challenge for Romney "We will not have an inch of difference," Mitt Romney declared in January, "between ourselves and our ally Israel." While that unprecedented pandering may have helped Romney slightly narrow the massive Democratic edge among Jewish voters, the cost of his blank check to his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu is starting to rise. In just the last several days, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, ex-Shin bet chief Yuval Diskin and deputy PM Dan Meridor cautioned against pre-emptively attacking Iranian nuclear... more Posted on May 1, 2012 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Wouldn't, Couldn't, Shouldn't Get Bin Laden Here are two helpful reminders for apoplectic conservatives. Until Barack Obama shows up on a U.S. aircraft carrier in a flight suit and an over-sized cod piece, no GOP loyalist can criticize him for boasting about the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. And no Republican can claim that "other presidents and candidates like myself" would have ordered that high-risk mission in Pakistan. After all, in 2008 John McCain said he wouldn't. Mitt Romney said we shouldn't. And despite his... more Posted on April 30, 2012 \| Comments (2)

	Romney's "Vision" Blind to Economic History On Tuesday night, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney threw down the gauntlet. Declaring the election is "still about the economy - and we're not stupid," Romney warned that "President Obama and I have very different visions." After claiming that "government is at the center of his vision," the Republican offered the Romney Vision: "I have a very different vision for America, and of our future. It is an America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in... more Posted on April 25, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Introducing America's Second MBA President The Republican presidential nominee has an MBA from the prestigious Harvard Business School. He made millions in the private sector and earned notoriety for running a high-profile sports enterprise. The GOP's man is promising massive tax cuts which would deliver the lion's share of their benefits to the very richest Americans, himself and his family included. He nevertheless pledges to balance the budget even while boosting defense spending. And this latest scion of a proud Republican family would like to... more Posted on April 24, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Call Kettle Black While all eyes in the Beltway were focused on innocent dogs and stay-at-home moms, Republicans have been unveiling their strategy for the 2012 presidential race. President Obama, they claim, is responsible both for failed GOP policies and the unprecedented Republican obstructionism designed to prevent him from fixing them. The fall-out from the Bush recession, the right-wing's anti-immigrant xenophobia and even the GOP's record-setting filibustering are all Obama's fault. The Republicans are, in a nutshell, calling the kettle black. That conservative... more Posted on April 23, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Even After Bush Scandals, GOP Still Politicizing Civil Service This was a very bad week indeed for employees of the federal government. The shameful Secret Service prostitution scandal, the GSA's Vegas boondoggle and the grisly pictures from Afghanistan rightly brought bipartisan condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike. But you'd never know it reading the headlines from the AP, The Hill, the Washington Post and other media outlets. In them, Republican charges that the President's "elaborate vacations" (Mitt Romney), "poor management skills" (Sarah Palin) and lack of "managerial leadership" (Jeff... more Posted on April 22, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Steals Thatcher's "Labour Isn't Working" Campaign Strategy In Ohio this week, Mitt Romney stood before a banner reading "Obama Isn't Working" and blamed the President for the shuttered plant he used as a backdrop. As it turns out, there are only two problems with this picture. Sadly for Romney, the drywall firm in question closed in June 2008 when George W. Bush was still comfortably ensconced in the White House. And as it turns out, Mitt's entire "Obama Isn't Working" theme has been lifted lock, stock and... more Posted on April 20, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Noblesse Non Oblige There's nothing wrong with being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. It's what you do with that good fortune that matters. And that is at the heart of Mitt Romney's problem with the American people. With his proclamations and policies, the same man who denounces President Obama as "out of touch" and "Marie Antoinette" shows his aloof detachment and stunning incomprehension of the struggles Americans face every day. And yet, they don't begrudge him either his privileged past... more Posted on April 19, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	10 Things Republicans Don't Want You to Know About Taxes Tax Day 2012 has been a busy one for the propagandists of the Republican Party. After the GOP successfully filibustered the Buffett Rule in the Senate, House Speaker John Boehner claimed that Republicans are "listening to the American people." Of course, what Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and their allies don't mention is that the Democratic proposal to implement a minimum 30 percent tax on millionaires is wildly popular. Then again, the list of things Republicans don't want you to... more Posted on April 17, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Four Years Later, Americans Still Back Obama on Taxes Looking back this week at his budget-busting windfall for the wealthy, George W. Bush lamented, "I wish they weren't called the Bush tax cuts." With good reason. After all, the first modern president to cut taxes during war-time, Bush's gravy train for the gilded-class helped double the national debt and produce record income inequality even as job growth flat-lined and family incomes stagnated. As it turns out, come November Mitt Romney and his Republican allies may come to regret the... more Posted on April 13, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	The $6 Trillion Man Now for a thought experiment. Suppose that I told you I had a plan which over the next decade would slash $6 trillion from the national debt of the United States. Imagine further that I promised I would achieve those savings just by closing some tax loopholes and deductions, so-called tax expenditures that all told cost Uncle Sam over a $1 trillion a year. But when you naturally asked me which ones I would eliminate, my response was "I won't... more Posted on April 11, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney-Netanyahu 2012 Over the weekend, the New York Times published a glowing story of the 36-year relationship between GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney and his old Boston Consulting Group colleague turned two-time Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. But if theirs is a "mandatory friendship" which conveniently helps Romney both woo the GOP's evangelical base and bludgeon President Obama, it also could jeopardize the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States. After all, when Mitt Romney announces "we will not have... more Posted on April 9, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	The Resurrection and Immaculate Deception of Paul Ryan Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan has become the perfect Republican Easter story. Each spring, Ryan reemerges with a new version of his draconian "Roadmap for America's Future." Despite being crucified each time by most Democrats, much of the press and even some members of his own party, Ryan nevertheless rises again, earning more followers (like Mitt Romney) each time. But at the heart of his budget plan - one that guts domestic spending, delivers a massive tax cut windfall to the... more Posted on April 8, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	How the Media Created an Obama Judicial Controversy in 3 Easy Steps "Conservative commentators." "Commerce." "New Deal." Only if you pretend Barack Obama never uttered those three phases this week can you manufacture a controversy in which the President supposedly questioned the authority of the Supreme Court to overturn the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). But in the hands of his Republican opponents and a lazy and compliant media, President Obama's unremarkable summary of 70 years of Supreme Court Commerce Clause jurisprudence and the decades-long conservative assault on so-called "judicial activism" magically... more Posted on April 6, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Mitt Romney: Ann "Reports to Me" What Women Care About As recent polling shows, Mitt Romney has a very large problem with women voters. So, it comes as no surprise that the Romney camp has deployed an army of women surrogates including South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte to tout his wife Ann as a "secret bullet" and "secret weapon" to narrow the GOP frontrunner's daunting gender gap. Sadly for Mitt, that effort may come to naught, and not just because the aloof CEO declared that... more Posted on April 5, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	After Threatening Judges, GOP Accuses Obama of Judicial Intimidation On Monday, President Obama unsurprisingly expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would uphold the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Even less remarkable, Obama rightly reminded Americans that "conservative commentators" have for year said "the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint -- that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law." Nevertheless, Republicans quickly accused the President of "unprecedented" effort to "intimidate the Supreme Court." Of course, this... more Posted on April 4, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney-Ryan Plan is the Real 2012 Republican Platform After the Republican controlled House passed Paul Ryan's budget plan by a 228-191 party line vote, Speaker John Boehner lauded his GOP colleagues for laying out "a real vision of what we were to do if we get more control here in this town." But Boehner's "we" isn't limited to Republicans in Congress. As it turns out, the party's near-certain presidential nominee Mitt Romney is cooking up virtually the same disastrous "Pink Slime" recipe for America's future. Both Ryan and... more Posted on April 2, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Will the Supreme Court End Republicans' Privatization Dream? After another bad day for the Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court, voices across the political spectrum are already pondering life after death for health care reform. Conservative Ross Douthat and liberal James Carville agree that overturning the ACA will help President Obama get reelected. Meanwhile, statements by Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney seemed to confirm David Frum and Jonathan Chat's shared conclusion that Republicans will do nothing to help over 30 million American who would be denied access... more Posted on March 28, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Number One Enemies List is a Long One On Monday, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney blasted President Obama's open mic comment to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he'll have more "flexibility" to deal with issues like missile defense after the November election. Predictably, a "disturbed" Romney denounced Obama's remark as "alarming" and "troubling." But what is surprising is that Governor Romney went on to brand Russia "our number one geopolitical foe." After all, before promoting Russia to enemy number one, Mitt Romney had already put China, Iran and Islamic... more Posted on March 27, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Health Care is Worst Where Republicans Poll Best This week, GOP White House frontrunner Mitt Romney marked the two year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act by declaring the reform law the "national nightmare" he "always predicted." But leaving aside for the moment that Romney repeatedly touted his virtually identical Massachusetts law as a model for the nation, there's a much bigger problem with his call for a "free market, federalist approach" in which "each state should be allowed to pursue its own solution." As Ezra Klein exhaustively... more Posted on March 24, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Ryan, Like Romney, Piles Up Massive New Debt In the wake of Mitt Romney's solid victory in Illinois, conservative columnist Fred Barnes proposed a Romney-Ryan ticket for the fall. That would be altogether fitting. After all, Romney didn't merely endorse the catastrophic GOP budget plan Paul Ryan unveiled Tuesday; he already laid out an almost identical blueprint. Stylistically, both Ryan the budget chairman and Romney the financier are both numbers guys. Sadly for their Republican cheerleaders, both men also happen to be terrible at math. As the numbers... more Posted on March 21, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Introducing the Ryan-Romney Budget If the new House GOP budget unveiled Tuesday by Paul Ryan sounds familiar, it should. And not just because Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" is essentially the same scheme he's been pushing for two years. As it turns out, Mitt Romney is offering the same disastrous recipe for America's future. Both Ryan and Romney would deliver a massive tax cut windfall for the rich, paying for it by gutting the social safety net each pretends to protect. Each would end Medicare... more Posted on March 20, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Talking Points Don't Apply to Women's Health For a brief moment on Sunday, John McCain made sense. Lamenting the growing backlash against the GOP's crusade to turn back the clock on contraception and reproductive rights, McCain told Meet the Press, "I think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear." If that seems like a shocking statement coming from John McCain, that's because it is. McCain, after all, ran for President in 2008 on a Republican Party... more Posted on March 19, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	China Joins Iran as the Bain of Romney's Existence Mitt Romney likes to talk tough about China. In an op-ed last month, Romney charged that "President Obama came into office as a near supplicant to Beijing," adding, "his administration demurred from raising issues of human rights." Unfortunately for the former Massachusetts Governor, that tough talk was immediately tempered by word that his financial advisers sold $1.5 million in investments in China last year. Now, it turns out that Bain Capital, the firm which still pays Mitt Romney millions annually,... more Posted on March 17, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Drops "Obama Bear Market" Myth as Dow Hits 13,000 Despite a mountain of data and the overwhelming consensus of economists to the contrary, Republican leaders including House Speaker John Boehner and would-be President Mitt Romney continue to falsely claim "Obama made the economy worse." But another tried and untrue GOP talking point about the supposed "Obama bear market" has largely vanished. Of course, with the Dow Jones now at 13,000 and the NASDAQ at 3,000, Republicans should be silent. After all, with the indexes at four year highs, Barack... more Posted on March 15, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	In Mississippi, the Republican Future is Now Republicans have seen the future and it is in Mississippi. But the GOP's Magnolia State crystal ball has little to do with whether today's primary shows that Mitt Romney's cheesy grit eating sealed his nomination, ends Newt Gingrich's viability as a "credible candidate" or even aborts Rick Santorum's White House dream altogether. Instead, the state's union-busting right to work law, draconian curbs on women's reproductive rights, under-funded education system and shameful Medicaid policies make Mississippi the laboratory for the agenda... more Posted on March 13, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Threaten the "Doctor-Patient Relationship" For two decades, Republican opponents of health care reform have turned to a tried if untrue talking point. In 1994, GOP strategist Bill Kristol warned that "the Clinton Plan is damaging to the quality of American medicine and to the relationship between the patient and the doctor." Twelve years later, President George W. Bush proclaimed, "Ours is a party that understands the best health care system is when the doctor-patient relationship is central to decision-making." Then in 2009, GOP spinmeister... more Posted on March 9, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Admits He Has No "Bold" New Tax Plan Two weeks ago, Mitt Romney unveiled what he has repeatedly deemed a "bold" plan to deliver a 20 percent across the board tax cut. As it turns out, the plan isn't so bold after all. For starters, it's largely a retread of the 15 percent tax cut scheme Bob Dole rode to defeat in 1996. And after a wave of analyses showed Romney's plan would produce oceans of red ink while giving the rich yet another payday courtesy of the... more Posted on March 7, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Ronald Romney Forgets Iran-Contra For the second time in four months, Mitt Romney has penned a tough-talking op-ed on the Iranian nuclear program. But this time, the almost certain GOP presidential nominee has introduced a new riff to his constant refrain that "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. If you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon." Now in his Washington Post piece and again in his speech Tuesday to AIPAC, Romney has portrayed himself... more Posted on March 6, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Conservatives Silent About Romney-Alinsky Link Barack Obama was 10 years old when legendary activist and organizer Saul Alinsky died in 1972. Nevertheless, right-wingers are frothing at the mouth at the discovery posthumously unearthed by the late Andrew Breitbart that then Illinois State Senator Obama was part of panel discussion after a 1998 play about Alinsky. But conservatives' fixation on the President's supposed "love of Alinsky" is bizarre for more than just the obvious reasons. After all, the Republicans' Tea Party faithful including Breitbart acolyte James... more Posted on March 5, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP's Dynamic Deception on Debt and Tax Cuts You can fool some of the people all the time, and that's our target market. On no issue has that time-tested Republican strategy been more consistently applied than the impact of tax cuts on the national debt. But even after oceans of red ink washed away George W. Bush's bogus contention that "You cut taxes, and the tax revenues increase," Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail are once again trying to dupe the American people about so-called... more Posted on February 29, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Two Headlines Say It All About GOP Field's Economic Plans Everything you need to know about the economic plans of the Republican White House hopefuls is conveniently contained in two headlines. In October, the McClatchy Newspapers revealed, "GOP presidential candidates' tax plans would benefit the rich." Last week, the Washington Post bookended that analysis with another finding, "Debt will swell under top GOP hopefuls' tax plans." Of course, those two conclusions are just flip sides of the same coin. At a time of record income inequality and the lowest federal... more Posted on February 27, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney and Santorum Run Away from Social Security Privatization During last week's Republican debate in Mesa, Arizona, GOP co-frontrunners Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney claimed "courage" and "resolute" as the single words which respectively best described them. If so, the two rivals might want to take a look back at their records on Social Security. After all, in 2005 Santorum was the GOP point man in the Senate for President Bush's wildly unpopular Social Security privatization scheme. And for his part, Romney backed the diversion of Social Security funding... more Posted on February 25, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Desperate Romney Adopts Dole's Failed Across-the-Board Tax Cut Last year, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney unveiled a plan to extend the Bush tax cuts, eliminate the estate tax and slash corporate taxes. But that proposal, one which would deliver 60 percent of its benefits to the top one percent of taxpayers while draining $6.6 trillion from the U.S. Treasury over ten years, was blasted by conservative activists, his Republican rivals and the Wall Street Journal alike as too timid. Which is why a desperate Romney this week announced a... more Posted on February 23, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Eric Cantor Unveils the GOP's Con JOBS Act For the perpetual tax-cutters of the Republican Party, last week's surrender on the payroll tax cut extension for 160 million working Americans was an especially damaging one. While tried if untrue GOP talking points that "tax cuts pay for themselves" and "never need to be offset" were thoroughly debunked, new polling shows the large Republican lead on the tax issue has virtually evaporated. All of which explains why Eric Cantor and House Republicans are now proposing the "JOBS Act," a... more Posted on February 20, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Conservatives Go Both Ways on Rising Health Care Costs For years, conservatives have warned that rapidly rising health care costs require the United States to repeal the Affordable Care Act, gut Medicaid and privatize Medicare. Now, the American Enterprise Institute cheerfully insists, the recent slowdown in that rate of the growth argues for precisely the same Republican policies. But far from happily revealing new "marketplace disciplines on the demand for medical care" in which "consumers are finally getting more involved in managing and paying for their own care," the... more Posted on February 19, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Death of a GOP Talking Point on Tax Cuts As the Republican Party waged its all-out attack in 2010 to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, the GOP's number two man in the Senate provided the talking point to help sell the $70 billion annual giveaway to America's rich. "You should never," Arizona's Jon Kyl declared, "have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans." But with their surrender Friday on the extension of the payroll tax cut for 160 million... more Posted on February 17, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Caves to Its Own Demand That Tax Cuts Never Have to Be Offset On Monday, House Republican leaders announced they would support the extension of the payroll tax cut without a corresponding "offset" in other federal spending. While that new approach is designed to tie Democrats' hands on passage of continued unemployment benefits and the so-called Medicare "doc fix," Speaker Boehner's switch represents a return to a supposedly ironclad principle. As the number two Senate Republican, Jon Kyl, put it during his party's successful 2010 crusade to maintain the Bush tax cut windfall... more Posted on February 14, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Closing the Health Insurance Income Gap A new study this week from the Commonwealth Fund confirmed the shocking gap between lower and higher income Americans when it comes to health insurance coverage. While only 12 percent of families making $89,400 a year (or four times the federal poverty rate for a family of four) was uninsured at some point last year, that figure skyrockets to 57 percent for a family at about $29,700. Mercifully, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), beginning in 2014 that gap... more Posted on February 11, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's New Message: I Care Back in 1992, President George H.W. Bush tried to counter to the growing perception that he was an aloof, out-of touch patrician utterly detached from the economic struggles of the American people. But his laughably awkward pronouncement to voters, "Message: I care," only served to confirm their suspicions. Now twenty years later, Bush 41's empathy-challenged successor Mitt Romney is trying to overcome the same "anyone for tennis" country-club image that is threatening to derail his quest for the White House.... more Posted on February 9, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Ex-Planned Parenthood Supporter Romney Backs Komen Ban That GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney announced his support for the Susan G. Komen Foundation's aborted effort to end funding for Planned Parenthood comes as no surprise. After all, defunding the group that each year provides health care and reproductive services for hundreds of thousands of American women is now a litmus test for the 2012 Republican hopefuls. But even by Romney's standards, this flip-flop is a gymnastic one. As it turns out, while Senate candidate Romney's wife donated to Planned... more Posted on February 7, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Return to Taking Credit for Improving Economy Appearing on CNN Sunday, Romney endorser and VP wannabe Bob McDonnell gave his GOP credit for the nation's improving economic outlook. "Look, I'm glad the economy is starting to recover," the Virginia Governor declared, "but I think it's because of what Republican governors are doing in their states, not because of the president." Of course, McDonnell's boast is laughable on its face, and not merely because the draconian budget cuts and 600,000 jobs shed by state and local governments have... more Posted on February 5, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Double-Down on 'Obama Made the Economy Worse' Lie Friday's promising employment report showing that the U.S. added 243,000 jobs in January is just the latest sign of a slowly improving American economy. But that good news for the American people is bad news for the "Hope America Fails" crowd of the Republican Party. After all, GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has been falsely claiming for months that President Obama "did not cause this recession, but he made it worse," a lie he repeated with Donald Trump yesterday. While... more Posted on February 3, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Memo to GOP: To Avoid New Defense Cuts, Pay for Old Wars Last summer, Congress ended the debt ceiling hostage-taking drama by agreeing to $1.2 trillion in automatic budgets cuts, half of them from the Pentagon, if a so-called "super committee" failed to come up with a plan to do so. Of course, now that the Republican refusal to raise even a dime in new tax revenue has scuttled that debt panel, GOP leaders are predictably reneging on their deal. But rather than freezing the pay and eliminating the positions of federal... more Posted on February 2, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Plan Not Very Concerned About the Poor - or the Middle Class One day after branding President Obama "really out of touch with what's happening in America," Mitt Romney marked his Florida primary victory by declaring, "I'm not concerned about the very poor." Of course, back in December Romney announced that "I'm concerned about the poor in this country," adding, "We have to make sure the safety net is strong and able to help those who can't help themselves." If Mitt Romney's statement today seems like a contradiction, at least it's a... more Posted on February 1, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Low Capital Gains Taxes Fuel Inequality, Not Investment Behind almost all of the disturbing issues raised by Mitt Romney's jaw-dropping tax returns stands one largely unchallenged conservative article of faith. Much lower tax rates for capital gains than income earned through labor, conservatives claim, spur investment, catalyze economic growth and fuel job creation. But if that Republican theology isn't true, then the United States has for decades done nothing more than deliver a massive windfall to the wealthiest Americans needing it least. Unfortunately, that's precisely what the data... more Posted on January 30, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the Party of American Capitalism President Obama, Mitt Romney has declared repeatedly, "believes America should become a European-style welfare state." While Newt Gingrich warned of the Democrats' "secular-socialist machine," Rick Santorum insisted "President Obama is for income equality. That's socialism. It's worse yet, it's Marxism." And just this weekend, Tea Party darling Allen West thundered that President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz can take their "message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people" and "get... more Posted on January 29, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Did Romney's $45 Million '08 Campaign Loss Reduce His Taxes to Zero? When it comes to paying his taxes, Mitt Romney may not have broken the rules; he just plays by a different set of them. His sub-15 percent effective tax rate revealed that Romney used his carried interest exemption, not-so-blind trusts, Cayman Islands investments and Swiss Bank accounts to his full advantage. But largely overlooked in the discussion of the $42 million Romney earned in 2010 and 2011 is the $45 million of his own money Mitt spent on his failed... more Posted on January 26, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP Misstate of the Union The least surprising element to Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union address was the Republican talking point that the President's policies have "made our economy worse." Speaker John Boehner regurgitated that point five times during his pre-buttal on Fox News Sunday before concluding last night that Obama's "policies are making our economy worse." Days after admitting "of course it's getting better," on Tuesday Mitt Romney returned to his uber lie that the President is "making these troubled times last... more Posted on January 25, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Newt Gingrich's Big Idea "Where's the beef?" With that sound bite, Walter Mondale deflated the insurgent bid of the "candidate of new ideas" Gary Hart for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.* Twenty-eight years later, rising Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich may be about to have his own "where's the beef" moment. But the growing criticism from left and right expressed in articles such as "What are Newt Gingrich's Big Ideas?" do an injustice to the man of self-proclaimed "grandiose thoughts." Newt Gingrich does... more Posted on January 23, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Plays the Victim Card Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary by playing the victim card. Now, Mitt Romney hopes to win the Republican nomination by doing the same thing. But while Gingrich's ploy of portraying himself as the latest conservative target of a liberal "elite" media assault is always a winner with the Republican faithful, Romney may not be so lucky with his gambit. After all, his uniquely toxic combination of immense wealth and near-total lack of empathy will make it hard for... more Posted on January 22, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Mitt Romney Dogged by Empathy Gap Over the past few days, conservative forces have mobilized to protect Mitt Romney from incoming fire over his rapidly multiplying tax scandals. Former Bush press flack Ari Fleischer and the Wall Street Journal editorial page predictably - and comically - argued the rich already pay too much in taxes. On consecutive days, New York Times columnist David Brooks asked "why do we make candidates release their tax forms" and praised Romney's "remorseless drive to rise" before concluding, "The wealth issue... more Posted on January 21, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Gingrich Proposes New Tax Rate for Mitt Romney: Zero As the outcry grows over Mitt Romney's shockingly low 15 percent tax rate, his bitter rival Newt Gingrich rushed to his defense. "My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes," Gingrich declared," It's to let everybody pay Mitt Romney's rate." Of course, as with his marriage vows, Newt isn't telling the truth. As it turns out, Gingrich has proposed a new capital gains tax rate - zero - that would almost eliminate Mitt Romney's already meager payment to Uncle... more Posted on January 19, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Mitt Romney's Three Tax Scandals As the imbroglio grows over his mystery IRS returns, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney is confronting not one but three tax scandals. It's bad enough that Romney pays only about 15 percent of his income to Uncle Sam each year, a rate well below most middle class families. Worse still, the notorious "carried interest" exemption for private equity managers Romney wants to preserve taxes him not at the ordinary income rate of 35 percent but at the capital gains rate now... more Posted on January 18, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Contradicts Own Tax Plan, Calls for Lower 25 Percent Rate for Wealthy Mitt Romney made twin revelations on taxes during last night's GOP debate in South Carolina. First, after previously claiming "I don't put out which tooth paste I use either," Romney suggested he might release his tax returns in April after clinching the Republican nomination. (On Tuesday, Mitt pointed to the source of his cowardice, admitting he "probably" pays only 15 percent on the millions he still earns annually from Bain Capital.) But perhaps more shocking was Romney's casual call for... more Posted on January 17, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Big Lie on the Economy Gets Bigger If nothing else, Mitt Romney seems dedicated to proving that repetition of a lie will make it true. On no point is Romney's tilting against the windmill of truth more comically pathetic than his long-ago debunked claim that President Obama "did not cause this recession, but he made it worse." After a tidal wave of fact-checkers demolished his mythology last summer, Romney on June 30 pretended, "I didn't say that things are worse" before reinstating the falsehood in his stump... more Posted on January 16, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions For any American concerned about the federal budget deficit, job one must be to collect all of the tax revenue owed to the United States Treasury. That's why supposed Republican deficit hawks simply aren't serious about the national debt. After all, a new report confirmed that steep GOP budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are hurting customer service, delaying refunds and costing Uncle Sam billions of dollars annually. Thanks to the never-ending Republican war on the IRS dating... more Posted on January 12, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Recycles 2008 Attack on Hillary Clinton for Obama His Democratic foe, Mitt Romney declared, would "drag America down to Europe's standards." His opponent represents, Romney insisted, "the old, classic, European caricature that we describe of big government, big taxation, welfare state." But those now-familiar slanders weren't directed at Barack Obama last night in New Hampshire, but against Hillary Clinton in 2007. As it turns out, Mitt Romney has dusted off his old 2008 campaign playbook for his second run for the White House. For weeks, Governor Romney has... more Posted on January 11, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	The Romneys Shall Inherit Mitt's Worth The past week has been a very good one for Mitt Romney's 17 grandchildren. On Wednesday, Romney told a New Hampshire audience he wanted to leave all of his estimated $250 million estate to his grandkids. Then on Monday, a new CBS poll showed their grandfather beating President Obama in a head-to-head matchup. And that's very good news indeed for the Romney clan. After all, if their patriarch gets his way as President, the estate tax will be eliminated. That... more Posted on January 10, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's New Rules In October, Mitt Romney famously advised struggling homeowners, "Don't try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up." But while his policy for underwater mortgage holders is "let them live in cardboard," Mitt declared a new rule Sunday that only those who have paid off their mortgages should run for office. As... more Posted on January 8, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Candidates Vie to Give Romney the Biggest Tax Cut That Mitt Romney's tax plan delivers a windfall for the wealthy and boosts the burden on lower income families while piling up trillions in new debt should come as no surprise. After all, that's true of every contender in the GOP presidential race. Which means that Mitt Romney, the $250 million man who already pays Uncle Sam less than most middle class families, will win even if he loses. By slashing upper income tax rates, ending the estate tax and... more Posted on January 6, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Endorsement Cost Romney $45 Million As their uncomfortable joint appearance Wednesday in New Hampshire made clear, 2008 GOP rivals Mitt Romney and John McCain really don't like each other. With good reason. Four years ago, Romney suggested McCain's out-of-control temper made him unfit while the Arizona Senator called the Massachusetts Governor an "a$$hole" and a "f!@#%ng phony" in private. But on Valentine's Day 2008, Romney swallowed his pride and endorsed McCain for President, a grudging favor returned yesterday. As it turns out, that's not all... more Posted on January 5, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Fascism or Socialism? GOP Candidates Can't Decide Among the confused delusions vomited forth by Tea Party members was their comic slander of President Obama as both a fascist and a socialist. Now, those casual comparisons of Obama to Marx and Hitler are becoming commonplace among the Republican demagogues who would replace him in the White House. Over just the past few days, Ricks Santorum and Perry likened the President to Mussolini and Hitler even as Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann placed Obama in the European socialist camp.... more Posted on January 4, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Cantor Starts New Year with Old Lie About Reagan's Tax Hikes If nothing else, 2011 was the Year of the Great Republican Lie about taxes. Desperate to preserve low rates for the richest Americans, GOP leaders pretended tax cuts increase government revenues, pay for themselves and magically spur supposed "job creators." On Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor showed Americans can expect more of the same in 2012. Despite the fact that the sainted Ronald Reagan raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office, Cantor and his frantic press... more Posted on January 2, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Honor Thy Mother Now just three days away, the Iowa caucus has entered its final, sentimental phase. With his presidential prospects rapidly vanishing, Newt Gingrich cried when asked about his mother. The increasingly likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney did not. But when it comes to the mother of all questions, the difference between the past and current frontrunner hardly end there. Because while Gingrich made his mother's bouts with mental illness and Alzheimer's Disease a personal cause, Romney abandoned his mother's pro-choice position... more Posted on December 31, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Compares Obama to Marie Antoinette, for Pete's Sake In 2008, the campaign of John McCain - a hundred-millionaire who literally lost count of how many homes he owned - tried to portray Barack Obama as an out-of-touch, arugula-eating elitist who vacationed in exotic Hawaii. Now Mitt Romney, the latest entrant in the Republican irony Olympics, has branded President Obama a modern day Marie Antoinette whose message to financially struggling Americans is "let them eat cake." As The Huffington Post reported yesterday, during an Iowa campaign stop the French-speaking... more Posted on December 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	There's No Mystery to Romney's Taxes and Tax Plan Why is Mitt Romney alone among the Republican presidential candidates in refusing to release his tax returns? And why is the former Massachusetts Governor also the only major GOP contender not calling for the complete elimination of the capital gains tax? As it turns out, the answer - horrible political optics - is the same to both questions. Because Romney's continuing millions in annual income from Bain Capital are taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, Mitt already pays... more Posted on December 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Big Promises and Bigger Lies of Mitt Romney In the election of 1928, the Republican Party of Herbert Hoover promised voters "a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard." (We all know how that turned out.) Now, Mitt Romney is pledging that "If I'm President" every college graduate will be guaranteed a job, Iran will have no nuclear weapons and the United States will dominate the 21st century. And when Romney isn't making fantastic promises about what he'll do when he gets to the White... more Posted on December 26, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Auto Rescue Highlights Obama's Public Good, Romney's Private Gain President Barack Obama took an oath to "promote the general Welfare." Venture capitalist Mitt Romney pledged to maximize shareholder value. Unfortunately, candidate Mitt Romney is pretending the two are the same thing. As Romney repeatedly insisted this month, President Obama's rescue of the U.S. auto industry and over one million jobs associated with it is little different than his own Bain Capital days of slashing jobs - and extracting profits. Romney introduced the new defense of his "vulture capital" past... more Posted on December 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Jeb Bush's 'Right to Rise' Falls Flat On Monday, Jeb Bush's Wall Street Journal op-ed raised conservative hopes that the former Florida Governor would jump and grab the wheel of the clown car that is the 2012 GOP presidential field. But if Republicans were disappointed when Jeb squelched the nascent "Draft Jeb" movement, the American people should be relieved. After all, the American social mobility that Jeb touted in "Capitalism and the Right to Rise" is at modern lows after the decade of economic devastation presided over... more Posted on December 20, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Gingrich Just the Latest Republican to Threaten Judges "Judicial activism" is in the eye of the beholder. Threatening judges is not. That explains why even Michael Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales, former Bush Attorneys General and ardent defenders of detainee torture and illicit domestic surveillance, denounced Newt Gingrich's assault on the federal bench as "dangerous, ridiculous, totally irresponsible, outrageous, off-the-wall and would reduce the entire judicial system to a spectacle." Sadly, Gingrich has plenty of company among conservatives threatening judges. As the dangerous rhetoric of John Cornyn, Tom Delay... more Posted on December 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Twelve Lies of Christmas This is the time of year for family and friends to gather around the fire and over good food and drink, celebrate the season with songs like this one. (Sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas") On the first day of Christmas Republicans told me Obama's born in another country. On the second day of Christmas Republicans told me Gay marriage is like box turtle love and Obama's born in another country On the third day of... more Posted on December 18, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Inside Poop on Mitt Romney and France After his disastrous $10,000 bet with Rick Perry comically backfired last week, multimillionaire Mitt Romney responded by trying to appear "human-like" with his tales of deprivation while serving as Mormon missionary in France in the 1960's. Now, his story about being forced to poop in a bucket is getting Romney in some deep merde. As it turns out, Mitt not only spent much of his mission at a palatial church mansion in Paris, but was only able to do so... more Posted on December 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Cuts to Unemployment Insurance Hit Red States Hard So the GOP's petulance has come to this. Opposition by House Republicans to any payroll tax cut extension began to fade last week only after President Obama issued a veto threat against a GOP bill tying the continued relief for working Americans to approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project. The difference, Rep, Jeff Flake (R-AZ) explained, "was the president and that threat." But if the House Republican bill jeopardized $1,000 tax cut in 2012 for a family earning... more Posted on December 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Difference Between Newt Gingrich and God What's the difference between Newt Gingrich and God? God doesn't think he's Newt Gingrich. In a Republican presidential contest in which most of the major contenders, including Gingrich, claimed God "called" them to run, Newt alone worships at his own alter. Even after burning through three religions and three wives, Gingrich's self-proclaimed mission on earth remains to be "definer of civilization" and "leader of the civilizing forces." Newt's belief in his destiny as a "world historical figure" dates well before... more Posted on December 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Commits Tax Fraud for the Wealthy. Again. When House Speaker John Boehner denounced Democratic proposals to fund a payroll tax cut extension through a surtax on millionaires as a "job-killing tax hike on small businesses," he might have wanted to check with some first. As NPR revealed yesterday, the Congressional Republicans they consulted, including in the House and Senate leadership, "were unable to produce a single millionaire job creator for us to interview." If this pathetic GOP charade sounds familiar, it should. After all, a decade ago... more Posted on December 10, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Introducing Newt Gingrich's 2-2-2 Plan If nothing else, former House Speaker and new GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich is all about keeping his options open. After all, Newt has gone through three religions and three wives. As it turns out, when it comes to Medicare, Social Security and the tax code, President Gingrich wants Americans to have options as well. In each case, Gingrich is offering voters a choice between the current system and a new one. Call it the 2-2-2 Plan. Of course, whatever you... more Posted on December 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Epic Failure of Republican Trickle Down Economics When President Obama on Tuesday declared that decades of Republican trickle-down economics "never worked," conservatives were predictably apoplectic. But for all of their protests of "class warfare", "socialism" and worse, Obama was being kind to the Republican ideologues. After all, as the historical record shows, from economic growth and job creation to stock market performance and just about every other indicator of the health of American capitalism, the modern U.S. economy has almost always done better under Democratic presidents. Despite... more Posted on December 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Lies About Obama 'Taking over 100 Percent' of Health Care By almost any measure, the 2006 universal care law Governor Mitt Romney championed in Massachusetts has been a clear success. A bipartisan bill which Ted Kennedy worked closely with Romney to pass, the law has reduced the ranks of the uninsured from 10 percent to a national low of two percent. Massachusetts residents overwhelmingly favor the popular health care law there by a 3 to 1 margin. But in his desperate quest to win over conservative Republican primary voters, Mitt... more Posted on December 5, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	For Romney, Abortion is No Longer Personal A devastating new DNC ad this week has once again highlighted Mitt Romney's gymnastic flip-flops on the issue of abortion. Rushing to his defense, conservative Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker claimed his opportunism was instead deeply principled, declaring "Romney's own change of heart evolved not from personal experience but rather from a purposeful course of study." If so, as recent events show, Mitt Romney wasn't a very good student of reproductive science. And as it turns out, Romney no longer... more Posted on December 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP: Cut Payroll Tax by Cutting Federal Payroll Last year, Republicans successfully waged a scorched-earth campaign to preserve at all costs the Bush tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans. Back then, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl defended the Treasury-draining, $70 billion a year windfall for the wealthy by proclaiming, "you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans." Of course, when the tax cut extension is proposed by a Democrat and the beneficiaries middle class Americans, the... more Posted on December 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Gingrich Proposes Flat Tax Windfall for the Wealthy When Newt Gingrich proposed his 15 percent flat-tax scheme in October, the plan like the former House Speaker himself was viewed as an afterthought in the GOP presidential race. But now that Gingrich is the new Republican frontrunner, his tax cut proposal is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. Because like fellow flat-taxers Herman Cain and Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich would deliver yet another windfall for the wealthy while piling up mountains of new debt. Gingrich's plan resembles Perry's in... more Posted on November 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meet Mitt Romney's Running Mate, Benjamin Netanyahu "If I'm president of the United States," Mitt Romney declared during a recent GOP presidential debate, "My first foreign trip will be to Israel to show the world we care about that country and that region." As it turns out, Romney's pledge isn't just his latest transparent ploy to win over Jewish voters. Mitt's Israeli itinerary would give him a chance to personally thank the man to whom he has largely outsourced his Middle East policy. After all, from his... more Posted on November 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Violate Norquist Pledge over Payroll Tax Cut Extension The Wall Street Journal greeted the failure of the Congressional debt super committee with an editorial titled, "Thank You, Grover Norquist." That gratitude should have surprised no one. After all, Norquist's anti-tax pledge led handcuffed committee Republicans not just to oppose even modest tax increases on the richest Americans, but to demand another tax cut payday for the privileged while slashing federal spending. As it turns out, however, a tax increase isn't always a tax increase for Norquist's GOP servants.... more Posted on November 23, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Mitt Romney's Iran Follies As the GOP presidential field gathers once again for the CNN national security debate, Mitt Romney has already identified Iran as the place to contrast himself with the current commander-in-chief. "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon," Romney declared at the last Republican foreign policy shindig, adding, "If you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon." Of course, there's one major problem with Governor Romney's declaration that Iran represents President Obama's "greatest... more Posted on November 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP's "Servants of the Rich" Block Debt Deal Two weeks ago, House Speaker John Boehner protested that the characterization of his Republican Party as "servants of the rich" was "very unfair." But after the GOP torpedoed any debt reduction deal from the Congressional super committee including "any penny" in new tax revenue from the richest Americans, Boehner's complaint seems all the more pathetic. After all, the debt panel's GOP members didn't merely refuse to end the expiring Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but demanded another massive windfall... more Posted on November 21, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican "Job-Killing Regulations" Myth Gets Demolished For years, what passes for Republican economic policy has been dominated by "necessary lies," that is, statements which conservative ideology requires to be true despite being demonstrably false. Despite decades of GOP mythmaking, tax cuts don't pay for themselves or increase revenue. Employment and the overall U.S. economy grew faster when America's so-called "job creators" were taxed at higher (even much higher) rates than they are today. And as a mountain of new analyses and surveys show, Republicans' rapid-fire repetition... more Posted on November 15, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Pushes Privatization of Medicare, Veterans' Health Suppose you are a candidate for President of the United States. Suppose further that you know that over the past 40 years, the per-beneficiary cost of Medicare rose 40% less than private health insurance. Say you also know that studies consistently show that the Veteran's Administration (VA) health care system provides "the best care anywhere," consistently outperforming its private sector counterparts. And now for today's quiz: what reforms if any would you propose to the Medicare and VA systems that... more Posted on November 13, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Women's Champion Newt Gingrich Surges in GOP Race Here in a nutshell is the state of play in the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes: alleged serial sexual harasser Herman Cain is being surpassed by confirmed serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. With Mitt Romney stalled and Cain hemorrhaging support from women voters, polls from CBS and Marist show the former House Speaker has surged into a virtual three-way tie at the top. Of course, that should be a discomforting prospect for a Republican Party which lost the women's vote by 13... more Posted on November 11, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Gingrich Leads Republican Charge to Abolish the CBO "Reality," Stephen Colbert famously told President Bush to his face, "has a well-known liberal bias." That inconvenient truth is at the heart of the expanding Republican war on the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Increasingly frustrated by CBO analyses showing that the 2009 economic stimulus worked as designed, that the Paul Ryan GOP Medicare rationing plan would massively shift costs to seniors, that income inequality is at record levels and, most damning of all, the Affordable Care Act reduces the... more Posted on November 10, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Debt Panelists Propose New Tax Cut Windfall for the Wealthy Without any action by Congress, on January 1, 2013 the Bush tax cuts will expire. That would not only return the top income rate from 35 percent to its Clinton boom-era level of39.6 percent. It would also produce almost $4 trillion in new revenue over the next decade, easily dwarfing the $1.2 trillion target now before the Congressional debt "super committee." That's why the supposedly "significant" proposal by GOP debt panelists to raise $300 billion in new tax revenue is... more Posted on November 9, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	You Know Mitt Romney Is Out of Touch When... It's awfully tough to be a presidential candidate worth $250 million when income inequality and poverty are at record levels. Of course, it's tougher still when you're Mitt Romney. After all, in words and in deeds, Romney for years has consistently reminded Americans of "the guy who laid you off." Now, a week after the Republican frontrunner proposed deep spending cuts for lower income Americans to offset his $6.6 trillion tax cut windfall for the richest individuals and corporations, here... more Posted on November 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Pro-Choice Faker Romney Eggs on Abortion Foes Back in 2005, Republican strategist and Mitt Romney adviser Michael Murphy created quite a stir when he declared of the Massachusetts Governor, "He's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." Over the last few weeks, Romney has once again confirmed what might be called Murphy's Law. The one-time Planned Parenthood donor who refused to sign the draconian Susan B. Anthony pledge in June last week declared he would eliminate federal Title X funding providing health care services... more Posted on November 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Confounding Romney, Federal Employee Pay Deficit Widens Rolling out his plan to cut the national debt last week, Mitt Romney promised to "align federal employee compensation with the public sector." If so, the roughly 2.8 million federal workers whose pay has been frozen by President Obama can expect a big raise from President Romney. As the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, federal employees are now underpaid by 26.3 percent compared with similar non-federal jobs, a two percent increase over the previous year. And as it turns... more Posted on November 6, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	How Much Will Romney's Tax Cuts Save His Family? Addressing Americans for Prosperity on Friday, Mitt Romney laid out a bevy of federal spending cuts which doubtless were music to the ears of AFP's funders, Charles and David Koch. To be sure, raising the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security, capping Medicaid and converting the system into block grants for the states and shrinking federal spending below 20 percent of GDP are helpful parts of Romney's intense effort to woo the Koch brothers. But his biggest gift of... more Posted on November 4, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP's Off-the-Charts Tax Cut Windfalls for the Wealthy While the Occupy Wall Street movement and a shocking report from the Congressional Budget Office have shone a bright spotlight on America's record income inequality, the GOP's 2012 presidential field is proposing massive new tax cuts certain to expand that Grand Canyon-sized gap between the fabulously rich and everyone else. Of course, the gilded-class giveaways from Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are just the latest chapters in the GOP's decade-long campaign of upward income redistribution. As a quick... more Posted on November 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans No Longer "Pre-Occupied" with Deficits As polling and media analyses revealed earlier this year, Republicans used the 2010 midterm campaign to completely turn the focus in Washington from job creation to deficit reduction. But now that the Occupy Wall Street movement is well into its second month, the GOP is changing its tune. We know this not only from recent Gallup polling which shows Republicans like Democrats and Independents now put unemployment and the economy at the top of their list of national concerns. As... more Posted on October 31, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Debt Panelists: Cut Taxes to Raise Revenue! Among the predictable differences between the Democratic and Republican members of the so-called debt super committee is this: Democrats propose to increase revenue by raising taxes, while Republicans want to increase revenue by cutting taxes. You read that right. After Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt and George W. Bush doubled it again thanks in large part to supply-side tax cuts that gutted the U.S. Treasury, Congressional Republicans are once again peddling the GOP's biggest fraud that "you cut taxes... more Posted on October 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Paul Ryan Gets an English Lesson House Budget Committee chairman and supposed GOP wunderkind Paul Ryan chose the wrong the week to attack President Obama for "sowing social unrest and class resentment." After all, just one day earlier the CBO confirmed that income inequality in the U.S. is at highest level in 80 years, a yawning gap certain to be enlarged by the latest crop of proposed Republican tax cut windfalls for the wealthy. Worse still, 24 hours after Ryan accused Obama putting the nation on... more Posted on October 27, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Candidates Double Down on Record Income Inequality This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided just the latest analysis confirming that U.S. income inequality is at record levels. But while the income gap is at largest in 80 years even as the total federal tax burden is at its smallest in 60, the 2012 Republican presidential field is proposing to make both much, much worse. As the numbers show, the GOP field's toxic mix of massive upper-class tax cuts, mountains of debt and draconian spending cuts would... more Posted on October 26, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Rick Perry Shows Why He Got a D in Economics Back in August, Americans learned that among Rick Perry's miserable grades in college was a "D" in "Principles of Economics." Now we know why. His contribution to the GOP's flat tax one-upsmanship not only fails to simply the U.S. tax code. As it turns out, Governor Perry's "Cut, Balance and Grow" scheme would undermine Social Security, produce mountains of debt and require draconian spending cuts, all while ensuring a massive windfall for the wealthy. On that last point, the Texas... more Posted on October 25, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	For GOP Presidential Field, It's Survival of the Flattest As Steve Forbes learned in 1996 and 2000 and Herman Cain is learning now, the flat tax is a bad idea whose time never came. After all, the move to a single income tax rate for all earners inevitably shifts the tax burden from the rich to middle and lower income Americans. And if the rate is too low, the result is a hemorrhage of red ink from the U.S Treasury that quickly becomes an ocean of debt. Nevertheless, in... more Posted on October 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Senate GOP Blocks Help for States' Jobs, Budget Crises During the debate over the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in early 2009, stimulus opponent Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed, "If the money were lent rather than just granted, states would, I think, spend it wisely and the states that didn't need it at all wouldn't take any." Now would be a good time to take him up on his offer. After all, on Thursday McConnell's Senate Republicans blocked President Obama's $35 billion bill to keep 280,000... more Posted on October 21, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Herman Cain Plays Hide and Seek with Voters Judging by the headlines, Herman Cain's tenure as the frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination may be a brief one. After his supposed "jokes" about lethal electrified borders fences, Politico and the New York Times wondered if candidate Cain is even "serious" about the White House. Following his jaw-dropping pro-choice, anti-abortion declaration, the Greg Sargent of Washington Post asked, "Are Herman Cain's 15 minutes of fame over?" If they aren't, they should be. Because what Herman Cain doesn't know... more Posted on October 20, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Shocked - Shocked! - Cain Shifts Tax Burden from the Rich Herman Cain's now ubiquitous 9-9-9 tax plan went from the ridiculous to the sublime during Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate. While House Republicans and Grover Norquist had complained that the pizza mogul's proposals constituted a tax increase, some of Cain's fellow White House hopefuls actually expressed concern that it would be lower and middle income Americans paying it. And that is a very shocking development, indeed. After all, while he differs in his particulars, Herman Cain like Paul Ryan and... more Posted on October 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Next to Last Refuge of a Scoundrel Here's a handy cheat sheet for those trying to make sense of the protest movements of the past three years. Tea Party followers were mad about losing the 2008 election; Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are angry about losing the American Dream. But for defenders of the Tea Party, that unhappy band of especially ardent Republicans, the Occupy movement's critique of economic hardship, income inequality and corporate political power hits a little too close to home. Which may be why right-wing... more Posted on October 18, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Jobs Plan? Same As It Ever Was On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner took Barack Obama to task for the President's claim that he had not yet seen a jobs plan from Republicans. "I want to make sure," Boehner lectured the President, "you have all the facts." As it turns out, this is one of those rare occasions where John Boehner is right. After all, that same day Boehner's Republican colleagues in the Senate introduced their own GOP jobs plan titled the "Jobs Through Growth Act." Of... more Posted on October 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Getting Buffetted by Taxes For Republicans on the warpath against Warren Buffett, President Obama's willing poster child for raising taxes on wealthy Americans, this week has been a very bad one. First, new polling confirmed that Americans overwhelmingly support President Obama's jobs plan in general and his proposed gilded-class tax hikes in particular. (On that second point, Republican voters agree.) Then on Thursday, the billionaire called Republicans' bluff and released his $6.9 million tax return and confirmed he paid a lower percentage to Uncle... more Posted on October 13, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	For Herman Cain, the Only Certainties Are Debt and Tax Cuts If nothing else, Herman Cain is a man who is very sure of himself. This week, Cain once again declared God told him to run for President. But on the same day Senate Republicans continued their unprecedented obstructionism by blocking President Obama's jobs bill, Cain's own 9-9-9 plan finally started to come under scrutiny. As it turns out, Cain's simple scheme -like virtually every other recent GOP proposal - would produce mountains of debt and massively shift the tax burden... more Posted on October 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Scandal Tips for the Obama Administration Back in May, Brendan Nyhan used historical and statistical analysis to presciently conclude that for the hitherto untainted Obama White House, "the first Obama scandal is likely to arrive sooner than most people think." Now, the dual imbroglios over the $535 million loan lost to bankrupt Solyndra and the ATF's ill-conceived "Fast and Furious" gun-walking operation have Republicans targeting the President and his Attorney General, Eric Holder. While the twin dust ups, each with roots in the Bush Administration, may... more Posted on October 9, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Faces Faith-Based Payback Five years ago, Massachusetts Governor and first-time GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney declared, "People in this country want a person of faith to lead them as their president." Just not his faith, according to that most Republican of audiences at this week's Values Voters Summit. Hoping to capitalize on polls showing almost a third of white evangelicals would be less likely to vote for a Mormon, Rick Perry's campaign orchestrated an appearance by Texas mega-church pastor Robert Jeffress to... more Posted on October 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Triumph of the One Percent in Pictures As the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators House Minority Leader Eric Cantor called "mobs" took their protests to cities around the country, Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Herman Cain denounced the rallies as "class warfare." Meanwhile in Washington, President Obama signaled his support for a 5.6% tax surcharge on annual incomes over a million dollars in order to pay for his $447 billion American Jobs Act designed to help alleviate the struggles of the 99% now taking to the streets. One... more Posted on October 7, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	For Conservatives, President Palin is Gone But Still "Hot" It is altogether fitting that Sarah Palin finally ended speculation about her presidential prospects on the very day her boss Roger Ailes admitted he hired her at Fox News "because she was hot." But while her conserva-skeptics like David Frum pronounced her "already almost forgotten," her right-wing water carriers certainly remember why she made them see "starbursts" and sit up "a little straighter" in the first place. As it turns out, many of those who complained loudest about Palin as... more Posted on October 6, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Occupy Wall Street Highlights Tea Party's Bogus Populism Back in April 2009, Daily Show host Jon Stewart summed up the Tea Party movement, "I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing." His description, it turns out, was exactly right. Tea Partiers complained they were "Taxed Enough Already" despite virtually all receiving tax relief from President Obama and America seeing the total federal tax burden at its lowest level since 1950. They decried "Obamacare" for its nonexistent "death panels" and "government takeover of health care" even as the... more Posted on October 5, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	A Lesson from Greece? Shame U.S. Tax Cheats For months, Republican born-again deficit hawks have been warning Americans that "we're becoming Greece." Of course, as FactCheck.org and Paul Krugman among others rightly concluded, "Greece -- with a long history of fiscal irresponsibility, very high public debt, and a country without a currency -- doesn't bear much resemblance even to the other peripheral Europeans, let alone the United States." But in one aspect, America would do well to follow the Greek example. With tax fraud now costing the U.S.... more Posted on October 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Koch Brothers Join Cheney and Romney Among GOP's Iran Sanctions Busters In July of 2010, two dozen members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus led by Michele Bachmann co-sponsored a resolution announcing support for Israel "to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force." So, Tea Partiers must have been shocked - shocked! - to learn that Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers underwriting their "movement," were also in business with Iran. As it turns... more Posted on October 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Whose Economy? GOP Pins the Tail on the Donkey This week, Vice President Joe Biden inadvertently turned the heat up on his boss - and warmed conservative hearts - when he declared it's "totally legitimate" for the 2012 presidential election to be "a referendum on Obama and Biden and the nature and state of the economy" because "we're in charge." His candor and willingness to take accountability is refreshing and even noble. After all, polling from CNN and CBS shows majorities of Americans still blame George W. Bush and... more Posted on October 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Reading the Tea Leaves in South Carolina For conservatives in general and Tea Partiers in particular, South Carolina is often looked to as a model and a harbinger. 150 years later, the birthplace of secession was hailed as a forerunner of the Tea Party movement. Governor Nikki Haley, Rep. Joe Wilson and Senator Jim Demint (who hosted a GOP presidential forum on Labor Day) are national luminaries in the anti-government, anti-tax Tea Party movement. And with its fight against the National Labor Relations Board's Boeing ruling, the... more Posted on September 27, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Deploys Wife to Solve Authenticity Problem When you're worth $250 million, it's awfully tough - especially during a prolonged economic crisis - to present yourself as a down-to-earth, man of the people. But if you're Mitt Romney, the challenge is even more daunting. After all, four years ago the son of an auto magnate turned job-cutting venture capitalist spent $45 million of his own money in a failed White House bid. Adding insult to injury, in recent weeks Romney announced he was merely doubling (and not... more Posted on September 25, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Hating Americans Liberals, the tired conservative slander states, hate America. That, of course, is nonsense. Liberals simply want to deliver on the national promise of a more perfect union, to shorten the distance, as Bruce Springsteen aptly put it, "between American ideals and American reality." But if the past three Republican presidential debates are any indicator, it would appear that conservatives hate Americans. Or more precisely, some Americans. As audiences of the faithful booed an active duty U.S. soldier because he is... more Posted on September 23, 2011 \| Comments (3)

	10 Missing Questions from the Fox News GOP Debate Two days before the critical Republican Florida straw poll on Saturday, the 2012 GOP White House hopefuls will square off tonight in the Fox News debate in Orlando. With frontrunner Rick Perry under fire from all sides as his negative ratings rise, interest is surging among conservative voters. But while Fox News viewers have already submitted 20,000 questions for Thursday's debate, doubtless few of them will expose the Republican candidates' shocking extremism to general election voters. Here, then, are 10... more Posted on September 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Perry, Israel and the GOP's Faith-Based Foreign Policy Americans are increasingly aware that most of the 2012 Republican White House hopefuls claim God called them to seek the presidency. But only now are voters learning from the GOP field that He has apparently issued a "directive" for the United States to be a dutiful appendage of the Likud Party in Israel. So as the UN the gathers to consider Palestinian statehood, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann among others are contradicting decades of American foreign policy by pushing settlement... more Posted on September 21, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Rush to Defend Winners of the Class War Unveiling his $3 trillion debt reduction package Monday, President Obama declared, "This is not class warfare. It's math." But for Republican born-again deficit hawks committed to perpetuating the lowest tax burden in 60 years and the highest income inequality in 80, the accusation is that Obama is threatening to restart a class war their side already won. Of course, a truism of American politics is that the side decrying class warfare is the one winning it. That's why a month... more Posted on September 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Call for Gutting Social Security, Adding Trillions to Debt Over the past few weeks, the political chattering classes have been abuzz over 2012 GOP frontrunner Rick Perry's claim that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." (It isn't.) But largely overlooked in the parsing and the polls is the ocean of red ink the various Republican Social Security privatization schemes would inevitably produce. More than a decade after George W. Bush first proposed them, there's no escaping the fact that private accounts would divert trillions of dollars from Social Security... more Posted on September 17, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner Peddles Republican Job Creators Myth On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner peppered his address to the Economic Club of Washington with a dozen mentions of America's so-called "job creators." But in claiming that high taxes and unnecessary regulations have "pummeled" his supposed job producers, Boehner willingly misrepresented the source of and solutions to the nation's economic problems. After all, recent surveys show that regulations and taxes are not killing small business. With corporations flush with cash and the total federal tax burden at a 60... more Posted on September 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Declare Generational War for 2012 In the wake of Monday's Tea Party Republican presidential debate, all eyes have been on Social Security. But while politicians and pundits parsed the candidates' assertions that America's retirement program for the elderly is a "Ponzi scheme" (Rick Perry), akin to a criminal enterprise (Mitt Romney) and a "tremendous fraud" (Michele Bachmann), the real story of the GOP strategy for 2012 remains largely untold. As their policies and pronouncements on Medicare and Social Security make clear, in 2012 Republicans will... more Posted on September 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Low Capital Gains Taxes Fueling Record Income Inequality With U.S. income inequality at its highest level in 80 years and the total federal tax burden at its lowest in 60, the last thing America needs to do is further reduce the capital gains tax. As a decade of data shows, the Treasury-draining Bush capital gains and dividend tax windfall for the wealthy not only failed to produce employment gains from America's so-called "job creators." As the Washington Post detailed, "capital gains tax rates benefiting wealthy feed [the] growing... more Posted on September 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Rick Perry's Texas-Sized Lies on Health Care Republicans frontrunner Rick Perry raised some eyebrows during Wednesday's GOP presidential debate by blaming the federal government for his state's staggering number of uninsured. As it turns out, those jaws were dropping with good reason. After all, just months ago Perry advocated opting out of the federal Medicaid partnership, a move which would cost up to 2.6 million Texans their health care coverage. And as it turns out, the Texas health care system Governor Perry called the best in the... more Posted on September 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Explains When a Tax Cut Isn't a Tax Cut When is a tax cut not a tax cut? According to Republicans, when those receiving it are working Americans and the President proposing it is a Democrat. Because after they spent 2010 ensuring the extension of the Bush tax cut windfall for the wealthy by insisting "you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans," GOP leaders are demanding exactly that for President Obama's proposal for continued payroll tax relief. Last... more Posted on September 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Party Wishes You a Happy Labor Day! To mark Labor Day 2011, conservative flame-thrower Michelle Malkin offered American workers a look back at the "top 10 union thug moments of the year." As it turns out, Malkin's union-bashing hyperbole differs little from the leading lights of the Republican Party. While Sarah Palin has decried "union thugs," Mitt Romney promised to take on "union bosses" and Michele Bachmann said she's open to reducing the minimum wage and eliminating the corporate income tax, virtually the entire party leadership has... more Posted on September 5, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Debt Ceiling "Uncertainty" Fueled Grim Jobs Report On Friday, Republicans deployed two talking points - one new, one old - in response to the grim news that the U.S. economy added no new jobs in August. The same GOP leaders who in January gave credit to the "newly elected House Republican Majority" for the economy's strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2010 shifted the blame to President Obama for the grim August numbers. But as they've been saying for months, Republican propagandists insisted that the slow... more Posted on September 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Unprecedented "Congressional historians said Mr. Boehner's move was unprecedented." While the New York Times was referring to Speaker John Boehner's refusal to grant the President's request for a September 7 address to joint session of Congress, "unprecedented" is apt description for the stone wall of Republican obstructionism facing Barack Obama from the moment he took the oath of office. From the GOP's record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama's legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its... more Posted on September 1, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Divine Intervention Becomes the Republican Platform Americans can be forgiven for assuming Michele Bachmann was deadly serious when she repeatedly joked this weekend that God was using an earthquake and hurricane to send a divine message to restrain federal spending. After all, Bachmann has not only proclaimed time and again that the Almighty called her to seek higher office; in 2009, she joined an evangelical "prayercast" asking for divine intervention to halt health care reform. As it turns out, she has plenty of company among the... more Posted on August 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Bachmann Gives Away the GOP Game on Health Care Over the past week, Republican White House hopeful Michele Bachmann unleashed a tidal wave of campaign promises aimed at washing away the American social contract. After pledging to get gas under $2 a gallon, Bachmann announced she would make the U.S. the "king daddy dog" of energy by shutting down the EPA. And while Rep. Bachmann suggested she'd reduce the minimum wage, she promised that President Bachmann "would turn things around within one economic quarter, in part by cutting corporate... more Posted on August 28, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Rubio Claims Social Security, Medicare "Weakened Us as a People" Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) neatly summed up the Republican platform for 2012, declaring that Americans must "come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many." Yesterday at the Reagan Library, Tea Party darling and GOP rock star Marco Rubio explained why his party wants to break the promises Americans made to each other when it comes to safety net programs like Medicare and... more Posted on August 25, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Rick Perry and George W. Bush, Texas' Willing Executioners Asked the biggest difference between himself and George W. Bush, Texas governor and new Republican White House front runner Rick Perry answered, "I went to Texas A&M. He went to Yale." Which isn't far from the truth. After all, their pronouncements on policies and personal beliefs are eerily similar. And when it comes to donning the executioner's hood in the death penalty mecca that is Texas, Rick Perry and George W. Bush are almost indistinguishable. As the Washington Post documented,... more Posted on August 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Decries Class Warfare on the Tragically Rich Judging from the furious reaction of some of the gilded-class crowd and their Republican protectors, billionaire Warren Buffett struck a nerve with his plea to Congress to "stop coddling the super-rich." Former American Express CEO Harvey Golub and Tea Party sugar daddy Charles Koch were quick to protest respectively "the unfair way taxes are collected" and that "my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington." Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric... more Posted on August 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	"Truth Teller" Huntsman Takes on the "Not Intended to Be a Factual Statement" Party This weekend, former Utah Governor and GOP White House hopeful Jon Huntsman came out swinging against his Republican rivals. Positioning himself as a "truth-teller," Huntsman blasted Rick Perry on evolution and global warming, attacked Michele Bachmann over her jaw-dropping stands on the debt ceiling and gas prices, mocked Mitt Romney's gymnastic flip-flops and generally thumbed his nose at the entire GOP field. Sadly for Jon Huntsman, while the truth may set you free, it won't make you the presidential nominee... more Posted on August 21, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans' "Missing Millionaires" Turn Up Safe and Sound For Republicans hoping to preserve the Bush-era tax cut windfall for the wealthy, the past week was not a happy one. While billionaire Warren Buffett asked Congress to "stop coddling the super-rich," GOP representatives found themselves under attack from constituents who polls show overwhelmingly support debt-reducing tax increases. So, it should come as no surprise that the Wall Street Journal and the right-wing echo chamber sought to drum up sympathy for the tragically rich by lamenting the "missing millionaires" supposedly... more Posted on August 20, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Name That Texan! Karl Marx famously said that "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." So it is with Texas Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry. After all, Perry isn't merely trying to follow the path blazed by his predecessor from the Lone Star State to the White House. Not four years removed from Bush's completion of the worst two-term economic performance since Hoover, Rick Perry is promising a repeat of the policies that helped cause the calamity. And as... more Posted on August 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Conservatives Insist Bush, Not Obama, is Like Abraham Lincoln At an event in Iowa Monday, President Obama explained that venomous political rhetoric is nothing new in American history, noting "Lincoln -- they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me." Judging by the immediate and furious reaction from the conservative commentariat, right-wingers are none too happy about Obama's passing Lincoln analogy. After all, the comparison to Abraham Lincoln is one Republicans reserved for George W. Bush, and President Bush for himself. It was Byron... more Posted on August 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	S&P: Republicans' Toxic Tea Poisoned U.S. Credit Rating During the just concluded debt ceiling crisis, only one American political party was willing to see the United States default and its economy crippled rather than raise the nation's borrowing limit. That culprit was the Party of Lincoln, whose namesake once explained the Confederacy's threat to the Union, "one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive." But you don't have to take the word of Democrats like John Kerry or David Axelrod that Standard & Poor's... more Posted on August 13, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Iowa Debate Confirms GOP Won't Pay Down the Debt Four years ago, perhaps the most telling episode of the Republican presidential nominating process came during a debate at the Reagan Library when three candidates raised their hands to declare that they did not believe in evolution. But when all of the GOP White House hopefuls assembled in Iowa raised their hands in unison to reject any debt reduction compromise featuring a lopsided 10 to 1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases, they offered the defining moment of the... more Posted on August 12, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Packs Debt Super Panel with Super Liars on Taxes That all six of the Republicans selected to the Congressional debt reduction "Super Committee" are signers of Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge is hardly surprising. But the choice of Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is an especially fitting one for the GOP. After all, Kyl didn't merely define a generation of Republican talking points when he explained earlier this year that his was "not intended to be a factual statement." As it turns out, from regurgitating bogus claims that "tax cuts pay... more Posted on August 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	After Wrongly Blaming Clinton, GOP Blames Obama for Blaming Bush on Economy Reveling in the political opportunity presented by America's economic woes, Republicans are taking President Obama to task for stating the simple truth, "much of it I inherited." While GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney charged, "It's just blame, blame, blame - It's a blame presidency," former Bush press secretary turned Fox News regular Dana Perino complained, "The blaming Bush stuff is kinda expected, kind of annoying." Of course, the Republicans' new line of attack has a few problems. For starters, new Commerce... more Posted on August 9, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Polls, GOP Politicians Confirm Tea Party Owns Downgrade In the wake of S&P's reduction of the U.S. credit rating, Republican leaders and amen corner are apoplectic about what Democrats John Kerry and David Axelrod deemed the "Tea Party Downgrade." Sadly, there's one small problem for the right-wing bloggers insisting "they can't possibly sell that" and for the GOP presidential candidates attacking President Obama instead. As the polls and the words of Republican politicians each show, Tea Partiers long have made clear that for the United States no AAA... more Posted on August 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Candidates Must Take the "MyTaxCut Pledge" If nothing else, the 2012 Republican presidential contest has forced GOP White House hopefuls to run a gauntlet of ever more draconian pledges demanded by party purists. At the top of the list is the Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which demands candidates "solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases." But at a time of record high income inequality, historically low federal taxes and rising national debt their party is largely responsible for producing, the GOP presidential... more Posted on August 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Call Republicans Hostage Takers and Terrorists Among the things we learned during this week's debt ceiling debacle is that Republicans in general and their Tea Party hardliners in particular don't like to be called "hostage-takers" and "terrorists." While Sarah Palin called Vice President Biden's alleged use of the T-word "appalling," Rep. Jeff Landry (R-LA) suggested it was the Obama administration "who's terrorizing the country." These thin-skinned conservatives might want to save their venom for their fellow Republicans. After all, it wasn't just George W. Bush's Treasury... more Posted on August 6, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	25 Things We Learned During the Debt Crisis If nothing else, the debt ceiling crisis provided what Barack Obama is so fond of calling a "teachable moment." Hopefully, that extends to the President himself. After seeing his nominees blocked, his legislation filibustered and popular upper-income tax increases delayed by Republicans who withheld their support from his watered down stimulus and health care programs, President Obama nevertheless continued to seek common ground with those whose only goal remains his political destruction. The result was as painful as it was... more Posted on August 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Casey Anthony Party In the wake of the debt ceiling deal they opposed, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are predictably apoplectic that Vice President Joe Biden allegedly likened Tea Partiers to "terrorists." In that case, they must really be furious with observers like New York Times reporter Joe Nocera and George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill who really did call the Tea Party's debt ceiling hostage takers terrorists. But while O'Neill certainly had good reason for proclaiming "the people who are threatening... more Posted on August 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Real Losers in the Debt Deal The ink isn't yet dry (or even written) on the 11th hour debt deal, but the media are already doing their usual body count of the victors and vanquished. In the Washington Post, conventional wisdom regurgitation machine Chris Cillizza produced the predictable winners and losers list. While the Wall Street Journal and right-wing columnists proclaim "a Tea Party Triumph," Paul Krugman, Jonathan Cohn and Greg Sargent lamented the dire political and economic consequences of President Obama's latest surrender to his... more Posted on August 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Debt Orgy in Pictures "In Washington more spending and more debt is business as usual," House Speaker John Boehner declared on Monday before warning, "I've got news for Washington - those days are over." The days, Boehner should have explained, before Barack Obama took the oath of office. As Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) rightly pointed on the Senate floor last year, "We would have none of this if it hadn't been for the Republican debt orgy that they went through." Which is exactly right. As... more Posted on July 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Threatens Economic 9/11 over Debt Ceiling "The people who are threatening not to pass the debt ceiling are our version of al Qaeda terrorists.," former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neilldeclared in April, adding, "They're really putting our whole society at risk by threatening to round up 50 percent of the members of the Congress, who are loony, who would put our credit at risk." He should know, because he was there on 9/11. Despite Osama Bin Laden's goal of bankrupting the U.S., the economic damage he... more Posted on July 29, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Why They Fight On Thursday, House Republicans will vote on John Boehner's debt plan. But whether they follow his order to "get your ass in line" or not (and 23 have already gone on record saying they won't), Republican hostage takers on Capitol Hill will continue to threaten the United States with default - and economic catastrophe - unless their demands for draconian spending cuts are met. But as this unnecessary crisis verges on panic, it's worth remembering why Republicans created it. It... more Posted on July 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Welcome to Jonestown on the Potomac The cult members have gathered. They've drunk the Kool-Aid. The poison already flowing through their veins, they are hallucinating and lashing out against the unbelievers. But this time, the death spasms aren't their own, but their nation's. Unless they get what want, Congressional Republicans will block an increase in the U.S. debt ceiling and take their country down with them. Welcome to Jonestown on the Potomac. As Speaker John Boehner once again made clear in his national address Monday night,... more Posted on July 26, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Broke It. Will Democrats Own It? Appearing on Face the Nation Sunday, Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin warned House Speaker John Boehner about his paternity for the economic catastrophe resulting from a Republican failure to increase the U.S. debt ceiling. "If you break it," Durbin told Boehner, "you own it." But as the New York Times was just the latest to document, when it comes to the oceans of red ink hemorrhaging from the U.S. Treasury, Republicans already broke it. And as Senate Minority Mitch McConnell... more Posted on July 25, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Fiscal Train Wreck Pawlenty Calls Obama a "Chicken" on Debt It's tough to be taken seriously as a presidential contender when you call yourself "T-Paw" and repeatedly trumpet your "smoking hot wife" as a qualification for the White House. But just two days after having to deny he was preparing to pull the plug on his flat-lining campaign, Tim Pawlenty made his growing credibility problems much worse. On Sunday, the former Minnesota Governor called President Obama a "chicken" when it came to the debt ceiling crisis. That would be the... more Posted on July 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner's Double-Dealing on the Debt Ceiling If it appears that John Boehner is suffering from multiple personality disorder over the debt ceiling stand-off, that's because he is. Torn between his duty to the national interest as Speaker of the House and to the Tea Party caucus that put him there, for months Boehner has ping-ponged between truth and lies on the debt ceiling. Long before he breached faith with the President on Friday, John Boehner tried to have it both ways on virtually every aspect of... more Posted on July 23, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican God Pledge For weeks, Republican presidential candidates have been a running a gauntlet of ever-more draconian pledges put forth by party purists. Grover Norquist's anti-tax oath, the Susan B. Anthony List anti-abortion manifesto , the "Marriage Vow" and the "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge are just some of the multiplying litmus tests now demanded by social and economic conservatives alike. But as the 2012 primaries approach, another de facto requirement for GOP White House hopefuls is emerging. That is, candidates must not... more Posted on July 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Economy's Willing Executioners "If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States," Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee exclaimed in January, "that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity." But if that economic catastrophe comes to pass, its cause will not have been dementia, but disinformation. In their perpetual quest to gain political advantage and gut the federal government, Republicans in Congress have duped their party faithful - and many Americans... more Posted on July 20, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	For Republicans, Greece is the Word Well before the current debt ceiling crisis, Americans learned from the elephant's mouth that virtually every GOP talking point is "not intended to be a factual statement." In their perpetual crusade to gut the federal government, Republicans have now distilled their debt duplicity and fear-mongering into a single word: Greece. Earlier this year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell first likened the U.S. to Greece, a nation teetering on the brink of default even as its brutal austerity program is producing... more Posted on July 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Will Vote to Criminalize Reagan If nothing else, you have to hand it to Congressional Republicans for sheer "choot-spa" when it comes to the national debt. Not content to destroy the U.S. economy rather than raise a dime of revenue from the wealthiest Americans, Republicans will vote Tuesday for the "Cut, Cap and Balance Act" making draconian spending reductions inevitable and future tax increases virtually impossible. As it turns out, the Ryan budget that 235 House Republicans and 40 GOP Senators just voted for would... more Posted on July 18, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Either Way, Washington Prepares to Bring the Pain on the Debt Whatever the resolution to the Republican hostage-taking of the U.S. debt ceiling, it's becoming increasingly clear it will a painful one. Failure to boost the $14.3 trillion limit by August 2nd, as even some of the GOP extortionists are only now beginning to understand, would produce what Speaker John Boehner admitted would be "a financial disaster, not only for our country but for the worldwide economy." But even if that disaster is averted, the prospect of steep spending cuts threatens... more Posted on July 17, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	From Political to Pathological: Republicans and the Debt Ceiling "The chief consequence of the conservatives' unrelenting faith in the badness of government," Thomas Franks wrote three years ago in The Wrecking Crew, "is bad government." But would happen if virtually every article of that faith were wrong or, much worse, a blatant lie? Then you'd have something that looks very much like the crisis over the soon-to-be breached U.S. debt ceiling. After all, despite the dire warnings of impending doom from economists, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street ratings agencies,... more Posted on July 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republicans' Constitutional Con Job As the GOP hostage-taking drama over raising the debt limit appears headed towards a final showdown, Republican Congressmen, Senators and presidential candidates alike are pushing the "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge. While Mitch McConnell's "Plan B" would see Republicans yield on boosting the $14.3 trillion debt limit now in exchange for a mechanism to gut entitlements later, both houses would still vote on a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance the budget. Of course, that balanced budget amendment... more Posted on July 15, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Secrets of the Debt On the same day that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Wall Street rating agencies joined the ever-louder chorus of voices warning Republicans that failure to raise the U.S. debt ceiling would result in "calamity," Speaker John Boehner announced that at least 60 GOP Congressmen "won't vote to raise the debt ceiling under any circumstances." At the same time, his GOP colleagues Michele Bachmann, Steve King and Louie Gohmert accused the Obama administration of lying... more Posted on July 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP on the Debt: No Democratic President, No Problem Summing up the current Republican debt ceiling hostage-taking are two of the most telling statements in the annals of American politics. "Reagan," Vice President Dick Cheney famously declared in 2002, "proved deficits don't matter." And on Monday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor added, "What I don't think that the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say they're going to vote for a debt ceiling increase." Not, it turns out, if a Republican is in... more Posted on July 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	And the Winner Is... Among the truisms of American politics is this: the side decrying "class war" is the one winning it. So it is with the ongoing Republican hostage-taking drama over the debt ceiling and upper-income tax increases. Facing overwhelming pressure from his own party, Speaker John Boehner retreated from the "grand bargain" on deficit reduction he supported rather than raise a dime in new tax revenue. And at a time when the federal tax burden is at its lowest in 60 years,... more Posted on July 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Tries to Gut Medicaid as Studies Show Its Success As the debate over health care reform heated up in the fall of 2009, Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander called Medicaid "a medical ghetto" that "none of us, or any of our families, would ever want to be a part of for our health care." As it turns out, Alexander and his GOP colleagues were as wrong as they were cynical. A breakthrough study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reveals that Medicaid recipients have far greater access... more Posted on July 10, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Died of a Theory As the South teetered on the edge of calamity near the end of the Civil War, the Confederate Congress refused pleas to arm the slaves. "If the Confederacy fails," CSA President Jefferson Davis lamented, "there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory." Almost 150 years later and with Davis' political heirs having moved en masse to the Republican Party, the same might be said of the American economy. Despite the repeated warnings of economists, think tanks, international... more Posted on July 7, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	The Reagan Litmus Test On July 4, U.S. officials, foreign dignitaries and conservative luminaries gathered outside the American embassy in London to unveil a $1 million statue of Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, the timing was more than a little ironic. Because even as the Gipper was honored in Britain, it's increasingly clear he would have no place in today's Republican Party. From Grover Norquist's anti-tax promise and the Republican Study Committee's "cut, cap and balance" pledge to the draconian anti-abortion oath of... more Posted on July 5, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Everything I Know About the Founding Fathers I Learned from Republicans Every Fourth of July, we Americans celebrate our independence and pause to reflect on the enduring wisdom of our Founding Fathers who envisioned the cherished liberties we so often take for granted. But this year, the commemoration is tinged with sadness as evidence mounts that Americans don't know their own history. While a new study showed that only 35% of fourth-graders knew the purpose of the Declaration of Independence, a Marist poll found that 26% of us couldn't identify the... more Posted on July 4, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	President Obama's Address to the Nation on the Debt Ceiling President Obama Addresses the Nation on the Debt Ceiling* (As Prepared for Delivery, July 1, 2011.) My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you today about a matter of the greatest national urgency. We face a crisis unique in our history. This threat comes not from a foreign foe or bloodthirsty terrorists, but is no less dangerous and insidious. No, this challenge to the American way of life comes entirely from within. And the damage it could cause is... more Posted on July 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Default Deniers or How the GOP Learned to Love Uncertainty When it comes to perpetuating the Bush tax cut windfall for the wealthy, Republicans have long been the party which cried "uncertainty." ""We're calling for an end to the threat of tax hikes," as Speaker John Boehner put it in one formulation, "to provide certainty to those in our country who create jobs." While the record shows small increases in upper income tax rates don't impact America's so-called job creators, defaulting on the nation's debt obligations would produce an economic... more Posted on June 29, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP's Privatization Future is Indiana's Nightmare Present At the heart of the Ryan budget plan backed by 98% of Republicans in Congress are two very bad ideas whose time has never come. Privatization of government services and the devolution of their federal funding to the states promise to dramatically raise costs and slash benefits for millions of Medicare and Medicaid recipients. But in Indiana, the Republican future is now. There, residents are already encountering lost benefits, rising error rates and backlogged private bureaucracies as politically well-connected firms... more Posted on June 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	McConnell and Kyl Peddle GOP Whopper on Taxes and Debt It is often said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy, then as farce. But as the top two Senate Republicans showed once again on Sunday, when it comes to comes to the GOP and taxes, some episodes produce both. After successfully blackmailing President Obama in December into extending the Bush tax cuts through 2012 by falsely claiming "there's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue," Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) took to... more Posted on June 27, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Serially Insincere Mitt Romney Last December, the conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat fretted that Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is "serially insincere." His concern is well-founded. After all, Romney gymnastic flip-flops don't merely make it "awfully hard to figure out where he would actually stand when the pandering stops and the governing begins." As his latest failed ad campaign once again featuring a Republican activist posing as a victim of the economic downturn shows, Romney's insincerity is greatest precisely when he is... more Posted on June 26, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	10 Things the GOP Doesn't Want You to Know About the Debt Just two weeks after he seconded Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's dire warnings about the August 2 deadline to raise the U.S debt ceiling, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor walked out of the budget talks aimed at reaching a bipartisan compromise over deficit reduction. Like Arizona GOP Senator Jon Kyl, Cantor shifted the burden to Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Mitch McConnell and President Obama to "get over this impasse on taxes." For his part, McConnell promised that no deal to... more Posted on June 23, 2011 \| Comments (7)

	Romney Was for Planned Parenthood Before He Was Against It Of all of Mitt Romney's comical flip-flops on the issues, his gymnastic reversal on the abortion rights is the most pathetic. During his 1994 Massachusetts Senate run, Mitt and his wife Ann contributed $150 at a Planned Parenthood event. Eight years later during his race for governor, Romney assured Planned Parenthood he supported Roe v. Wade, state Medicaid funding for abortion services and access to emergency contraception. But under pressure to sign a pledge promising draconian new restrictions on Americans'... more Posted on June 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	God Sends a New Messenger from Texas As his aides head off to Iowa to assess his prospects for a run at the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, Texas Governor Rick Perry has been hinting that he may be more than just the savior of the Republican Party. After issuing his invitation to the other 49 governors for an August 6 "day of prayer for a nation in crisis" at Houston's Reliant Stadium, Perry suggested that he was a "prophet." But if his message that "there is hope... more Posted on June 18, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	You Know Mitt Romney Is Out of Touch When... Among the more comical episodes of the 2008 presidential campaign was the failed effort by Republicans to paint Barack Obama as "elitist" and "out of touch." Sadly for the GOP, that attack backfired hilariously when John McCain couldn't remember how many homes he owned, said a $5 million income made someone rich, and advocated tax cuts that would save he and his heiress wife hundreds of thousands annually. Now three years later, Mitt Romney appears poised to fall into the... more Posted on June 17, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	It's Time for Reverse Federalism on Medicaid If ever there was bad idea whose time never came, it is Paul Ryan's plan to slash Medicaid spending and convert what remains into a system of block grants administered by the states. The $300 billion federal-state program providing health care for millions of poor, elderly and disabled Americans faces a triple whammy from the recession, as rising rolls, declining state tax revenues and the end of stimulus funding from Washington imperil benefits and beneficiaries. If states like Mississippi, Arizona... more Posted on June 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Frets as Romney's Tough Talk on Terror Disappears To be sure, Mitt Romney is the man Republican hard-liners love to hate. While anti-abortion groups and free-market fundamentalists ramp up their all-out "stop Romney" efforts, the Manchester Union Leader blasted Mitt as "high-falutin' and haughty" for acting as if had the GOP presidential nomination already sewn up. But after Romney's curious comments about Afghanistan during Monday's CNN debate, it's the Republican establishment that's getting worried about their frontrunner. The same Mitt Romney who fours year ago said Osama Bin... more Posted on June 15, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Home Sweet Homes for Mitt Romney? Among the defining moments of the 2008 presidential campaign was John McCain's inability to remember how many homes he owned. But if that episode crystallized the image of McCain as an out of touch stooge for the gilded class, his would-be successor Mitt Romney may have his own home ownership crisis. As it turns out, "Multiple Choice Mitt" knows how many houses he owns, just not which one he currently happens to call home. And that confusion over his state... more Posted on June 14, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	10 Missing Questions from the CNN GOP Debate Tonight in Manchester, New Hampshire, CNN will broadcast the first major debate featuring the 2012 Republican presidential candidates. Predictably, the media are hyping a clash of personalities featuring the front-runner (Romney) vs. the challenger (Pawlenty), the cult heroes (Paul, Cain), the hard line social conservatives (Bachmann, Santorum), the absent (Palin) and soon-to-be departed (Gingrich). But lost amidst the predictable Barack Obama-bashing, paeans to Ronald Reagan and odes to American exceptionalism will be any real discussion of the extremism that now... more Posted on June 13, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Killing Medicare in Pictures "We want to save Medicare," a senior GOP aide put it, "while Democrats would let it die." Sadly for him, it appears that Republicans spouting that talking point are about to be mugged by reality. For starters, recent polling shows the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to the Ryan plan to privatize and ration the government insurance program for 46 million seniors even as Republican presidential primary voters demand fidelity to it. Worse still for the 235 House Republicans and... more Posted on June 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Flip-Flops on Religious Test Unfortunately for Mitt Romney and American religious tolerance alike, a new Quinnipiac survey this week found that over a third of voters have misgivings about a Mormon President. So it came as no surprise that the Republican frontrunner told CNN's Piers Morgan, "I'm not a spokesman for my church." But Romney's declaration that he would not "apply a religious test that is simply forbidden by the constitution" may prove more problematic. After all, during his first run for the White... more Posted on June 9, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	10 Years, 10 Failures for the Bush Tax Cuts Today's 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts arrives at a particularly ironic time. Ironic, that is, because even as talk of deficits dominates the debate in Washington, that windfall for the wealthy was the single-biggest driver of U.S national debt over the past decade and, if made permanent, will be so for the next. And while Paul Ryan and John Boehner demand draining another $4 trillion from the U.S. Treasury for the "job creators" who created no jobs, White... more Posted on June 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Cantor Defends Geithner on Debt Ceiling An interesting split is occurring within the ranks of the Republicans holding the American economy hostage over the debt ceiling. Led by Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Pat Toomey and Tim Pawlenty, the "Default Deniers" not only refuse the acknowledge the global economic calamity that would ensue should the United States fail to increase the $14.3 trillion debt limit, but have accused Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner of "blatant lies" for saying so. Meanwhile, the" Brinksmen" including John Boehner, Paul Ryan and... more Posted on June 6, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republicans' Medicare Bumper Sticker The growing backlash against their plan to end the Medicare guaranteed government insurance program for 46 million Americans is producing near-panic in Republican ranks. With polls showing overwhelming opposition to the Ryan rationing scheme, House GOP leaders begged President Obama to stop the "demagoguery" about their reckless privatization scheme even as Republicans tried and failed to get a New Hampshire TV station to pull an ad declaring the GOP "voted to end Medicare." Meanwhile, The Hill reports, Minnesota Representative and... more Posted on June 5, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner Fails Econ 101 No doubt, Friday's disappointing jobs report was bad news for President Obama. But the Republican response augurs much worse for the American people. After all, while Obama was visiting a Chrysler plant in Ohio to tout his auto industry rescue which ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, Speaker John Boehner took to a podium in Washington to put on a stunning - and dangerous - display of economic know-nothingism. After claiming paternity for four months of strong job growth,... more Posted on June 4, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Interchangeable Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann As Sarah Palin launched her bus tour last week, her "friend" and likely White House hopeful Michele Bachmann protested that the two Tea Party darlings are not "interchangeable." Sadly, their statements over just the past few days suggest otherwise. Telling the same lies about the national debt, each apparently believes God has chosen Israel - and her. And as it turns out, Bachmann and Palin managed to comically bungle the same episode in American history. In Boston yesterday, Sarah Palin... more Posted on June 3, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Launches Mitt 3.0 On Thursday, Mitt Romney used a New Hampshire backdrop to announce his second run for the White House. If nothing else, Romney's candidacy is a boon for fans of metaphors. With more personalities than Sybil, Romney is a political Zelig, a man desperately trying to transform himself into whatever he believes voters want at that time and place. (Or call it the Romney Uncertainty Principle; Mitt's position changes when observed.) Now, after his past incarnations as the Massachusetts moderate and... more Posted on June 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	10 Inconvenient Truths About the Debt Ceiling Bolstered by new polls and fresh off their vote to bar an increase in the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, House Republicans swaggered into the White House for the latest negotiation to end their economic hostage taking. One, Rep. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, refused to attend and be "lectured to by a president whose failed policies have put our children and grandchildren in a huge burden of debt." Sadly for Rep. Landry, the nation's mounting debt is largely attributable to... more Posted on June 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Play Debt Ceiling Joke on Themselves On Tuesday, grandstanding House Republicans will hold a vote on a so-called "clean bill" to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Despite his party having voted seven times to double the debt limit while President Bush sat in the Oval Office, Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised the $16.7 trillion cap will be "dead on arrival" without draconian spending cuts. While business leaders have expressed growing concern over the GOP's debt ceiling hostage taking, Bruce Josten of the U.S.... more Posted on May 31, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Medicare Killers Now Pretend to Be Saviors After their debacle in the New York special election last week, Republicans promised to improve the marketing of Paul Ryan's plan to privatize and ration Medicare. We now know what that new and improved message will be. As one Republican aide regurgitated the new GOP sound bite, "We want to save Medicare, while Democrats would let it die." Of course, the American people can be forgiven for being more than a little skeptical. After all, the GOP that terrified the... more Posted on May 29, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Job Creators Myth On Thursday, John Boehner and the House Republican leadership team unveiled their "Plan for America's Job Creators." As he repeatedly made clear before the Economic Club of New York and again on CBS Face the Nation, Boehner's "job creators" are the top two percent of income earners whose Bush tax cuts President Obama has proposed ending. And that presents a bit of problem for the Republicans. After all, George W. Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy sadly coincided with the... more Posted on May 27, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	With Friends Like These, Israel Doesn't Need Enemies It's official: the perpetual Republican campaign to peel off Jewish voters from the Democratic Party has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. After positive statements from AIPAC and the ADL which "commended President Barack Obama for his statement of U.S. priorities in the Middle East," Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh declared "President Obama is not Israel's friend" and asked "where is the outrage from the American Jewish community?" Sadly for Walsh, the outrage remains largely directed at Republicans for their... more Posted on May 26, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Perform "720" on Ryan Plan to Kill Medicare In figure skating, gymnastics, skateboarding and other sports, performing a720-degree, double-rotation is not for the faint of heart. When it comes to their plan to end the Medicare system of guaranteed insurance for 46 million Americans, Republicans attempting the rare 720 are learning that the hard way. After all, in just two short years, members of the party that for 50 years has tried to kill Medicare have been for, then against, once again for and now against Paul Ryan's... more Posted on May 23, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The 2012 Republican Rapture Test Among the stories which dominated the news this week were two seemingly unrelated ones. Christian fundamentalist Harold Camping and his followers predicted the end of the world on May 21st. Meanwhile, grandstanding Republican leaders raged at President Obama for supposedly "throwing Israel under the bus." As it turns out, the two tales are not so disconnected as they first appear. After all, many of the GOP's leading voices not only look forward to the Rapture and the Second Coming of... more Posted on May 21, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Painful Price of Republican Lies In recent weeks, polls by CBS and Gallup showed that Americans by a 2-to-1 margin oppose raising the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Among Republicans, the gap is a staggering 70% to 8%. Yet the Ryan GOP budget passed by the House would add $6 trillion in new red ink over the decade and require, as Speaker John Boehner admitted, that Congress boost the debt limit now and repeatedly in the years to come. Nevertheless, to extract draconian spending reductions... more Posted on May 19, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Disappearing Emergency Rooms Expose GOP Health Care Farce "People have access to health care in America," George W. Bush declared in 2007, adding, "After all, you just go to an emergency room." But with a new report from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showing a steep decline in emergency room capacity nationwide, the ER health care solution championed by President Bush, Mitch McConnell, Tom Delay and other Republican leaders for 50 million uninsured has once again been exposed as a cruel farce. As the New... more Posted on May 18, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner in Hot Water with Tea Party over Debt Limit The truth will set you free. Just not if you're John Boehner trying to explain the need to raise the U.S. debt ceiling to the Tea Party. Less than three weeks after declaring "there's no daylight between the Tea Party and me," Boehner told shocked Ohio Tea Partiers that the federal government will have to repeatedly increase the debt ceiling in the years to come. That these most ardent Republican voters can't handle the truth may explain Boehner's inability to... more Posted on May 17, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	On Debt Ceiling, GOP "Uncertainty" Talking Point Vanishes For decades, Republicans have deployed the word "uncertainty" to block action on acid rain, global warming, reproductive rights, the teaching of evolution and just about any other public policy with which they disagreed. On no issue has the Republicans' regurgitation of the uncertainty talking point been more rapid than on taxes. But while GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner in December demanded the immediate extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to "reduce the uncertainty that's affecting... more Posted on May 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	McConnell Demands Dems' Help "Stick It to Seniors" On Friday, Medicare's board of trustees announced that the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 has added eight years of solvency to the health care program serving 46 million American seniors. That news capped a week of political irony involving Medicare. After freshmen House Republicans complained to President Obama about the backlash over their vote to kill the guaranteed insurance program, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell demanded Democrats join the GOP in passing draconian Medicare reduction as a condition of... more Posted on May 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the New Face of Medicaid If you were wondering what impact the Paul Ryan budget passed last month by all but four House Republicans will have on American health care, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute have your answer. If enacted, the GOP repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) combined with the conversion of Medicaid into an underfunded system of block grants to the states would result in up to 44 million Americans losing health insurance. Which means that the new... more Posted on May 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	It's Time to Pay the Bin Laden Tax While all eyes this week were focused on the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, back in Washington Vice President Biden met with Democratic and Republican budget negotiators in search of a compromise to reduce the U.S. national debt. As it turns out, the two events are related. Because almost 10 years after President Bush vowed to get Bin Laden "dead or alive," the $3 trillion tab for that now completed quest remains unpaid. As it turns out, real... more Posted on May 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Huckabee, Bachmann Warn of Holocaust Over Taxes, Debt Back in 2008, Republicans for a fleeting moment held high hopes of making inroads into the monolithic Democratic voting block that is Jewish Americans. Fleeting, it turned out, in no small measure due to the selection of Sarah Palin as the GOP VP choice. Now, the leading lights of the Republican Party are once again helping to remind Jewish voters why they are Democrats. On the same day, would-be GOP White House hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee casually compared... more Posted on May 4, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Bin Laden Killing Showcases Republicans' Magic Calendar In a nationally televised address to the American people on March 4, 1987, President Ronald Reagan admitted he had traded arms for hostages in the Iran-Contra scandal and declared, "This happened on my watch." Sadly, that may have been the last time a Republican leader took ownership of a disaster by simply acknowledging the calendar. After all, according to the Republicans' ever-malleable timelines, the Clinton economic boom came thanks to Ronald Reagan, President Bush inherited a recession and 9/11 from... more Posted on May 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Rush to Rewrite History of Bush and Bin Laden The only thing more predictable than Americans' jubilation over the killing of Osama Bin Laden is the Republican campaign to give George W. Bush credit for it. Sadly for the right-wing propaganda machine, as Stephen Colbert warned President Bush five years ago, "reality has a well-known liberal bias." Bush, after all, shrugged off Bin Laden's escape after the U.S. failure at Tora Bora by proclaiming, "I truly am not that concerned about him." And it was President Obama who as... more Posted on May 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Michele Bachmann and the Great Republican Enchickening on Medicare Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Minnesota Representative and would-be 2012 GOP White House hopeful Michele Bachmann announced she was placing an "asterisk" next to her vote for the Paul Ryan budget plan to end Medicare as we know it. Given her usual hyperbole, such as her warning this week that the federal tax burden now at its lowest level since 1950 is a "disenfranchisement" akin to the Holocaust, Bachmann's fear about "shifting the cost burden to seniors" is unexpected. And... more Posted on May 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Reagan Proved Deficits Don't Matter* "Reagan," Vice President Dick Cheney famously declared in 2002, "proved deficits don't matter." Unless, that is, a Democrat is in the White House. After all, while Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt and George W. Bush doubled it again, each Republican was rewarded with a second term in office. But as the Gallup polling data show, concern over the federal deficit hasn't been this high since Democratic budget balancer Bill Clinton was in office. All of which suggest the Republicans'... more Posted on April 29, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	After Birthers: 10 More GOP Myths Debunked Two statements this month sum up everything you need know about the sad state of American politics and media. Just days after Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl declared his 30 fold error about Planned Parenthood was "not intended to be a factual statement," President Obama decried the "silliness" over his place of birth. But lost in the laughter over Kyl's unintended moment of candor and the sad spectacle of the President of the United States being forced to reconfirm his... more Posted on April 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	War and Peace by Mitt Romney By now, Mitt Romney's gymnastic flip-flops and comic turnabouts are the stuff of political legend. After all, on abortion, immigration, his fidelity to Ronald Reagan, his signature health care law and even his state of residence, Romney has reversed himself, often more than once. But when it comes to matters of war and peace, Romney's contortions are the most telling of all. So it is with Romney's recent op-ed proclaiming that "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American... more Posted on April 26, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Republican Economic Terrorism The USA Patriot Act defines "domestic terrorism" in part as activities intended "to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping." By that standard, the current GOP campaign of budgetary hostage-taking over the U.S. debt ceiling is tantamount to economic terrorism. After all, Republicans are threatening financial ruin for the United States and the global economy if... more Posted on April 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Truth Deficit on the Debt Ceiling With the deadline on raising the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling fast approaching, grandstanding Republicans are threatening national economic suicide. If it comes, the means of death will have been a fatal dose of hypocrisy. After all, GOP majorities in Congress didn't merely vote seven times to boost the ceiling - and double the national debt - during George W. Bush's tenure in the White House. Just one week ago, 235 House Republicans voted for Paul Ryan's 2012 budget which... more Posted on April 23, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Business Leaders Warn GOP on Debt Ceiling Disaster Nothing focuses the mind, it is said, like the sight of the gallows. So it is for the American business community as the clock ticks down on the looming deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. Over the past few days, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street executives, the National Association of Manufacturers and a host of the GOP's other big business allies have warned the Republican leadership that the party's grandstanding risks an economic calamity for the United... more Posted on April 20, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Violate Their "Seniors' Bill of Rights" That didn't take long. As the battle over health care reform reached a fever pitch in the fall of 2009, the Republican National Committee rolled out a "Seniors' Bill of Rights." But with the midterms safely won, the GOP has predictably turned its back on its pledge of "no cuts to Medicare to pay for another program." After all, the House GOP budget passed last week not only and massively shifts costs onto the elderly. As it turns out, the... more Posted on April 19, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts As Tax Day 2011 arrives, the distance between the tax debate and tax reality has perhaps never been larger. New data from the IRS revealed that over since the mid-1990's, the richest 400 taxpayers saw their incomes double and their tax rates halved. Overall, the gilded-class has seen its effective tax rates plummet. Meanwhile, prosecutions for tax evasion have begun to increase after years during which the Bush administration turned a blind eye to cheating by upper-income and corporate taxpayers.... more Posted on April 18, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Recycles Failed 1993 Talking Points on Taxes It is often said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. But sometimes, as with the predictable GOP opposition to small tax increases for wealthy Americans, the farce is double. After all, every single Republican in the House and Senate voted against Bill Clinton's 1993 upper-income tax hikes, calling it a "job-killer" which "will not give you deficit reduction." We all know how that turned out. Then as now, the Republican brain trust was comically... more Posted on April 17, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Were Against Ryan Plan Before They Were For It In a telling moment during the run-up to the midterm elections last fall, Congressman Paul Ryan declared of his proposed Roadmap for America's Future, "My plan is not the Republican Party's platform and was never intended to be." Not, it turned out, until after Election Day. Because while 235 House Republicans with Speaker John Boehner's enthusiastic support voted yesterday to kill Medicare, gut Medicaid and deliver yet another trillion dollar tax cut windfall to the wealthy, before November 2, 2010... more Posted on April 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	House GOP Delivers Tax Day Windfall for the Wealthy If nothing else, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has unfortunate timing. On April Fool's Day 2009, Ryan rolled out the first incarnation of his Roadmap for America's Future, the document which served as the basis for the 2012 GOP budget proposal. Now on Tax Day 2011, House Republicans will pass that blueprint designed to deliver yet another a trillion dollar windfall for the wealthy. In December, President Obama and Republican leaders reached a two-year, $800 billion tax cut compromise.... more Posted on April 15, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Not Intended to Be a Factual Statement Party Over the past few days, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl has become a national laughingstock. Not because of his 30-fold error in claiming on the Senate floor that "well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does" is related to abortion, but because he later insisted his lie was "not intended to be a factual statement." But lost in the laughter over Kyl's post-facto moment of candor is this deadly serious conclusion. In recent years, the GOP has degenerated into a... more Posted on April 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Real Standard for Seriousness on the Debt Last week, the political chattering classes praised Republican Paul Ryan's "serious" budget proposal to slash $4.3 trillion in spending in order to fund yet another round of upper-income tax cuts. But over just the past few days, the New York Times' David Leonhardt, Slate's Annie Lowery and Ezra Klein of the Washington Post offered a much more effective if tongue-in-cheek approach to dramatically reducing U.S. deficits. Do nothing. Seriously. Serious, that is, because simply by letting the Bush tax cuts... more Posted on April 13, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	In Budget Deal, GOP Handcuffs the IRS. Again. Among the $39 billion in spending cuts contained in the budget deal reached last, one stands out as perhaps the most cynical - and counterproductive. Republicans insisted that the Internal Revenue Service receive no additional funding through September, rebuffing President Obama's request for an additional $600 million to crack down on the tax fraud, evasion and cheating now costing the U.S. an estimated $330 billion annually. But if that act of Republican intransigence, one which will raise the deficit by... more Posted on April 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner's Double-Dealing on the Debt Ceiling When George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office, Republican majorities in Congress voted seven times to increase the U.S. debt ceiling. That recent history, combined with the inconvenient truth that the national debt tripled under Ronald Reagan and doubled again under Bush, may have prompted then Minority Leader John Boehner to warn his GOP colleagues in November that "We're going to have to deal with it as adults." But emboldened by his victory in Friday's budget showdown, Speaker Boehner... more Posted on April 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meanwhile in the UK, the Hopelessness of Austerity In the aftermath of Friday's budget agreement, it's no longer a question of whether the U.S. is going to slash spending, but where, when and by how much. On the heels of the $38.5 billion in cuts to discretionary, non-defense spending Obama adviser David Plouffe deemed "draconian", President Obama this week will lay out his vision for long-term deficit reduction. And with Republicans promising more budgetary blackmail over the debt ceiling and 2012 spending, austerity is the word of the... more Posted on April 10, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	"Big Abortion" and the GOP's Bogus Budget Battle Back in early February, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan presented the Republican leadership's plan to cut $35 billion from the remainder of the fiscal year 2011 budget. As it turns out, that dollar figure is roughly the same one John Boehner, Harry Reid and President Obama have closing in on for days. Of course, the Republican crusade to shut down the federal government long ago stopped being about cutting spending, but instead about curbing the EPA, funding school vouchers... more Posted on April 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Party of Lincoln Wages War for Government Shutdown As the nation prepares to mark next week's 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the Party of Lincoln stands on the brink of shutting down the federal government. But whether it comes this week over the GOP's budgetary blackmail of Planned Parenthood and the EPA or next month over the Republicans' newly discovered antipathy to raising the debt ceiling, Americans will know which party was responsible. After all, now as 150 years ago, "one of them would... more Posted on April 7, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	50 Years Later, Republicans Still Trying to Kill Medicare Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed the obvious about Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it. The GOP plan to "voucherize" and inevitably ration Medicare would lead to future seniors paying more - much more - for health insurance. Of course, killing the wildly popular program which helped dramatically reduce poverty among the elderly is no problem for the Republicans. After all, they've been at it for 50 years. When Rep. Ryan first introduced his Roadmap... more Posted on April 6, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Budget Pits Rich, Elderly Against Everyone Else Last November, the elderly and the rich powered Republicans to victory in the midterm elections. Voters aged 65 and older backed the GOP by a staggering 59% to 38%, while boosting their share of the turnout to 21% from 16% in 2008. Those with family incomes over $200,000 chose Republicans over Democrats by a 30 point margin. Now, the GOP is rewarding seniors and the wealthy for their loyalty. As it turns out, the Ryan budget blueprint presented today delivers... more Posted on April 5, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Elections Won, GOP Finally Embraces Ryan Roadmap If nothing else, the House Republicans' 2012 budget proposal being rolled out this week by Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan offers a never-ending series of ironies. Now touting $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years, Ryan as a member of the Simpson-Bowles commission voted against the panel's plan shooting for the same target. Having opposed Obama commission's recommendations which included some tax increases, the Ryan proposal is said to call for trimming the top tax rate to... more Posted on April 4, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Budget Proposal for 2012 to Gut Medicaid On Sunday, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) previewed his party's 2012 budget proposal due out Tuesday. Needless to say, its target of $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade won't be met by simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Instead, Ryan as widely expected will propose the "voucherization" and inevitable rationing of Medicare. But in a less discussed development, Republicans also hope to slash Medicaid funding by $1 trillion over 10 years while sending the... more Posted on April 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Beggar Thy Neighbor, Beggar Thyself Having won one class war, Republicans are starting a second. To perpetuate record levels of income inequality not seen since before the Great Depression, conservatives are agitating for middle class Americans to wage a civil war on each other. Their latest divide-and-conquer tactic is to portray government workers as "takers" and "parasites" somehow responsible for the decline of manufacturing and other sectors of the U.S. economy. Of course, like so much Republican mythmaking, the claim not only is untrue, but... more Posted on April 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Desperate Evangelical Leaders Turn to Trump Given his emergence as the new face of the "Birther" movement, it comes as no surprise that Fox News has rewarded Donald Trump with a weekly slot on its morning show. (After all, with Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and now "Monday Mornings with Trump" fixtures on the network, Fox is a jobs program for would-be Republican White House hopefuls.) But what is eye-opening is the willingness of evangelical leaders to consider The Donald as their man... more Posted on April 1, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Taking Sides in the Palin-Maher Squirmish From taxes and the First Amendment to Reagan's Iran/Contra scandal, how much energy her home state of Alaska produces and so much more, Sarah Palin doesn't know what she doesn't know. Regardless, the language comedian Bill Maher recently used to describe her shocking ignorance and incessant demagoguery is beyond the pale. His right-wing critics are absolutely right that his slurs have no place in American political discourse. Now, conservatives just need to work on their own double-edged sexism. After all,... more Posted on March 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the Republican Undisqualified As was proven once again this weekend, for Republicans nothing succeeds like failure. Across the Sunday talk shows and op-ed pages, a legion of GOP luminaries spoke authoritatively on subjects they had frequently - and often catastrophically - bungled in the past. Apparently, no transgression is too serious, no series of mistakes too disastrous and no act of hypocrisy too profound to disqualify the likes of Newt Gingrich, Donald Rumsfeld, John McCain, Haley Barbour and Greg Mankiw from lecturing Americans... more Posted on March 28, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Cain Joins Romney in Barring Muslims from Cabinet At an event hosted by Rep. Steve King in Iowa yesterday, the clown car of would-be Republican White House hopefuls quickly put to rest quickly any notion of a "truce" on social issues. And while Newt Gingrich seemed to question whether Islam was a "true religion," former pizza mogul Herman Cain declared that as president he would not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet. But before you brush off Cain's as the ranting of a fringe conservative, it's worth remembering... more Posted on March 27, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Threatens U.S. Fiscal Suicide over Balanced Budget Amendment The national debt of the United States tripled under Ronald Reagan and doubled again under George W. Bush. Bush and the GOP Congress cut taxes during wartime, a first in modern American history. During his presidency, Republicans voted seven times to increase the debt ceiling. As Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in 2009 described Republican orthodoxy under Republican presidents, "It was standard practice not to pay for things." But that was then and this is now. And now with a Democrat... more Posted on March 26, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the Republican Freedom of Information Frauds In October 2001, President Bush's Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed 35 years of White House practice regarding Freedom of Information Act requests. For the first time since the passage of the Act, disclosure became the exception to the rule. As Dick Cheney's secret energy task force, 22 million "missing" Bush administration emails and Karl Rove's refusal to testify before Congress all showed, the Bush White House became the place where the sunlight didn't shine. But now that President Obama... more Posted on March 25, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	After Attacking Hillary for It, Palin to Stop "Whining" On Wednesday, Sarah Palin made what history will soon record as the shortest-lived promise in American political history. Last night, Palin pledged to Fox News colleague Greta Van Susteren, "I'm through whining about a liberal press." Of course, when the half-term governor claimed, "it doesn't do any good to whine about it," she knows what she's talking about it. After all, three years ago Sarah Palin attacked Hillary Clinton for exactly the same thing. Palin unveiled her new attitude towards... more Posted on March 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	RIP: GOP "Repeal and Replace" of Health Care Law A year after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, comically dire Republican predictions of an "Armageddon" which will "ruin our country" and mean "a lot of people are going to die" have not come to pass. Of course, that didn't stop Mitt Romney from marking the anniversary by pretending he never supported virtually identical legislation in his own state or prevent Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson from claiming that his daughter "probably wouldn't have survived" in a... more Posted on March 23, 2011 \| Comments (4)

	Take the Tax Quiz! And now for today's quiz. You are a member of Congress. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) tells you that as a percentage of American gross domestic product, total taxes in the U.S. are at their lowest level since 1950. The nation is fighting two wars (and now, arguably a third), conflicts which were not only not paid for, but for the first time in modern American history, accompanied by tax reductions. You learn that the Bush tax cuts of 2001... more Posted on March 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Visiting Israel, Sarah Palin Has a Jewish Problem at Home With her visit to Israel, Sarah Palin is going for a Republican twofer. Hoping to burnish her non-existent foreign policy credentials, Palin is simultaneously making what after going to Iowa and New Hampshire may be the most important pilgrimage for any aspiring GOP White House hopeful. But while her trip may win her some new friends among the Likud crowd, back in the U.S. Sarah Palin remains wildly unpopular among Jewish voters. Following the recent steps of once-and-possibly future GOP... more Posted on March 21, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Gingrich Goes After Hagee and the Armageddon Vote Politics makes strange bedfellows, especially when the bed contains Newt Gingrich. Despite his belief that marriage is an institution between one man and three women in rapid succession, Newt has been warmly embraced by the Republicans' family values crowd. Now, the Baptist-turned-Catholic Gingrich is seeking the support of Pastor John Hagee, who once called Newt's new faith "a false cult" and "the whore of Babylon." But for both men, the odd courtship may a match made in heaven. After all,... more Posted on March 17, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	To Cut the Deficit, Expand the IRS As any good free-marketeer will tell you, you've got to spend money to make money. Just not, Republicans insist, when it comes to collecting federal tax revenue. The GOP, after all, gutted the Internal Revenue Service in the late 1990's. And two weeks ago, House Republicans voted to cut $600 million from the agency this year with more to come in 2012. But with tax fraud, cheating and underpayment now costing the U.S. Treasury over $300 billion a year, the... more Posted on March 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP's Paul Ryan Accidentally Endorses Obamacare For Republicans, a funny thing happened on the way to privatizing Medicare. Hoping to transform the wildly popular, low-overhead government program for 46 million American seniors into a voucher system for purchasing private insurance, Paul Ryan and his GOP allies inadvertently made a strong case for the Affordable Care Act for everyone else. A little background helps explain the conservative conundrum. Back in April 2009, 137 House Republicans voted for an alternative budget including a proposal from Ryan which "called... more Posted on March 15, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Kudlow on Enemas, Earthquakes, Bulls, Bears and Silver Linings CNBC host, National Review contributor and former Reagan adviser Lawrence Kudlow has long embodied the gin-and-tonic-sipping, anyone-for-tennis, let-them-eat-cake laissez faire Republican attitude towards the suffering of the American people. Even still, his jaw-dropping reaction to the devastation in Japan that "the human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that" is a new low. But not by much. As the slide of the U.S. economy accelerated in the spring of... more Posted on March 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Bachmann Bungles American History. Again. In the late 1970's film Animal House, John Belushi's character Bluto famously rallies his fraternity brothers by proclaiming, "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" Now, a latter-day Bluto may be running for President of the United States. Pandering to Republican voters in New Hampshire on Saturday, Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann comically proclaimed their state - and not neighboring Massachusetts - home to the Revolutionary War battles of Lexington and Concord. Of course, Bachmann's Founding Fathers flubs... more Posted on March 13, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Double-Cross the Elderly Terrified by bogus Republican claims of draconian Democratic cuts to Medicare, elderly voters propelled the GOP to an overwhelming victory last November. Voters 65 and over, the only age group to support John McCain in 2008, boosted their share of the turnout to 21% from 16% two years earlier. Nationwide, Republicans won seniors by a staggering 59% to 38%. But now safely in power, Republicans are betraying the same elderly Americans who put them there. In the House, GOP leaders... more Posted on March 12, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP to America: We're All Mississippians Now Republicans have seen the future and it's in Mississippi. On the same day Wisconsin Republicans turned to unprecedented and possibly illegal maneuvers to strip public workers of collective bargaining rights, the Michigan legislature blessed emergency powers for Governor Rick Snyder to terminate municipal contracts across the state. And while Idaho joined Tennessee in seeking to curb teachers' unions, in Ohio SB5 is moving full steam ahead. Meanwhile, back in Washington, GOP Senators introduced a national "right-to-work" bill designed to make... more Posted on March 10, 2011 \| Comments (3)

	Mitt Romney, Vulture Capitalist Ten years ago, George W. Bush was sworn in as America's first MBA President. Now, Mitt Romney wants to be the second. Two years after President Bush completed the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover, Romney the perpetual White House hopeful declared, "I spent my career in the private sector. I know how jobs are created and how jobs are lost." Especially, it turns out, the part about how jobs are lost. Addressing New Hampshire Republicans Saturday, Governor Romney decried... more Posted on March 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Biggest Loser: Haley Barbour Edition At some point in the next several weeks, former RNC chairman and current Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour will decide whether he will seek the White House in 2012. To be sure, Barbour's path to the presidency is full of obstacles. And it's not just because America's foremost neo-Confederate literally whitewashed the Jim Crow era and his own dalliance with the segregation-era throwback Council of Conservative Citizens. No, the man who brushed off slavery as "a nit" also happens to preside... more Posted on March 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Push National Race to the Bottom Just days after his sneering "so be it" at the prospect of massive job losses which could result from GOP budget policies, House Speaker John Boehner declared public employees have a "machine gun" pointed "at the heads of local officials." That makes Boehner just the latest Republican leader respond to a $175 billion shortfall in state budgets that could trigger up to 900,000 layoffs by calling for an end to collective bargain rights for government workers they slander as "overpaid",... more Posted on March 1, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Adviser: GOP Spending Plan Could Kill 700,000 Jobs Last summer, Moody's economist and former adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain Mark Zandi authored a study which concluded that combined federal interventions beginning in the fall of 2008 prevented the Great Recession from becoming Depression 2.0. Now in a new report, Zandi warns that the GOP's plan to slash $61 billion in federal spending could threaten 700,000 jobs and put the quickening pace of the U.S. economic recovery at risk. As the Washington Post explained, Zandi's analysis is... more Posted on February 28, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Push to Legalize Anti-Abortion Terrorism During his 2004 campaign, Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn declared, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists." Four years later, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin famously refused to condemn an abortion clinic bomber as a "terrorist." Last week, a GOP mayoral candidate in Jacksonville joked that bombing an abortion clinic "may cross my mind." Now, deadly serious Republican lawmakers in Nebraska and Iowa are pushing legislation that would in essence legalize the murder of abortion providers. Less than two years... more Posted on February 25, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	God's Own Party Waits for the Chosen One "Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong." As it turns out, those 1982 Dire Straits lyrics sum up the current dire straits of the 2012 Republican presidential field. With the premature withdrawal of John Thune and Mike Pence from the ranks of the GOP White House hopefuls, social conservatives are nervously waiting for Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann to announce their candidacies. But whatever Huckabee, Palin and Bachmann ultimately decide, each has already claimed... more Posted on February 24, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	New Right-Wing Attack on Wisconsin Teachers Boomerangs A word of advice to conservatives desperately trying to smear teachers and other public employees in Wisconsin: when trapped in a hole, first stop digging. On Monday, the right-wing blogosphere made the mistake of complaining that Wisconsin received millions of dollars in federal education aid when solidly Republican red states get much, much more. Now, the would-be Republican union busters are whining that Badger state students can't read. As it turns out, Wisconsin students outperform their counterparts in those reddest... more Posted on February 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Red State Socialists' Attack on Wisconsin Backfires For years, red state socialism - the steady, one-way flow of taxpayer dollars from Washington DC to solidly Republican states - has been one of the defining traits of American federalism. Which is why the conservative charge that Wisconsin schools - and their unionized teachers - received $670 million in federal funding is so laughable. As it turns out, the federal government pays for red state education at a much, much higher rate. From the beginning, the Republican union-busting crusade... more Posted on February 21, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	The Republican Betrayal of the Elderly Begins Perhaps more than any other factor, the overwhelming Republican midterm triumph was fueled by the elderly. Voters 65 and over, the only age group to support John McCain in 2008, boosted their share of the turnout to 21% from 16% two years earlier. Nationwide, Republicans won seniors by a staggering 59% to 38%. But now, their reward is a slap in the face. After all, from trying to repeal health care reform and threatening to shutdown the government to proposals... more Posted on February 20, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Myths in the GOP War on Public Employees In just the latest front in the perpetual GOP campaign to divide and conquer, Republicans are trying to get Americans to turn on their neighbors who work for government and unions on each other. Of course, the Republican assault on collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin, Ohio, and around the country has nothing to do with recession-ravaged state budgets and everything to do with fatally wounding a Democratic constituency. And to do it, Republican leaders are telling tall... more Posted on February 18, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Will GOP Push Ryan's Plan to Ration Medicare? On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Paul Ryan blasted Obama budget chief Jack Lew over entitlement spending, declaring "why did you duck?" But for their part, Republicans have yet to offer their own plan for addressing the fiscal health of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. While Majority Leader Eric Cantor promised "a serious document" addressing entitlement reform by "the beginning of April," Speaker John Boehner did some ducking of his own, announcing he would "let Paul Ryan and the Budget Committee... more Posted on February 17, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Punt on Deficits. Seriously. If nothing else, the Republican Party is a machine for generating talking points - and irony. While Senators Mitch McConnell and Jeff Sessions insisted President Obama's $3.73 trillion budget proposal wasn't "serious," over in the Speaker House John Boehner and his lieutenant Paul Ryan claimed Obama "punted" on the deficit. Sadly, those sound bites came on the same day that GOP stars Jim Demint and Mike Pence proposed making the budget-busting, Treasury draining Bush tax cuts permanent. And as it... more Posted on February 16, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Introducing the Bipartisan War Tax Act of 2013 George W. Bush was the first modern president to cut taxes during wartime. Now, the unpaid $2 trillion bill for the wars he fought - and chose to fight - is long overdue. While President Obama and the Republican leadership in Congress jockey to position their budget cutting plans, it's time for both parties - and all Americans - to pay the price we claim liberty demands. Here, then, is the Bipartisan War Tax Act of 2013. 2013, that is,... more Posted on February 14, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Mitt Romney Rewrites His Book - and History Perpetual presidential candidate Mitt Romney has performed more flips than an X Games champion. The pro-choice Senate candidate (and Planned Parenthood donor) of 1994 did a hard right turn on abortion for the approaching 2008 GOP primaries, prompting adviser Michael Murphy to acknowledge "he's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." On immigration, disinvestment from Iran, the significance of Osama Bin Laden and even his state of residence, Romney's gymnastic contortions are the stuff of legend. But... more Posted on February 12, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Kyl, Flake Highlight GOP's Broken Term Limits Pledge This week, Arizona Senator and Republican Minority Whip Jon Kyl declared he would not seek a fourth term in 2012. Of course, in 1994 Kyl, one of the signers of the GOP Contract with America, promised he would only serve two. And the ironies don't end there. Within hours of Kyl's announcement, six-term Congressman Jeff Flake threw his hat in the ring to replace him. As it turns out, in 2000 Flake made his own, now-abandoned terms limits pledge. His... more Posted on February 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Return of the Republican Malpractice Frauds Back in September 2009, Republicans made the unfortunate selection Louisiana Congressman and physician Charles Boustany to deliver the GOP response to President Obama's address on health care. Unfortunate, it turned out, because tort reform champion Boustany himself has been repeatedly - and successfully - sued for medical malpractice. Now, Georgia Congressman and retired obstetrician Phil Gingrey is pushing legislation to severely restrict litigation and cap damage awards after paying a $500,000 settlement himself. As the New York Times described Dr.... more Posted on February 10, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Threaten Judges. Again. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that federal judicial vacancies are reaching a "crisis point." As it turns out, when Republicans aren't turning to record-setting obstructionism to block President Obama's nominees to the federal bench, they are threatening the "umpires" of the law outright. Just weeks after the Tucson slaughter that claimed the life of circuit judge John Roll, Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg responded to a recent ruling by declaring he wanted to "put some of these judicial activists on... more Posted on February 8, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Beck Echoes Romney on Threat of Islamic Caliphate For pure political shadenfreude, few developments have been as entertaining as the right-wing family feud over the chaos in Egypt. Among just the neoconservatives, democracy promotion idealists are clashing with advocates of authoritarian stability. On air and online, the Republican partisan pundits are at each others' throats. While Bill Kristol derided as "hysteria" Glenn Beck's "rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines," Beck fumed, "People like Bill Kristol, I don't think they stand... more Posted on February 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meet RINO Reagan This weekend, Republicans marked the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan with speeches celebrating his small government philosophy, anti-tax fervor and hard-line foreign policy. But if Reagan was a GOP candidate today, he would doubtless fall victim to violations of his own 11th Commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." Because despite all of the right-wing hagiography, Ronald Reagan ballooned the national debt, repeatedly raised taxes, signed abortion rights legislation and negotiated with terrorists in Iran. For those... more Posted on February 6, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	The Triple Legacy of Ronald Reagan On Sunday, Americans will mark the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan. But for the conservative movement, the now-decades long hagiography project is reaching a crescendo. While the Gipper's former speechwriter Peggy Noonan today lauded his goodness in the Wall Street Journal Friday, Sarah Palin will kick-off the Young Americans for Freedom three day extravaganza at the Reagan Library in California. But while this weekend's anniversary will rightly celebrate Ronald Reagan's Cold War resolve, boundless optimism, and deep, abiding faith in... more Posted on February 4, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Darrell Issa's Freedom of Information Act In his new role as grand inquisitor of the Obama administration, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is performing his own freedom of information act. That is, after eight years during which President Bush as a matter of policy by default rejected Freedom Information of Act (FOIA) requests, Issa now wants the names of every person making them. As the New York Times reported last week, that massive invasion of citizens' privacy is just the latest effort by Issa's Government Oversight committee... more Posted on February 2, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	London Calling Appearing on Fox News Sunday, House Speaker John Boehner insisted, "What we have to understand is cutting spending will in fact help create jobs in America." But across the pond in the UK, Boehner's conservative allies are learning a different lesson. While U.S. gross domestic product jumped by 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010, the British economy contracted by half a point. In the long run, the Tories' draconian austerity plan may improve the British balance sheet, but what... more Posted on January 31, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Cantor Gives GOP Credit for Improving U.S. Economy This week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) became the latest Republican to give his party credit for the improving U.S. economy. After the Commerce Department reported American gross domestic product (GDP) jumped by 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010, Cantor attributed the gains to the December tax cut deal and supposed Republican fiscal discipline. Which means that Eric Cantor isn't just a coward and liar, but apparently a time traveler as well. All have been on display since... more Posted on January 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Sarah Palin and the Homer Simpson Economy In a 1999 episode of "The Simpsons," theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking says to Homer, "Your theory of a donut shaped universe intrigues me." Sadly, the same can't be said of Sarah Palin's call for a donut-based economy for the United States. Palin's boost for the American breakfast snack sector came in her jaw-dropping response to President Obama's State of the Union rallying cry of a "Sputnik moment" for this generation of Americans. But Palin wasn't content to mangle... more Posted on January 29, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Declares Soviet Union Won the Space Race From war taxes and the First Amendment to Reagan's Iran/Contra scandal, how much energy her home state of Alaska produces and so much more, Sarah Palin doesn't know what she doesn't know. As her response to President Obama's State of the Union address showed, that long and growing list now includes the history of the Cold War. More jaw-dropping still, Palin insisted her model of the U.S. response to its current economic challenges isn't the transformational mobilization of the nation's... more Posted on January 27, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Pawlenty Echoes Obama in New Ad This week, former Minnesota Governor and obvious GOP White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty debuted a glitzy new ad to promote his new book and his upcoming candidacy. As it turns out, Pawlenty's timing in releasing his big-budget video just hours before the President's 2011 speech to Congress is altogether fitting. After all, Pawlenty's words sound an awful an lot like Barack Obama's last State of the Union address. Hoping to overcome the inevitable comparisons to the weak-willed and feeble-minded Fredo... more Posted on January 25, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Takes Credit, Deflects Blame on Economy. Again. Two new surveys released today are just the latest signs the U.S. economic recovery is gaining steam. While a USA Today panel found "nine of 10 economists said they're more optimistic than three months ago," the National Association for Business Economics reported that "more firms expressing positive hiring plans than in over a decade." But to hear Republican leaders tell it, the good news is all thanks to the GOP. And if that transparently false claim sounds familiar, it should.... more Posted on January 24, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Can't Hide Their Ryan Eyes This week, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced they would deploy Rep. Paul Ryan to give the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address. But while Boehner is now touting Ryan as "uniquely qualified to address the state of our economy and the fiscal challenges that face our country," the GOP leadership remains largely silent regarding Ryan's calls for the privatization of Social Security and the rationing of Medicare. And as it... more Posted on January 22, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the Venomous Paul Broun On Thursday, Georgia Republican Congressman Paul Broun insisted he would not sit with Democrats during next week's State of the Union address when "Barack Obama spews his venom." That's quite a charge, coming as it does from a man who equated health care reform to the "War of Yankee Aggression", compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Karl Marx, and warned Democrats would declare martial law. Broun's latest tirade came in response to a radio talk show caller who requested... more Posted on January 21, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	New Civility Short-Lived in Health Care Debate In the run-up to Wednesday's vote by House Republicans to undo the Affordable Care Act, the McClatchy papers asked, "Will it last? Health care repeal debate takes on civil tone." The answer, of course, was no. The Republican Party that brought America bogus charges of "death panels," the "government-takeover of health care," and "job-killing" plans returned to its usual gun metaphors and claims of tyranny and socialism. Meanwhile, in an exception to the rule of incendiary Republican rhetoric, a Tennessee... more Posted on January 20, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Patients' Bill of Wrongs On Wednesday, House Republicans will keep half of their grandstanding promise to "repeal and replace" the 2010 health care reform law. But the easy part ends there. As the Washington Post explains, GOP leaders are still far offering anything to replace the Affordable Care Act they hope to kill in whole or in part. Worse still, their quixotic effort comes after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed the GOP's repeal bill would not only lead to higher out of pocket... more Posted on January 19, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Shelby, Paul Call for Over $1 Trillion in Budget Cuts In the run-up to November's midterm elections, David Leonhardt of the New York Times presciently warned, "In their Pledge to America, Congressional Republicans have used the old trick of promising specific tax cuts and vague spending cuts," adding, "It's the politically easy approach, and it is likely to be as bad for the budget as when George W. Bush tried it." After just hours as House Speaker, John Boehner confirmed Leonhardt's suspicions by refusing to provide any details of spending... more Posted on January 16, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Hypocrites Creating Uncertainty over Debt and Health Care For years, Republicans have deployed the word "uncertainty" to stymie any public policy with which they disagreed. A decade after President Bush declared "scientific uncertainties remain" about global warming, virtually the entire Congressional Republican caucus has proudly joined the deniers' camp. Last month, GOP leaders revved up the uncertainty myth over taxes, falsely claiming that another tax cut windfall for the wealth was needed to "reduce the uncertainty that's affecting employers all across our country." Of course, on two of... more Posted on January 14, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Christ-like Tom Delay Refuses to Turn the Other Cheek On the day of his booking on conspiracy and money laundering charges five years ago, convicted felon and former House Majority Leader Tom Delay proclaimed, "Let people see Christ through me." Apparently, Delay's Jesus didn't believe in turning the other cheek, but instead accused the Romans of "criminalizing politics." Appearing on NBC's Today Show Thursday with his attorney Dick Deguerin to protest his three-year sentence for money laundering, The Hammer sounded nothing like The Carpenter: "I was tried in the... more Posted on January 13, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem With today's memorial service in Arizona, Wednesday is a day for all Americans to mourn the victims of Saturday's deadly shooting spree in Tucson. Sadly, with her aggressive defense of her past incendiary rhetoric, Sarah Palin has made it all about herself. Worse still, Palin has marked the attempted assassination of the first Jewish Congresswoman from Arizona by reintroducing the historically anti-semitic "blood libel" slur back into the political lexicon. As it turns out, Palin's misstep is the just the... more Posted on January 12, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Tucson Provides Gingrich's Latest Susan Smith Moment With inexplicable acts of violence as with marriage, Newt Gingrich apparently believes the third time's a charm. Seventeen years after he blamed Susan Smith's drowning of her two young sons on "Lyndon Johnson's Great Society" and 11 years after accusing the "liberal political elite" over the Columbine massacre, Gingrich is using the attempted assassination of a Democratic Congresswoman to once again go after her party. As ThinkProgress explained, the former House Speaker and would-be 2012 GOP White House hopeful turned... more Posted on January 11, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Rhetoric, Right-Wing Terror "My tears are flowing and I am stunned and angered that Gabby Giffords was savagely gunned down while performing her congressional duties." So said Minnesota Republican Representative Michele Bachmann in response to Saturday's mass killing in Tucson. But less than a year ago, Bachmann called for resistance to cap and trade legislation, "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue," adding, "Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing." Sadly,... more Posted on January 9, 2011 \| Comments (6)

	CBO: GOP Health Care Repeal Adds $230 Billion to Deficit Today is shaping up as a very bad day for the quixotic GOP effort to repeal the 2010 health care reform law. Even as the number two House Republican Eric Cantor was telling the CBS Early Show that the Affordable Care Act is full of "budget gimmickry" that "costs over $1 trillion," the Congressional Budget Office was making a liar out of him. As the new CBO analysis revealed, the GOP's repeal effort wouldn't merely deny health care coverage to... more Posted on January 6, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	No Surprise, Republicans to Break Promise on Spending Cuts In September, future House Speaker John Boehner unveiled the GOP Pledge to America, which among its other warmed-over Republican nostrums promised to save "at least $100 billion in the first year alone" from the federal budget. On the eve of the election (around the 1:50 mark of the video), Boehner doubled down, claiming the GOP Pledge would quickly lead to "saving taxpayers $100 billiion almost immediately." In December, incoming House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) repeated the GOP guarantee... more Posted on January 5, 2011 \| Comments (2)

	The Top 15 Moments from the Darrell Issa Hall of Shame As the Washington Post, Politico and others reported, new House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa has announced a long list of investigations designed to "embarrass the Obama administration." Of course, when it comes to embarrassment, Issa knows more than most. After all, before he comically called the Obama White House "one of the most corrupt," among his myriad outrages the one-time accused car thief turned car alarm magnate attacked the families of dead Blackwater contractors, accused Valerie... more Posted on January 4, 2011 \| Comments (3)

	Rasmussen Poll, Media Misrepresent Obama Health Care Promise On Monday, The Hill reported on a new Rasmussen poll under the provocative title, "Nearly half of voters don't believe key healthcare promise by Obama." That supposed pledge, as The Hill described it, was that "the law would not require individuals to change their coverage." But absent from this incendiary meme was the real guarantee President Obama repeatedly made that "what I'm saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform." Sadly, as the... more Posted on January 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Offers Insanity - and Hypocrisy - on U.S. Debt Ceiling Turning to the Republican Party for lessons on fiscal discipline is a lot like taking advice on abstinence from Bristol Palin. But unlike Ms. Palin's one known failure to practice what she now preaches, Republicans are repeat offenders. After all, the national debt tripled under Ronald Reagan, only to double again under George W. Bush. And while Congressional Republicans are now threatening a national economic calamity in a game of political chicken over the U.S. debt ceiling even George Will... more Posted on January 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Still Won't Man Up on Budget Cuts A new study purports to show that the conservative brain has an overly large fear center, while the anterior cingulate associated with courage is smaller than average. That might explain the continued cowardice of Republican leaders when it comes to offering specifics on the spending cuts they claim to support in the face of mounting debt they only recently came to fear. To be sure, there's no shortage of tough talk on spending from a GOP playing a dangerous game... more Posted on December 29, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	A Bad Week for Republican Neo-Confederates As the AP reported today, Republican presidential hopefuls starting on the road to the White House are finding the trip a bumpy one. But for two of the leading lights of the GOP, the past week was especially bad. Just days after singing the praises of the racist Council of Conservative Citizens, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour had to explain his personal use of state aircraft. Meanwhile, neo-Confederate by choice George Allen found his path to political resurrection blocked by Virginia... more Posted on December 28, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Does a Mama Grizzly Bullst in the Woods?** From war taxes and the First Amendment to Reagan's Iran/Contra scandal, how much energy her home state of Alaska produces and so much more, Sarah Palin doesn't know what she doesn't know. And on matters large and small, Palin's hopeless ignorance is exceeded only by her serial lying. After all, a year after Politifact deemed her "death panels" fraud its 2009 Lie of the Year, the half-term governor retroactively announced that her Word of the Year "refudiate" was merely a... more Posted on December 28, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	590,000 Republican Lies About Public Employees As the New Year - and the new GOP House majority - approaches, Republicans are ramping up their war on government workers. Grover Norquist and his Weekly Standard allies urged Congress to let cash-strapped states go bankrupt in order to slash public employees, drain their pension funds and punish their unions. At the heart of their crusade is the bogus claim, as 2012 GOP White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty put it two weeks ago, that "since January 2008 the private... more Posted on December 27, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	GOP White House Hopefuls Skip Hispanic Forum. Again. In January, the new Hispanic Leadership Network is hosting a forum to showcase the 2012 Republican presidential field. But while the event is well funded by the conservative American Action Network, it is lacking for one thing: the GOP White House hopefuls themselves. If this slap in the face of America's fastest growing voting block sounds familiar, it should. In the run-up to the 2008 election, the Republican contenders then as now skipped events organized by minority political organizations. If... more Posted on December 25, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Sarah Palin Gets Ironic on Iran If nothing else, Sarah Palin is an irony producing machine. Just last week, the propagator-in-chief of the 2009 death panels "Lie of the Year" endorsed Medicare rationing. Now, the ironies are double in her new get-tough-on-Iran op-ed. After all, she not only cites leaked diplomatic cables published by the "treasonous" Australian, Julian Assange. Worse still, Palin points to Ronald Reagan as her model for dealing with Tehran. That would be the same Ronald Reagan whose policy consisted of giving the... more Posted on December 24, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	This Just In: Red State Health Care Still Dismal This week's release of the 2010 U.S. Census produced gloating from conservatives ecstatic about new Congressional seats in Republican, low-tax states. But as even as they celebrate their added political clout, GOP cheerleaders remain predictably silent about another recent study. The UnitedHealth Foundation's "America's Health Rankings" became just the latest analysis to show that health care is worst in precisely those states where Republicans poll best. The findings from the UnitedHealth Group project revealed that Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut... more Posted on December 23, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Haley Barbour and the GOP Confederacy of Dunces Writing in Salon today, Rick Perlstein examines "what Haley Barbour's amnesia tells us" about Southern conservatives' historical revisionism. But largely lost in the imbroglio over Barbour's literal white-washing of the Jim Crow era is that the Mississippi Governor and would-have-been 2012 White House hopeful has plenty of company among the leading lights of the Republican Party. From flying the Confederate flag to talking up secession and nullification, Republicans for years have been casually trafficking in antebellum nostalgia. In May, Texas... more Posted on December 22, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Final Fury of John McCain Over the last several weeks, John McCain's rapid descent into furious incoherence has spawned a cottage industry of McCainologists. But his open scorn and seething rage over Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the DREAM Act, the START Treaty and even aid to 9/11 responders is hardly McCain's first performance of King Lear. But after his humiliation by George W. Bush in 2000, McCain swallowed his pride and his principles in pursuit of his own presidential ambitions. Those hopes now dashed by... more Posted on December 20, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Sarah Palin's Double Standard on Double Standards Like a broken clock, even Sarah Palin is occasionally right. So it is with her suggestion that the perpetually weepy incoming House Speaker John Boehner is getting a free pass for theatrical water works a woman could never survive politically. As it turns out, the half-term governor is speaking from experience when she claimed "that's one of those things where a double standard certainly is applied." After all, what she criticized in 2008 as "whining" by Hillary Clinton for Sarah... more Posted on December 18, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Commissioners Blame Economic Meltdown on Government Republican politics are now defined by necessary lies, untruths like "tax cuts pay for themselves" which GOP orthodoxy requires be true. So it should come as no surprise that the Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission are dissenting from the panel's upcoming report to falsely claim that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were responsible for the meltdown of the U.S. financial system. But what Paul Krugman deemed the Republicans' "invincible ignorance" is just the latest sinister episode in... more Posted on December 15, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Pawlenty, Palin Push GOP War on Public Employees Move over, welfare queens, IRS agents and trial lawyers. The Republican Party has a new bogeyman: the public employee. With a sluggish U.S. economy, cash-strapped states and under-funded pension programs, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin and other leading lights of the GOP are scape-goating government workers and their unions for the nation's woes. Of course, there's only one problem with Rush Limbaugh's claim that public sector employees are "freeloaders" and the charge from Indiana Governor and GOP White House hopeful Mitch... more Posted on December 14, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	John Boehner's 60 Minutes of Hypocrisy On Sunday, incoming House Speaker John Boehner had his prime time debut on CBS 60 Minutes. Proclaiming "I reject the word" compromise, Boehner made clear that past performance would be a guarantee of future results. But even more pathetic was his staggering hypocrisy. After all, Boehner claimed that President Obama, a man he accused of being a "socialist" and a "chicken s**t," had "disrespected" him. Disrespect, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. In this case, as Leslie... more Posted on December 13, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Palin Endorses Medicare Rationing Fresh off her pronouncements on the Fed's "quantitative easing" and federal aid to the states, Sarah Palin this week added the deficit and Medicare to her Potemkin façade of policy expertise. A year after she first endorsed converting Medicare into a voucher program, Palin took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to endorse Congressman Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America." Which is more than a little ironic for the propagator of the "death panels" myth. As it turns out,... more Posted on December 11, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	The Republican War on the States For years, American federalism has been characterized by "red state socialism," the one way flow of federal dollars from blue state taxpayers to red state recipients. For example, Sarah Palin's home state of Alaska ranked third in federal tax dollars received per dollar of taxes paid by state residents. But now that recession-ravaged states like California, New York and Illinois are on the financial brink, Republicans leaders like Palin want to push them over the edge. In just the last... more Posted on December 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the Winners of the Class War Back in 2006, billionaire Warren Buffett lamented, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." Now with President Obama's capitulation imminent on extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, average Americans will once again be the big losers. After all, while the Bush years produced exploding deficits, declining incomes, increasing poverty and dismal job creation, the Gilded Class enjoyed a massive windfall and record income inequality. Here, then, are... more Posted on December 6, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Peddles Uncertainty Myth About Taxes In their scorched-earth effort to deliver another $700 billion tax cut windfall for the wealthy, Republicans have fittingly appropriated their favorite global warming talking point: "uncertainty." Mitch McConnell, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and John Boehner are just of the GOP leaders claiming "Congress ought to act today to stop all the tax hikes" because "it would reduce the uncertainty that's affecting employers all across our country." Of course, they are predictably silent about the 1980's, when Ronald Reagan upended the... more Posted on December 5, 2010 \| Comments (4)

	The "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another" President In January 2009, President Obama journeyed to Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional Republicans on the stimulus. Unbeknownst to the President, Minority Leader John Boehner had already instructed his entire GOP caucus to vote "no" on the bill they were to discuss with Obama. Now, history is repeating. Even as the President was asking his Republican White House guests Tuesday to look for "common ground" on taxes, the GOP leadership was already promising to block him on everything else. Of... more Posted on December 1, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Nixon with Lipstick What's the difference between Richard Nixon and Sarah Palin? Lipstick. (Well, that and military service, graduate education, a keen intellect, years of national political experience and a proven grasp of policy foreign and domestic.) But as a fellow "serial collector of resentments", the half-term Alaska governor is Nixon's heir. When it comes to the paranoid style, the politics of payback, the perpetual war on the press and the championing of "real Americans" versus supposed elites, the Mama Grizzly is the... more Posted on November 26, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Tom Delay Decries the Criminalization of Politics. Again. On the day of his booking on conspiracy and money laundering charges five years ago, disgraced House Majority Tom Delay proclaimed, "Let people see Christ through me." Now a convicted felon, Delay isn't turning the other cheek but instead decrying "the criminalization of politics." If that sounds familiar, it should. For over a generation, Republicans and their conservative amen corner have routinely brushed off charges of their own corruption and lawlessness by accusing their opponents of "criminalizing politics." From Iran-Contra,... more Posted on November 25, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Urges Slashing Corporate Taxes as Profits Hit Record Despite a decade of Bush tax cut windfalls for the wealthy pushing income inequality to levels not seen since 1929, Republicans are calling for another $700 billion, 10-year payday for the richest Americans. So it should come as no surprise that as corporate profits reached an all-time record in the third quarter, leading voices in the Republican Party want their tax bill slashed, too. As the New York Times reported Tuesday, happy days are indeed here again for corporate America:... more Posted on November 24, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	"You Don't Have Any Civil Liberties If You're Dead" Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it. So it is with the uproar from disingenuous conservatives trying to capitalize on the public outcry over the TSA's airport body scans and aggressive pat-downs. While Charles Krauthammer now spouts "don't touch my junk" and Rush Limbaugh declares, "Keep your hands off my tea bag, Mr. President," five years ago the right-wing echo chamber applauded President Bush's regime of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA. After all, they insisted... more Posted on November 23, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Sharron Angle Joins Bush in Praising Dictators Tea Party favorite and failed Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle is no fan of democracy. Angle, after all, declared if her supporters failed to help her "take out" Harry Reid, they should resort to "Second Amendment remedies." Now, two weeks after her defeat at the polls, the Las Vegas Sun revealed that Sharron has a soft spot for dictators. Of course, she's not alone among the leading lights of the Republican Party. Just ask George W. Bush. As Nevada political... more Posted on November 18, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Return of the Free Lunch Party As Ronald Reagan's budget chief almost thirty years ago, a frustrated David Stockman famously lamented that when it comes to spending discipline, "there are no real conservatives in Congress." Now, three decades after he concluded "the supply-siders have gone too far," Stockman called the Republican demand for another $700 billion tax cut windfall for the wealthy, "unconscionable." As well he should. With the new GOP majority's financial toxic brew of gargantuan tax giveaways and still unnamed spending cuts, the Free... more Posted on November 17, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Obama Should Repeat Bush's History on Deficit Commission Karl Marx famously said that historical events occur twice: first as tragedy, then as farce. But when it comes to his debt commission, President Obama is in danger of standing that old chestnut on its head. Unlike President George H.W. Bush's almost comic dismissal of the recommendations of a Congressional debt panel in 1989, Obama may actually listen to this one. And that would be tragic, indeed. If the saga of Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform sounds... more Posted on November 12, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Peter King the Latest Republican to Endorse Medal for Torture On Wednesday, New York Rep. Peter King became just the latest Republican to conclude there ought to be a prize for torture. Defending George W. Bush's admission this week that he authorized waterboarding of terror detainees, King insisted the former president "should get a medal." If that sounds familiar, it should. In 2007, Bush's failed Labor nominee and conservative columnist Linda Chavez said the same thing about the CIA's Jose Rodriguez, the man who ordered the destruction of 92 interrogation... more Posted on November 11, 2010 \| Comments (11)

	Republicans Throw Stones at Glass Debt Ceiling "Reagan proved," Vice President Dick Cheney famously said in 2002, "deficits don't matter." Not, that is, when a Republican is sitting in the White House. After all, Republicans were silent as the national debt tripled under Ronald Reagan and doubled again under George W. Bush. As it turns out, the same hypocrisy of the GOP's born-again deficit hawks extends to the U.S. debt ceiling as well. After voting seven times to raise the debt ceiling under Bush, Republicans are now... more Posted on November 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Cowardly Republicans Now Hiding Behind Deficit Commission This week, Republicans swept to power by promising to cut, in the words of Indiana's Mike Pence, "runaway federal spending." But when it comes to putting taxpayers' money where their mouths are, Pence, incoming Speaker John Boehner, future Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann and much of the cowardly GOP's top-brass refuse to say what budget cuts they will actually make. And now to add insult to injury, many of the leading lights of the Republican Party are waiting for... more Posted on November 5, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	The End of the Tea Party As a quick look back at any McCain-Palin rally in the fall of 2008 will confirm, the Tea Party movement hardly began with the inauguration of Barack Obama. But for all intents and purposes, it ended yesterday. As it turns out, the Tea Party's looming demise stems not from its failure at the polls, but from its now largely successful transformation of the GOP. Not, of course, according to the media reaction to Tuesday's red midterm tsunami. Pointing to easy... more Posted on November 3, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Messenger of Jesus Goes on Trial in Texas As a police photographer snapped his mug shot back in 2005, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay prayed, "Let people see Christ through me." Now, five years after he was indicted for money laundering, Delay's trial has finally begun in Austin, Texas. And while he may not walk on water, Tom Delay may yet walk out of court a free man. His supporters might be forgiven for assuming he could do both. In 2001, The Hammer compared himself to The... more Posted on November 1, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Promises Two More Years of No Compromise The more things change, the more they stay the same. On the eve of midterms elections that could make him House Speaker, John Boehner announced, "This is not a time for compromise." His lieutenant Mike Pence (R-IN) echoed that line, declaring that with a new Republican majority "there will be no compromise" with President Obama and the Democrats. Of course, with their record-setting use of the filibuster, unprecedented obstruction of presidential nominees, and unified no votes on almost every major... more Posted on November 1, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Triumph of Delusion Over this pre-election weekend, CNN will air a special called, "Boiling Point: Inside the Tea Party." Whether or not its right-wing fury brings a conservative wave to Washington, the network insists, "the Tea Party has earned a place in history." But even more than its decibel level, none-too-thinly veiled race-baiting, casual incitements to violence and perfection of a corporate-backed grassroots façade, the rise of the Tea Party marks the triumph of delusion in American politics. Simply put, never has a... more Posted on October 29, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	For Conservatives, Sarah Palin is Pretty in Pink By now, Americans have grown accustomed to Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio saying (and doing) what most hard-line conservatives are only thinking. So when Sheriff Joe tweeted that he gave Sarah Palin a pair of pink underwear, right-wing eyebrows weren't the only things being raised. Of course, this episode is just the latest to highlight the enduring appeal of Sarah Palin to right-wing America. In a nutshell (and with apologies to decency and decorum), conservative women want to be her; conservative... more Posted on October 26, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	A Midterm Triple Whammy for Democrats This weekend, the New York Times and Washington Post offered almost identical assessments of the 2010 Congressional elections. While the Times announced "GOP poised to seize House, if not Senate," the Post predicted 'historic" losses with "more than 90 Democratic House seats are potentially in play." But lost in the conventional wisdom that Barack Obama is about to relive Bill Clinton's 1994 midterm debacle is grimmer news still for Democrats and American democracy. Next week's vote hauntingly resembles the 1966... more Posted on October 25, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Cut and Run on Spending Cuts When it comes to cutting the federal budget, talk is cheap. But as the New York Times is just the latest to report, across the country Republican candidates are talking tough about spending cuts they can't - or won't - explain. Yet even as they promise another $700 billion Treasury-draining windfall for the wealthy, the budget-busting Republicans remain silent on where their painful cuts would come. While the national debt tripled under Ronald Reagan and doubled again under George W.... more Posted on October 21, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Right-Wing Rage Drowns Out Massive Obama Tax Cut On Monday, the New York Times asked, "What if a president cut Americans' income taxes by $116 billion and nobody noticed?" As it turns out, that question neatly sums up the sad dynamic at play in the 2010 midterm elections. On the one hand, President Obama and his Democratic allies have utterly failed to tout the tax cuts delivered as promised to 95% of working households. On the other, Republican mythmaking and Tea Party fury have succeeded in drowning out... more Posted on October 20, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Candidates Run - and Try to Hide According to legend, the boxer Joe Louis introduced the expression, "you can run, but you can't hide." Well, he never met this year's crop of GOP candidates. Earlier this month, Politico surveyed the extreme media avoidance strategies of Sharron Angle, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Christine O'Donnell and other skittish Republicans in an article titled, "Year of the Missing Candidate." But now, Alaska Senate hopeful Joe Miller has reached a new low, deploying a private security firm to deflect - and... more Posted on October 18, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP Presents Stupid Millionaire Tricks It's awfully tough to present your party as the champion of populist fury when the centerpiece of your 2010 campaign is another $700 billion tax cut windfall for the wealthiest two percent of Americans. Alas, for Republicans, that steep challenge is getting much worse. After all, at a time of record income inequality and growing poverty, GOP candidates nationwide - many of them millionaire recipients of government largesse - are waging war against the unemployed, minimum wage employees and working... more Posted on October 11, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Obstructionism Fueling State and Local Job Losses While today's employment report showed the private sector added jobs for the ninth straight month, those gains were more than offset by the deep cuts by state and local governments. But those layoffs, the biggest in 30 years, didn't have to be this severe. After all, President Obama in June asked Congress for $50 billion in aid to the states to avert "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters." But despite the prescient warnings, Capitol Hill Republicans said no. Earlier... more Posted on October 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Sorry, Newt: Democrats are the Party of Paychecks In his latest effort to rebrand both the Republican and Democratic parties, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has also rewritten history. Labeling his GOP "the party of paychecks" and Democrats "the party of food stamps" in advance of his upcoming campaign swing, Gingrich declared "we have historically since Ronald Reagan of 1980 been the party of job creation." Sadly for Newt's mythmaking, the historical record clearly states otherwise. From job creation and expanding incomes to GDP growth, stock market performance... more Posted on October 7, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Poll Reveals Democrats' Working Class White Out Somewhere, Wall Street Journal columnist and What's the Matter with Kansas author Thomas Frank is shaking his head. In 2004, Frank detailed how the GOP successfully turned to divisive social issues and fear-mongering to persuade working class whites in his home state to consistently vote against their own economic self-interest. Now, a new AP-GfK poll reveals that heading into the midterms, the losers of the latest outbreak of Republican class warfare are nonetheless deserting the Democrats in ever greater numbers.... more Posted on October 6, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Conservatives Proclaim Year of the Black Republican. Again. This spring, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Week and The Grio (among others) pointed to the new crop of African-American GOP candidates and pondered, "2010: The year of the black Republican?" And on Sunday, RealClearPolitics contributor Jack Kelly touted the candidacies of Tim Scott, Allen West and Ryan Frazier as proof of "the rise of the black Republicans." But if this sounds familiar, it should. After all, as losers Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swann would... more Posted on October 5, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Christine O'Donnell Channels Linda Tripp, Declares "I'm You" This week, Delaware Republican Senate candidate and sworn enemy of masturbation Christine O'Donnell unveiled a new ad declaring, "I'm you." But if that formula to reposition herself as an average American sounds hauntingly familiar, it should. After all, it was Linda Tripp, opposed as she was to presidential oral sex, who said the exact same thing after her 1998 testimony in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It was, as you'll recall, Linda Tripp who clandestinely taped her conversations with - and... more Posted on October 4, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	For Tea Party, Being Loud the Next Best Thing to Being Right By some estimates, the progressive One Nation Working Together march in Washington drew twice the audience of the Tea Party conclave on August 28th. But when it comes to media coverage, there's no comparison. While the massive gathering of 400 union, church and other progressive groups barely registered a blip on the mainstream media's radar screen, Glenn Beck's lilywhite herd of ardent Republicans dominated the networks, cable TV, online outlets and print publications for days before and after. Because while... more Posted on October 4, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Real GOP Pledge: A Perpetual Obama Witch Hunt Last week, would-be House Speaker John Boehner unveiled the GOP Pledge to America to dismal reviews from, among others, himself. "We can't have that serious conversation [about policy] until we lay out the size of the problem," Boehner said of the Pledge, adding, "Let's not get to the potential solutions." But on one point, Boehner made clear today, Republicans are deadly serious about what they plan to do should they regain a Congressional majority. That is, the same Republican Party... more Posted on September 30, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	CBO Warns Permanent Bush Tax Cuts Will Hurt Economy The Republican demand to make the Bush tax cut windfall for the wealthy permanent is like Jason from the Friday the 13th slasher movies. Incredibly dangerous but once presumed dead, the GOP's perpetual payday for the rich rises again to wreak havoc and ruin lives. And delivering the warning this time is the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In his testimony to the Senate Budget Committee Tuesday, CBO director Doug Elmendorf suggested the sooner we drive a stake through the... more Posted on September 29, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Like Father, Like Son for Ben Quayle Addressing the United Negro College Fund back in 1991, Vice President Dan Quayle declared, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." Especially true, it turns out, of his son Ben. As he showed in discussing the economy in a new campaign video, the frequent contributor at Dirty Scottsdale turned Arizona Republican Congressional candidate apparently never had a mind to lose. Regarding the GOP's so-called... more Posted on September 28, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Tax Cut Cowardice from Both Parties If Thursday was a test of political courage when it comes to the expiring Bush tax cuts, both parties failed miserably. Despite a raft of polls showing strong public opposition to the GOP's proposed $700 billion, 10-year tax cut windfall for the wealthy, squeamish Democrats in both the House and the Senate decided to push off a vote until after the midterm elections. Not to be outdone, Republicans in their much-hyped "Pledge to America" continued to falsely claim Democrats back... more Posted on September 23, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the GOP's New Pledge. Same as the Old Pledge. What is old is new again. Hoping to once again party like it's 1994, Republicans Thursday unveiled their 2010 campaign "Pledge to America." But what the Daily Beast referred to the as "bastard child" of the Contract with America isn't just a warmed over version of the GOP's very successful ploy from sixteen years ago. The 21 page document differs little from the 2008 Republican platform, the April Tea Party "Contract from America" or even would-be Speaker Boehner's proclamations in... more Posted on September 23, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Christine O'Donnell and the Republican God Squad of 2010 Delaware Republican Senate candidate and Tea Party Christine O'Donnell is out of touch, at least with herself. But not, it appears, with the Almighty. After all, O'Donnell not only claimed that in the Lord's eyes, masturbation constitutes adultery. In 2006, she insisted, "I heard the audible voice of God." Of course, Sharron Angle is far from alone among the leading lights of the GOP who possess divine hearing. As it turns out, Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee,... more Posted on September 22, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	For GOP, Bush Recession Now "Over" Never Began After first considering the issue in April, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) today announced the Bush recession is officially over. But given persistently high levels of unemployment and poverty, more interesting than the NBER's conclusion that "a trough occurred in June 2009" is the parties' reactions to it. While President Obama and the Democrats continue to insist the economic downturn isn't over, Republicans in 2008 pretended it never began. As the data show, the Obama stimulus and other... more Posted on September 20, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Studies Debunk GOP Lies about Public Employees In August, the New Republic, the New York Times and others warned that the 2010 campaign would feature a new Republican bogeyman. The Times announced, "There's a class war coming to the world of government pensions," while TNR's Jonathan Cohn explained the latest GOP hatefest in "Why Public Employees are the New Welfare Queens." Of course, there's only one problem with Rush Limbaugh's claim that public sector employees are "freeloaders" and the charge from Indiana Governor and GOP White House... more Posted on September 16, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Senate Republicans Unveil PIG Act As promised, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) this week introduced legislation proposing to make the budget-busting 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts permanent. The so-called Tax Hike Prevention Act wouldn't merely drain $3.9 trillion from the U.S. Treasury over the next decade. At a time of record income inequality, the Republicans' $700 billion windfall for the wealthy would virtually ensure a perpetual income gap. Call it PIG for short. As the Washington Post reported, the price tag for the... more Posted on September 15, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Soft Expectations of Low Bigotry In his speech to school children carried live on CNN, PBS and many other networks, the President implored students, "Take control -- challenge yourself," adding, "Only you know how hard you work." Those quickly forgotten and uncontroversial words were delivered by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. But a year after they first raged about Barack Obama using similarly innocuous language as part of a campaign of "socialist indoctrination" and "cult... more Posted on September 14, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Senate GOP Stiffens as Boehner Goes Limp on Taxes After months of pretending the Bush tax cuts paid for themselves and calling President Obama's opposition to another $700 billion windfall for the wealthy a "job killer" and "class warfare," House Minority Leader John Boehner on Sunday signaled his willingness to accept a compromise. But in the Senate, the Republican line remained as hard as ever against returning upper class tax rates to their Clinton-era levels. Appearing on Face the Nation Sunday, would-be Speaker Boehner gave ground on President Obama's... more Posted on September 13, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Obama Says No to the $700 Billion Club A $700 billion, 10-year windfall for the wealthiest Americans who need it least. With both parties generally supporting the continuation of middle class relief already on the books, that's the difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to making the expiring Bush tax cuts permanent. But just one day after his former budget director Peter Orszag endorsed a compromise featuring a two year delay in returning upper-bracket tax rates to their Clinton-era levels, President Obama said no. Despite wavering... more Posted on September 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Sad History of Trusting the GOP on the Economy The bad news just keeps coming for Democrats. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gives the GOP a record 9-point edge in the generic Congressional ballot for November. Meanwhile, an ABC News/Washington Post survey shows that as President Obama's approval ratings continue to slide, support for his management of the economy and the deficit are lower still. More disturbing still, for the first time since 2002, Americans trust Republicans more (43% to 39%) than Democrats to direct the economy. Should... more Posted on September 7, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Some Republicans Uneasy with the Party of No "Ninety percent of life," Woody Allen famously said, "is just showing up." For Congressional Republicans, the other 10% is voting no. But despite the apparent success of their unprecedented obstructionism, heading into the midterm elections a handful of Republicans are starting to get a little uncomfortable with only being the Party of No. When House Minority Leader John Boehner promised in July to roll out "a blueprint of what Republicans will do if they take back control of the chamber,"... more Posted on September 6, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Switches Sides in the Class War In perhaps the greatest comic moment of the 2010 campaign to date, John McCain last month complained, "I know how popular it is for the Eastern press to paint me as having changed positions. That's not true." Of course, his flip-flops are now so numerous that he long ago earned nicknames like "Jukebox John" and "McCain 5.0." But on no issue has McCain's reversal been more gymnastic - and pathetic - than on the Bush tax cuts. Nine years after... more Posted on September 5, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Party is Paging Dr. Freud Somewhere in America, a psychology graduate student is doubtless preparing the definitive thesis of the modern conservative mindset. After all, the Bush years produced a cottage industry of analyses on the roots of Dubya's "dead or alive, bring 'em on" macho talk. And now that Sarah Palin has added "impotent" and "limp" to a right-wing vernacular replete with over-sexualized and even homoerotic terms like "bend over" and "ram down our throats," it's clear that the leading lights of the Republican... more Posted on September 4, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	President McCain Speaks on Iraq In the wake of President Obama's speech last, the neoconservative architects of the Iraq War predictably reemerged to claim credit for the national disaster they portray as success. But one of them, Bill Kristol, allowed that the address was, "on the whole, not a bad speech by the president," adding that it was "unrealistic for supporters of the war to expect the president to give the speech John McCain would have given." For his part, McCain obliged by providing his... more Posted on September 1, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Demands Honesty from Obama, Not Bush, on Iraq In her predictable Facebook pre-buttal to the President's primetime speech on Iraq, Sarah Palin demanded that Barack Obama "admit you were wrong about the surge." But in insisting that "the more honest you are about the past, the more likely it is you will gain the support of the American people," Palin exempted President Bush - and herself - from the lies that were used to sell and perpetuate the war in Iraq. After all, the Bush administration and its... more Posted on August 31, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Glenn Beck Playing with Fire on Religious Faith In his pivotal address to the Southern Baptists in 1960, John F. Kennedy cautioned those suspicious of his Catholic faith, "Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you -- until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril." But with his furious assault this weekend against President Obama's faith, Glenn Beck didn't merely ignore JFK's warning and the biblical admonition to judge not lest ye be judged.... more Posted on August 30, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Conservatives' Cafeteria-Style Constitution On Saturday, Glenn Beck and tens of thousands of his Tea Party faithful descended on Washington supposedly to "restore honor" to America and defend the Constitution of the United States. Or, more accurately, parts of it. After all, once they get past their enthusiasm for the Second and Tenth Amendments, the same right-wing die-hards would literally white out large swaths of America's contract with itself. And with their pick-and-choose, cafeteria-style Constitution, these most fervent Republicans would undermine the economy, gut... more Posted on August 29, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Everybody Expects the Republican Inquisition Back in the 1970's, the British comedy troupe Monty Python introduced the expression "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" into the popular culture. Now, with the prospect of the GOP retaking control of the House of Representatives, everybody expects the Republican Inquisition. That is, the Party that decried the "criminalization of politics" in every scandal from Iran-Contra, Plamegate and Tom Delay to the U.S. attorneys purge and the Bush regime of detainee torture is promising nothing but for the Obama admnistration.... more Posted on August 28, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Resurrect 1993 Talking Points on Taxes With Democrats proposing to set the top two income tax rates at 36% and 39.6% respectively, Republican leaders waged a ferocious battle on behalf of the wealthiest American taxpayers. Former House Majority Leader and current Tea Party moneyman Dick Armey warned, "This program will not give you deficit reduction." Ohio's John Kasich cautioned, "It's our bet that this is a job killer." And for his part, 2012 White House hopeful Newt Gingrich promised, "This is the Democrat machine's recession, and... more Posted on August 25, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	John Boehner's Fuzzy Math and Missing Cojones With his much-hyped call for the firing of President Obama's economic team, House Minority Leader John Boehner ensured his speech in Cleveland today would get a lot of attention. But sadly for the would-be House Speaker, the address also spotlighted his unique combination of political cowardice and fuzzy math. After all, while Boehner claimed to be "serious about bringing down the deficits that threaten our economy," he conveniently omitted both the $700 billion lost to the Treasury for another tax... more Posted on August 24, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	The Bush Tax Cuts in Pictures On Monday, New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman summed up Republicans wanting to make permanent the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. At a time of record income inequality and massive budget deficits, Republican "politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people in the country." While that single sentence encapsulates this latest $700 billion GOP windfall for the wealthy, the story of the Republicans' perpetual push for... more Posted on August 23, 2010 \| Comments (20)

	Vacation, All He Ever Wanted Among the latest claims of Republican mythmakers is that Barack Obama is not only a secret Muslim, but one who takes too many days off. Of course, the charge is hardly new. In May 2009, the Republican National Committee sneered, "Have a great Saturday evening - even if you're not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense." Seven months later, Republicans, despite President Bush's identical behavior after the December 2001 Shoe Bomber episode, decried Obama's refusal to cut short his Hawaii... more Posted on August 22, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Sarah Palin's First Amendment Confusion Deepens In the span of just a few days, Sarah Palin has demonstrated that her ignorance of the First Amendment is total. One day after repeating her earlier call for Muslim Americans to "refudiate" their freedom of religion, Palin defended the disgraced Dr. Laura Schlessinger. But in tweeting that Dr. Laura's "1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist," Palin showed once again she has no idea what they are. With no sense of irony, the former half-term Governor of Alaska and the same woman... more Posted on August 19, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	On Social Security, Angle Takes Both Sides in One Day The 2000 presidential campaign witnessed a fierce battle over the future of Social Security, pitting the private, personal accounts of George W. Bush versus Al Gore's "lockbox." Ten years later, Nevada Republican Senate hopeful Sharron Angle has taken both sides in a single day. In her just-released ad titled, "Social Security," Sharron Angle did a quick 180 from her old privatization line. The spot proclaims "Sharron Angle is fighting for critical lockbox legislation." And as The Atlantic noted: Speaking to... more Posted on August 14, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP's Paul Ryan Doubles Down on Medicare Rationing No doubt, Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's dashing good looks make the Washington chattering classes weak at the knees. But his policy proposals make most Americans - including most of his party leadership - sick to their stomachs. After all, the past week highlighted how Ryan's supposedly budget-balancing Roadmap for America's Future would instead produce $4 trillion in red ink. And now, Rep. Ryan is doubling down on his plan to ration Medicare. Hoping to lead the party that tried... more Posted on August 13, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Defend States' Rights - to Economic Misery Back in February, 42 governors signed a letter pleading with Congressional leaders to extend the federal matching assistance program for Medicaid. And with good reason. 30 cash-strapped states, including Republican bastions Georgia and Alabama, had already assumed new federal Medicaid funds in their budgets. Worse still, drastic downturns in revenues combined with the recession's escalating demands for government services left the states facing an estimated $89 billion shortfall and up to 900,000 layoffs. And as Congress dawdled, 48,000 state and... more Posted on August 12, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	New Study Shows Bush Tax Cut Windfall for Wealthy Last year, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann summed up what would become the de facto Republican platform for the 2010 midterm elections when she fretted, "We're running out of rich people in this country." Now, as the GOP demands a $700 billion Treasury-draining tax cut for the wealthiest Americans even as it calls for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a new study shows that the rich will win even if they lose. As the New York Times reported Wednesday,... more Posted on August 11, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Repeats Balanced Budget Amendment Farce Historical events, it is said, occur twice: first as tragedy, then as farce. Sometimes, though, as with the latest Republican call for a balanced budget amendment, the farce is double. Even as they call for a budget busting $700 billion tax cut windfall for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, GOP leaders including John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence can't - or won't - say where the necessarily draconian spending cuts would come from. And as the numbers show,... more Posted on August 10, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Media Push Trickle-Down Tax Cuts for the Rich At a time of record income inequality and massive budget deficits, how do you justify a $700 billion plus tax cut for the wealthiest Americans? By claiming that the fate of the economic recovery depends on the rich - and the rich alone. And with the very top income earners facing a return of their tax rates to the 39.6% rate of the economy's Clinton-era halcyon days, the media is helping the GOP in waging its full court press to... more Posted on August 9, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Watergate Deniers Whitewashing History at Nixon Library Back in 2007, the National Archives took over the Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. Among its first tasks in setting the historical record straight regarding the Richard Nixon Foundation's presentation of Watergate as "a 'coup' engineered by Nixon enemies." Now three years later, the Nixon loyalists are back, this time to trying to halt the opening of the new Watergate exhibit scheduled for July 1. From the moment it opened, the Nixon Library sought to relegate... more Posted on August 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	On Deficits, Republicans Can't Hide Their Ryan Eyes The two weeks have not been kind to the ersatz deficit hawks of the Republican Party. First, the preposterous claims of John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the legion of new Republican alchemists that tax cuts pay for themselves were thoroughly debunked. Making matters worse, Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and the 116 members of the House Republican Study Committee unveiled a new package of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy which would add a jaw-dropping $10 trillion to the deficit over... more Posted on August 7, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Fact-Checker Sarah Palin Lies About Tax Increase. Again. On Sunday, the fact-checking web site Politifact deemed Sarah Palin a "Pants on Fire" liar for her claim that "Democrats are poised now to cause this largest tax increase in U.S. history." (As it turns out, that's just one of the 10 Republican lies about the Bush tax cuts.) Now, the half-term Alaska Governor is protesting, claiming on Facebook that "no such proposal exists" to "keep the tax cuts for individuals who make less than $200,000 and couples who make... more Posted on August 5, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Sharron Angle, Holy Warrior Back in May, half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin insisted that the Founding Fathers "were quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 commandments." But while the Founders intended no such thing, Palin's protege Sharron Angle is convinced. Just weeks after proclaiming "God has a plan" for pregnant victims of rape and incest and suggesting God is on her side, the GOP's Nevada Senate hopeful declared herself a warrior against government "idolatry"... more Posted on August 4, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Mitt, Muslims and the Mosque As the planned "Ground Zero" mosque passed a key hurdle today, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin have emerged as its most vocal critics on the right. But while Gingrich called it "an offensive act" which Palin asked the Muslim faithful to "refudiate," Mitt Romney's predictable path to opposition may best capture the fetid state of the Republican culture war. After all, Romney loves "the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims," just not in lower Manhattan. For Romney, the Ground... more Posted on August 3, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	10 Republican Lies About the Bush Tax Cuts So it's come down to this. On Saturday, David Stockman, the legendary Reagan budget chief who presided over the Gipper's supply-side tax cuts, announced that the "debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party's embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they result from tax cuts." The next day, the former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, who famously helped sell the 2001 Bush tax cuts to... more Posted on August 2, 2010 \| Comments (5)

	GOP Sets Record for Blocking Judicial Nominees - and Everything Else As Senate Republicans added blocking aid to small business to their record-setting obstructionism, Democrats this week failed to secure the needed votes for reform of the filibuster rule. But largely overlooked in the debate over the filibuster is the Republicans' unprecedented obstructionism when it comes to the confirmation of President Obama's judicial nominees. As it turns out, while the GOP in the 111th Congress has turned to the filibuster at more than double the previous Democratic rates, Barack Obama's nominees... more Posted on July 31, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	It Was the Best of Times, It Was the End of Times In recent years, Pew Research, Time and others have found that almost half of Americans believe that the Second Coming of Christ and the End Times will occur during their lifetimes. Now, conservatives just need to make up their minds about whether this is a good thing. Because while Left Behind series author Tim Lahaye fretted this week that Barack Obama is hastening the Apocalypse, his allies on the religious right have been doing everything they can to make it... more Posted on July 30, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Perry Calls Texas' 46th-Ranked Health System Best in U.S. Everything, they say, is bigger in the Texas. So it is with the failure of the health care system. Leading the nation with a horrifying 25% of its residents uninsured, Texas ranked 46th in the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 scorecard of state health care performance. Nevertheless, that dismal performance was no barrier to Governor Rick Perry proclaiming that the Lone Star state has the best health care in the country. Perry the full-time fabulist and part-time secessionist made his jaw-dropping claim... more Posted on July 29, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Whitman and Fiorina: California Dreamin' on Taxes In Washington, the partisan war is flaring up again, this time of over taxes. President Obama wants to keep the "Making Work Pay" middle class tax credit while rolling back the expiring Bush tax cuts for households earning over $250,000. Republicans hope to stop him, keeping the Treasury-draining Bush windfall for the wealthy despite the stunning deficits - and record income inequality - they produced. And to sell their budget busting giveaway, the leading lights of the GOP pretend that... more Posted on July 28, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Party Like It's 1861 Until this week, Republican Congressman Zach Wamp's claim to fame had been breaking his term limits pledge. But now, the Tennessee gubernatorial candidate is making voters a new promise: secession. And as it turns out, Wamp has plenty of company in transforming the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Jefferson Davis. From their inflammatory rhetoric and antebellum nostalgia to their resurrection of discredited Confederate notions of secession, nullification and states rights, the GOP's fans of Dixie constantly remind Americans... more Posted on July 26, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Newt Gingrich Repeats History with Shirley Sherrod This week, National Review editor and Sarah Palin bath water drinker Rich Lowry branded the imbroglio that swept up Shirley Sherrod, "progress." What once involved "elemental matters of justice," Lowry amazingly declared, now merely features "offensive statements, shadowy questions of motive, and frankly cynical allegations made for political reasons." Like those, for example, of Newt Gingrich. And as it turns out, he's made no progress at all. Sixteen years before he called Shirley Sherrod "viciously racist," Newt Gingrich blamed Democrats... more Posted on July 25, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Bachmann, Issa Promise GOP Will Criminalize Politics For over a generation, Republicans and their conservative amen corner have routinely brushed off charges of their own corruption and lawlessness by accusing their opponents of "criminalizing politics." From Iran-Contra, Plamegate and Tom Delay to the U.S. attorneys purge and the Bush regime of detainee torture, Republicans survived their endless scandals by instead successfully politicizing crime. But now that their party stands on the brink of recapturing the House, GOP leaders including Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) have... more Posted on July 24, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Black Kettles, Tax Fairies and Mitch McConnell Despite his turtle-like appearance and seeming Ambien-induced demeanor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can tell a gripping tale. And yesterday on the Senate floor, he told some tall ones. Republicans, it turns out, supported unemployment benefits for the victims of the Bush recession all along. And just days after he joined the Republican Tax Cut Fairies by laughably claiming "There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue," Mitch McConnell blamed Democrats for the flood of red... more Posted on July 21, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Michael Murphy and the Palin-Romney Feud For Democrats with a strong schadenfreude streak, the recent dust-up between GOP White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin is pure joy. After all, the growing feud pits Romney, a man who has changed his mind about virtually everything against Palin, who knows virtually nothing. Better still, perhaps the most honest assessment of both conservative players came from one of their own, high-profile Republican consultant Michael Murphy. As Politico reported Friday, the imbroglio started after a Mark Halperin piece... more Posted on July 18, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP Goes Seinfeld as the Party of Nothing During an episode titled "The Pitch," George Costanza describes Seinfeld as "a show about nothing." And so it is now with the Republican Party. As the Washington Post relates this morning, in the run-up to the November midterms Republican leaders are fiercely debating whether to stand for something or nothing. By this fall, the Party of No may well become the Party of Nothing. For his part, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) wants to go the something route by... more Posted on July 17, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Krauthammer Revives Reagan Small Government Myth Long before he became what Politico deemed "Barack Obama's biggest critic," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer was a Democrat. Dr. Krauthammer left his psychiatric practice to work for Jimmy Carter and write speeches for Walter Mondale. But that was before he fell - hard - for Ronald Reagan. And now in his latest assault on President Obama, Krauthammer is deploying a Reagan who never was to defend the mythical small government he never created. In his Friday column, Krauthammer warns... more Posted on July 16, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Meet the New Republican Alchemists So it comes down to this. Republicans believe they can turn bullshit into gold. Despite the inescapable conclusion of history, theory and empirical evidence to the contrary, Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, John Boehner, Tom Coburn, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison and other Republican alchemists continue to insist that cutting taxes increases government revenue and thereby reduces the deficit. Of course, even though the tax cut claim is laughably false, conservative ideology requires that it must true. Otherwise, the Republicans have... more Posted on July 15, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Why Americans Trust Democrats to Fix the Economy Last fall, John Judis warned that like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton before him, first term President Barack Obama would see his disapproval ratings rise - and fall - along with unemployment. This week, new polls from the Washington Post, CBS News and PPP confirmed the toll the sluggish recovery is taking on Obama's popularity. But while the Washington Post-ABC survey showed Obama's disapproval number jumping to 47% overall and 54% on the economy, Republicans continue to perform far worse.... more Posted on July 14, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Birtherism Just the Latest Fetish for Vitter Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter has a new fetish. Three years after Americans learned of Vitter's predilection for prostitutes and diapers, Senator Vitter has announced his support for Birther lawsuits challenging President Obama's eligibility to serve. Vitter's apparent attempt at misdirection comes after a torrent of bad news for the one-time family values merchant turned DC Madam regular. After allegations that he kept aide Brent Furer on his staff despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest on a DUI charge... more Posted on July 13, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Kyl Joins Boehner in Lying About Tax Cuts and Deficits When it comes to tax cuts and deficits, Republicans have gone from the ridiculous to the insane. A month ago, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) comically insisted that the Bush tax cuts did not contribute the America's exploding national debt. Now Jon Kyl, the number two Republican in the Senate, the man almost single-handedly responsible for costing the Treasury $25 billion this year alone by blocking the extension of the estate tax, claims that the loss of revenue of... more Posted on July 12, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Studies Confirm the Closing of the Conservative Mind In 2009, Politifact declared Sarah Palin's "death panels" fraud its "Lie of the Year." As it turns out, the Republican Party is the Home of the Whopper. Its followers, especially those most deeply steeped in the Tea Party's toxic brew, continue to believe claims about Barack Obama's faith, national origin, and tax cuts (just to name a few delusions) that are demonstrably false. Now, a growing body of research explains why. Rather than causing political partisans to rethink their positions,... more Posted on July 12, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	GOP to Elderly Rich: Watch Your Backs Last month, Florida Republican Senator George Lemieux summed up the impact of his party's successful effort to kill the estate tax in 2010. "The joke is don't go hunting with your children because right now there's no estate tax in this country this year." But the billions lost to the U.S. Treasury so that the heirs of billionaires could reap a staggering one-year windfall is no laughing matter. So now in an article titled, "Too Rich to Live," the Wall... more Posted on July 11, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Berwick Pick Highlights GOP's Rationing of Health Care Back in February, Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan defended his "Roadmap for America's Future," which among other things would privatize - and inevitably ration - Medicare. "Rationing happens today!" Ryan revealingly protested, "The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?" Of course, he omitted the real culprit, private insurers. Now with President Obama's long overdue recess appointment of the highly respected Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Republicans are... more Posted on July 7, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	A Constitution Only the Tea Party Could Love On Friday, Gallup became just the latest pollster to confirm the obvious: "Tea Party supporters overlap the Republican base." Despite the fact that the Tea Party movement is simply a continuation of the losing 2008 GOP presidential campaign by other means, the Washington Post today examined how its members marked the Fourth of July. But in celebrating the Tea Party's July 4th "festivals and other gatherings focused on the Constitution," the Post overlooked one increasingly inescapable conclusion. The Constitution the... more Posted on July 5, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Michael Steele and the GOP's Inside Poop on Medicare Republican leaders are calling for Michael Steele's head in the wake of his remarks calling the conflict in Afghanistan "a war of Obama's choosing" which is destined to fail. But it's hardly the first time the GOP threatened Steele with the chopping block for bucking the party line. Last year, when the RNC chairman rolled out his "seniors bill of rights" committing the GOP to "no cuts to Medicare", Republicans told their chairman to "quit meddling in policy." Of course,... more Posted on July 4, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Adviser, CBO Back Need for Jobs Bill One day before Friday's dismal jobs report confirmed the pace of the U.S. recovery has slowed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the extension of unemployment benefits to "injects demand into the economy." But while the Republicans who have blocked the $112 billion package including the jobless benefits mocked her for it, Americans don't have to take her word that "it creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name." After all, it's not just the Congressional Budget... more Posted on July 2, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Thanks to GOP, Doomsday Arrives for State Budgets For months, governors and economists alike have been warning that unprecedented revenue shortfalls in the states would lead to draconian budget cuts and massive layoffs. Now with the July 1 start of fiscal year 2011 for many states, doomsday is here. And thanks to Republican obstructionism in Congress, the combined $89 billion budget gap facing the states could result in 900,000 jobs lost - and an end to the nascent economic recovery. Last month, President Obama asked Congress to send... more Posted on July 1, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Deficits vs. Democratic Deficits President Obama's rebuff on stimulus spending by the G-20 and the latest Republican roadblock on the Senate jobs bill is producing fears of a deeper, double-dip global recession. While Thomas Frank urged the U.S. to avoid the "austerity trap," Paul Krugman warned that the "pain caucus" here and in Europe could produce the "Third Depression." But behind the tidal wave of austerity fever threatening to wash away the U.S. recovery is a fundamental split between the two parties on when... more Posted on June 30, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	God Has a Plan for Sharron Angle and the GOP On Tuesday, the New York Times detailed the extraordinary lengths Nevada Republican Sharron Angle will travel to avoid the press. Almost on cue, Angle again showed why she has gone to ground. In a recent radio interview, Angle announced she opposed abortion even in cases of rape or incest because "God has a plan." Of course, Sharron Angle is far from alone among the leading lights of the GOP in believing in God's plan. As it turns out, Sarah Palin,... more Posted on June 29, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Reinstating Estate Tax Would Pay for Jobless Benefits Refusing to extend unemployment benefits to 1.2 million Americans by adding to the deficit, Senate Republicans by a 41 to 57 margin on Thursday again filibustered the Democratic $112 billion jobs bill. As it turns out, most of the roughly $35 billion still needed to pay for it could largely come from a single source: the estate tax. But thanks to the same GOP obstructionism, Republicans have chosen a one-year windfall for a handful of billionaires over millions of Americans... more Posted on June 27, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Senator Whitehouse Blames Deficit on GOP "Debt Orgy" In one of the most disingenuous claims yet by the Republican born-again deficit virgins, House Minority Leader John Boehner claimed two weeks ago that the Bush tax cuts were not to blame for the massive deficits now plaguing the federal government. On Wednesday, Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse set the record straight. The U.S. would not be hemorrhaging red ink, Whitehouse insisted, "if it hadn't been for the Republican debt orgy." Which is exactly right. After all, the national... more Posted on June 23, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Backing Polluters: Republicans Rush to Defend BP Over just the past few months, Republicans on Capitol Hill have defended predatory health insurers, corrupt Wall Street bankers and criminal coal mining companies. Now with word that President Obama has secured a $20 billion, independently administered escrow fund from BP to help pay for its devastating oil spill in the Gulf, leading lights of the GOP are rushing to protect the company from "being fleeced" and a "shakedown." One day after BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg apologized to the "small... more Posted on June 17, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Whitman a Chip of the Old McCain Block If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Meg Whitman and John McCain have quite the mutual admiration society. During the 2008 campaign, McCain parroted her claim that "1.3 million people in the world make a living off eBay" as the basis for his recession-fighting strategy. And now with the revelation that Whitman paid a $200,000 settlement after shoving one of her employees, the former eBay CEO and California Republican apparently repaid the compliment to the notoriously hotheaded McCain.... more Posted on June 16, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Boehner Lies About Bush Tax Cuts and Deficits "Reagan," Dick Cheney famously said in 2002, "proved deficits don't matter." Until, that is, a Democrat is in the White House. And it so was on Friday, when House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) insisted the Bush tax cuts did not help produce a hemorrhage of red ink from the U.S. Treasury. Of course, the national debt didn't just double during Bush's tenure. As it turns out, the Bush tax cut windfall for the wealthy accounted for almost half the... more Posted on June 12, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Fiorina's Pro-Choice Views are So Yesterday Just a day after winning the Republican nomination for Senate in California, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina lost a contest with an open microphone. She inadvertently told the world that fellow Republican Meg Whitman's appearance on the Sean Hannity show was "bizarre" and that Democratic opponent Barbara Boxer's hair style is "so yesterday." But as it turns out, what is really so yesterday is Carly Fiorina moderate pro-choice position on abortion. Like John McCain, the man she served so poorly... more Posted on June 10, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Heirs of Texas Billionaire Reap Windfall from Lapse of Estate Tax Thanks to obstructionist Republicans in Congress and their perpetual campaign to kill the estate tax, the United States Treasury stands to lose billions in revenue in 2010. And as the New York Times reported this week, a large chunk of it won't be coming from a single family. The heirs of Texas pipeline billionaire Dan L. Duncan "may become the first American billionaire allowed to pass his fortune to his children and grandchildren tax-free" and so become among the first... more Posted on June 8, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	For Republicans, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure on Oil Spill On May 7, 2001, press secretary Ari Fleischer uttered the four words that came to define the Bush administration's approach to the U.S. addiction to oil. Asked if Americans needed to "correct their lifestyles" to address the nation's energy vulnerability, Fleischer snapped, "That's a big no." And so, a government of the oil men, by the oil men and for the oil men pushed through the secret Cheney energy plan, virtually gave away U.S. oil leases, loosened regulations on offshore... more Posted on June 6, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	After Whitewashing Slavery, Barbour Tries Oil Spill Just weeks after suggesting that slavery "didn't matter for diddly," Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour similarly tried and failed to whitewash the massive BP oil spill threatening the entire Gulf Coast. After telling an audience a week ago that "A bunch of liberal elites were hoping this would be the Three Mile Island of offshore drilling," Barbour changed his tune as the black tar balls began washing ashore in his state yesterday. That, he now insists, "was a wakeup call for... more Posted on June 3, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Issa: Tim Russert Died So That We Might Drill California Republican Darrell Issa appeared on Fox News Sunday to continue his crusade against President Obama over the Sestak no-pay-for-no-play non-scandal, this time calling for an FBI investigation. But over the past several weeks, Issa has also been the GOP's chief messenger in criticizing Obama's response to the BP catastrophe in the Gulf. Which is an odd choice by the Republicans. After all, Issa not only has a long record of support for offshore drilling, opposition to alternative energy investments... more Posted on May 30, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Criminalizing Politics over Sestak Affair While Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has deemed the Sestak no-pay-for-no-play non-scandal an "illegal quid pro quo" and "Obama's Watergate," the overwhelming consensus of legal opinion had concluded otherwise. While Bush White House ethics officer Richard Painter told his fellow Republicans to "move on," Steve Bunnell of the firm O'Melveny & Myers announced, "There is nothing inherently bad about it unless you think politics and democracy are bad." But for over a generation, it has been the Republicans and their conservative... more Posted on May 29, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Will Issa Cry Again Over Sestak Non-Scandal? With today's release of statements by the White House Counsel and Congressman Joe Sestak regarding the no-pay for no-play Pennsylvania Senate contest, Sestakgate is emerging as a non-scandal. After all, in 1982 President Ronald Reagan offered Senator S.I. Hayakawa a job if he dropped out of the California GOP primary. And as CREW director Melanie Sloan suggested, there's no "there" here because the position in question was unpaid. But for Republican Darrell Issa, the imbroglio is very personal. After all,... more Posted on May 28, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Sadly for Republicans, the Stimulus Stimulated "You can fool some of the people some of the time, and that's our target market." Judging from the rhetoric of House Minority Leader John Boehner, that's the Republican mantra when it comes to the Obama recovery package. Nine months after Boehner wrongly decried a "stimulus bill that didn't create any jobs," his web site crowed about a Pew Research Survey showing "Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the $787 billion stimulus package the president passed last year has... more Posted on May 26, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Uses Rationing Ploy to Block Obama Medicare Nominee Back in February, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) rolled out his Republican "Roadmap for America's Future." When confronted about the certainty that his drastic privatization scheme would inevitably lead to rationing of Medicare, Ryan departed from the GOP health care script to protest, "Rationing happens today!" But now, Senate Republicans are trying to block Donald Berwick, President Obama's highly respected nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, for making precisely the same observation. First, a little background. That health... more Posted on May 25, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Sarah Palin's Supposed Energy Expertise Backfires. Again. During the 2008 campaign, John McCain said of his running mate Sarah Palin, "She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America." As it turns out, not so much. The half-term Alaska Governor literally had no idea how much energy her state produced and suffered from selective amnesia over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill that devastated her coastlines. Now, after Palin accused President Obama of being in bed with big oil, even the... more Posted on May 24, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Glenn Beck on FDR: In 1945, Americans Were "Glad He's Dead" Desperate to change their miserable present, Republicans are traveling back in time to rewrite the past. And so it is with President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Hoping to block President Obama's stimulus program designed to prevent the next Great Depression, right-wing authors, pundits, and politicians insisted FDR failed to cure the first one. Now, Glenn Beck tells us, Americans reacted to the death of the man who led America back from economic collapse to victory in World War... more Posted on May 22, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Rand Paul in Hot Oil over Un-American Comment Presidential bashing of corporate crime, corruption and greed is as American as apple pie. While Republican Teddy Roosevelt decried "malefactors of great wealth," his distant Democratic cousin FDR announced, "I welcome their hatred." But now just days after insisting the federal government had no right to bar racial discrimination in public accommodations, Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul again reversed victim and villain in calling President Obama's criticism of BP, "un-American." In the face of the environmental catastrophe in the... more Posted on May 21, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Picks Two Family Man Fossella for Congress Republicans have long touted their candidates' family values. Now, that goes double for the New York GOP. As Huffington Post among others noted this morning, Staten Island Republicans have nominated the disgraced Vito Fossella to run for his old House seat in 2010. Apparently, having a secret second family is no barrier to a second chance for today's Republican Party. According to the Staten Island Advance, party leaders of the executive committee voted 23-4 to nominate Fossella just days after... more Posted on May 20, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Souder Exception Proves Rule of GOP Adultery No boy, no problem. For the adulterers of the Republican Party, that has long been the rule. Which makes the resignation of Indiana GOP Congressman and family values merchant Mark Souder over an affair with staffer Tracy Jackson all the more exceptional. While Eliot Spitzer, Gary Hart, Jim McGreevey and Eric Massa may also have believed they "sinned against God," apparently for their political careers their bigger sin was being a Democrat. Just ask Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Sanford,... more Posted on May 18, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP's "Second Opinion" on Health Care Same as First Back in March, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his party's fall campaign to undo health care reform, declaring, "I think the slogan will be 'repeal and replace', 'repeal and replace.'" But a funny thing happened on the way to November. Surveys from Kaiser and Deloitte showed Americans strongly supported individual provisions of the new law, while Republicans' own polling revealed independents hated "repeal and replace." This week, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed Americans want to give the new... more Posted on May 14, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	YouCut Deficit Sham is Cantor's Latest Gimmick Just days after he acknowledged the collapse of his effort to rebrand the GOP, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) is resorting to yet another gimmick to resuscitate his party. On Wednesday, Cantor debuted "YouCut," a campaign which promises that House Republicans will call for spending cuts chosen by online voters. As it turns out, Cantor's ballot of deficit-cutting options would only trim millions from the proposed $3.8 trillion federal budget. And as recent surveys suggest, when it comes to... more Posted on May 12, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Tea Parties Rage as Taxes Hit Lowest Level Since 1950 For almost a year and a half, furious Tea Party protesters have been chanting "Taxed Enough Already." But as it turns out, "taxed enough" actually means "at the lowest levels since 1950." That's the word from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which found that Americans paid the smallest overall tax bill since Harry Truman was in the White House. Of course, that inconvenient truth for Tea Baggers is tied to another: their plummeting payments are due in part to the... more Posted on May 11, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Defend Slavery to Attack Kagan One month after Republican Governors Bob McDonnell and Haley Barbour celebrated a slavery-free version of the Confederacy, the GOP is defending slavery in order to attack President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. In an RNC memo released today, Republicans blast the former clerk to Thurgood Marshall for concurring with her boss' assessment that the Constitution as originally conceived and drafted was "defective." Of course, that's just the latest rotted carcass of the Confederacy to be exhumed as a Republican... more Posted on May 10, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Two Strikes for Republican Rebranding Effort Two years ago, former Virginia Republican Congressman Tom Davis lamented, "The Republican brand is in the trash can...if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf." Now 24 months later, Republican leaders have abandoned their second attempt to rebrand their tainted product. Nevertheless, the American people seem determined to restock the House with it. While the first failed GOP effort to bleach the stain of George W. Bush ended with a bang, the latest died with a... more Posted on May 9, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Tea Party Woodstock Slated for 9/11 Anniversary This September 11th, Tea Party organizers will commemorate that American tragedy not with a plea for shared sacrifice and national unity, but with a partisan shindig. But what they are calling the "Woodstock of tea parties" has only one thing in common with the legendary 1969 gathering in upstate New York. Like the throngs at Yasgur's farm, the Tea Baggers are hallucinating, just without the acid. From the Des Moines Register comes the latest word from the Tea Parties who... more Posted on May 7, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Intensity vs. Propensity in the 2010 Campaign This week has brought a mixed bag for Democrats anxious about the party's prospects for the 2010 midterm elections. Gallup reported a marked shrinkage in the "enthusiasm gap," as the GOP's edge in "very enthusiastic" voters dropped by half since early April/ But as Hotline reported, Democratic turnout in Tuesday's primaries fell "off a cliff," an ominous sign given the virulent anti-incumbent fever sweeping the electorate. But the real danger for Democrats may not be the flagging enthusiasm of their... more Posted on May 6, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Judge Cornyn's War on the Rule of Law That Texas Senator John Cornyn joined John McCain in the Republican chorus denouncing the Obama administration for reading Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad his Miranda rights is unsurprising. Unsurprising and sadly ironic. After all, from detainee torture and illicit domestic surveillance to judicial intimidation and defendant's rights, Cornyn isn't just a ring leader of the GOP war on the Constitution and the rule of law. Before coming to the Senate, Judge Cornyn served as his state's attorney general and... more Posted on May 5, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Believing, Not Knowing: The Sarah Palin Story Believing, not knowing. For her fiercest critics and most fervent supporters alike, that is the hallmark of Sarah Palin. And on no issue does Palin's belief trump her knowledge more than energy. After all, the woman John McCain declared "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America" literally had no idea how much her own state of Alaska produced. And yet in the midst of the catastrophe now unfolding in the Gulf Coast, the... more Posted on May 3, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Party Animals While Arizona Governor Jan Brewer suggested Friday that her state's illegal immigrants were terrorists, other Republicans have deemed them another kind of animal altogether. Make that animal or insect. As it turns out, the same GOP that likens same-sex marriage to the union of one man and one dog, box turtle or horse also equates illegals with just about every one of God's creatures great and small. All, that is, except human beings. As the debate over comprehensive immigration reform... more Posted on May 1, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	A Perfect Storm for Regulatory Reform For conservative free-market ideologues, April has been the cruelest month, indeed. In a perfect storm washing over Republican foes of government regulation, the last several days alone featured unbridled Wall Street greed, corporate mismanagement of a devastating oil spill, and corruption and criminality in the nation's coal mines. Meanwhile, in another blow to GOP "repeal and replace" orthodoxy, Americans health insurers have already begun to end their cruel practice of rescission years before the mandate enshrined by President Obama's health... more Posted on April 30, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Sarah Palin Endorses "Pathway to Citizenship" for Illegal Immigrants That Sarah Palin, the propagator-in-chief of the ever-evolving "death panels" fraud deemed the Lie of the Year by Politifact, would blast President Obama for "perpetuating this myth that racial profiling is part" of the draconian new immigration law in Arizona was pathetically predictable. But what may come as an unwelcome surprise to the xenophobic denizens of Tea Partistan is her endorsement for a "pathway to citizenship" for the illegal aliens already in the United States. During an appearance with Sean... more Posted on April 28, 2010 \| Comments (4)

	God's Own Tea Party The first lesson in Tea Party 101 is this: Tea Party supporters are just Republicans, only more so. They're old, white, very conservative and vote Republican. They shout the same incendiary slogans on display at any McCain-Palin rally circa October 2008. Tea Baggers and Republicans believe the same Bircher, Birther, Deather and Denier myths. And as Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and a long list of others made clear, the leading lights of the Tea Party and GOP alike... more Posted on April 25, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	The Grand Old Tea Party Platform Urged on by Newt Gingrich, a coalition of Tea Party groups last week unveiled their so-called "Contract from America." Now, Congressional Republicans including Eric Cantor (R-VA), Mike Pence (R-IN) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) are also hoping to mimic Gingrich's winning 1994 gambit with their own "Contract with America." But after reading the Tea Party's 10-point manifesto, a new GOP "Contract" seems like an exercise in redundancy. After all, the data show Tea Partiers are Republicans. And virtually everything the Tea... more Posted on April 23, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	A Year Later, Politico Says Tea Party Importance Exaggerated From the beginning, the so-called Tea Party movement has merely been a continuation of the failed 2008 Republican presidential campaign by other means. In April 2009, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show highlighted that truth when he told furious Tea Baggers, "I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing." Now, a year later, Politico, the ESPN of politics, has belatedly reached the same conclusion in a piece titled, "the Tea Party's exaggerated importance." Near the beginning of that four... more Posted on April 22, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	For Republican Wordsmiths, Opposites Attract In a rare moment of Republican candor, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker debunked the talking point at the center of the GOP's campaign to protect predatory Wall Street bankers. Bucking his party's leadership, Corker defended reform provisions charging banks to create a resolution fund for winding down failing institutions, calling it "anything but a bailout." In so doing, Corker exposed one of the GOP's famously tried and untrue tactics for peddling wildly unpopular Republican policies to the American people. Call it... more Posted on April 20, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Getting Away with Murder: How the GOP Killed Trust in Government That Americans' trust in government has plummeted to near-record lows isn't a surprise. After all, as the Pew Research Center documented, distrust of Washington is an American tradition, one which tends to rise and fall inversely with the economy. But the spike in anger towards the federal government, a fury which doubled to 21% since 2000, points to a potential midterm bonanza for the GOP. All of which suggests that the Republican Party whose anti-government rhetoric and incompetence in office... more Posted on April 19, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Tea Party "Contract from America" a Fiscal Suicide Pact As Tea Party favorite Karl Marx once said, historical events occur twice, first as tragedy, then as farce. And so it is with the Tea Party "Contract from America." But rather than following Newt Gingrich's gimmicky 1994 path to retaking control of Congress, the Tea Partiers sound more like Ronald Reagan circa 1980. After all, the Gipper, too, promised to cut taxes, raise defense spending and balance the budget. Of course, what Reagan produced instead during his eight years in... more Posted on April 16, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Right-Wing "47% Pay No Taxes" Talking Point Debunked In anticipation of the April 15 Tax Day, Republicans have resurrected their tried and untrue talking point dating back to the 2008 McCain campaign that over 40% of Americans pay no taxes. Of course, virtually all workers pay the Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. And the new tax credits signed into law by presidents Bush and Obama, on top of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Ronald Reagan himself proclaimed, "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best... more Posted on April 14, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Haley Barbour the Latest Neo-Confederate Face of the GOP On Friday, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post proclaimed Mississippi Governor and former RNC chairman Haley Barbour "the most influential Republican in the country." If so, that dubious title is a reflection of the sad state of the GOP and the nation. After all, just days after Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's Confederate History Month proclamation highlighted his party's nostalgia for the antebellum South, Barbour on Sunday insisted its omission of slavery "doesn't matter for diddly." And as it turns out,... more Posted on April 11, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Unbearable Whiteness of Being a Tea Bagger Over the past few weeks, two conservative myths about the Tea Party movement have exploded. First, despite the best efforts of Republicans to paint the angry mobs as independents, a bevy of polls confirmed that Tea Party members are ideologically conservative and overwhelmingly vote Republican. Second, a new survey from the University of Washington revealed that despite right-wing claims to the contrary, the lily-white Tea Party is boiling over with racial animus. Echoing recent polls from Gallup, the Winston Group,... more Posted on April 9, 2010 \| Comments (5)

	Conservatives Resume Cry of Income Tax "Welfare" Back in the 1980's, President Ronald Reagan hailed the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress." But as Tax Day approaches, conservatives have forsaken their patron saint, decrying the "redistribution of wealth" for working families provided by the EITC and other tax credits. If that sounds familiar, it should. Even as income inequality hit record levels, Republicans during the 2008 campaign called... more Posted on April 8, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	The Republican Confederacy of Dunces A modest proposal: no one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism - ever. Ditto for anyone trafficking in Confederate nostalgia as a political strategy. Of course, that new red, white and blue rule would pose a problem for today's Republican Party. After all, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, the same man who delivered the GOP's response to President Obama's 2010 State of the Union, this week resurrected "Confederate History Month" in Richmond. And to be sure,... more Posted on April 7, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Introducing McCain 5.0 Arizona Senator and self-proclaimed maverick John McCain raised eyebrows this week with declaration in Newsweek that, "I never considered myself a maverick." But as it turns out, this new role for the failed 2008 GOP presidential candidate isn't his second incarnation, but his fifth. In a thirty year career, John McCain has ping-ponged from Goldwater conservative to renegade Republican to neocon Bush bootlicker and, two years ago, the campaign 2008 schizophrenic. And now in a desperate attempt to hold onto... more Posted on April 6, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Myth of the Mainstream Tea Party In the wake of two new surveys from Gallup and the Winston Group, the conservative blogosphere and general media alike have been quick to proclaim the Tea Party movement "mainstream." While the Los Angeles Time promoted the "Myth-Busting Polls," one right-wing blog laughingly warned of a "Suicide Watch at DNC HQ." But while the new numbers might suggest that demographically, "Tea Party members are average Americans," politically they most certainly are not. As it turns out, Gallup and Winston like... more Posted on April 5, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	How Jon Kyl Learned to Love the Judicial Filibuster With word that 89 year old Justice John Paul Stevens may step down from the Supreme Court as soon as this year, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate made clear his party wouldn't hesitate to filibuster Stevens' replacement. Asked if the GOP would resort to the obstructionist tactic it once routinely decried, Arizona's Jon Kyl announced Sunday, "it will all depend on what kind of a person it is." Of course, as his years leading the Republican "up or down... more Posted on April 4, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	When Romney Met Kennedy As his somersaulting positions on abortion, immigration, Iran, Osama Bin Laden and myriad other issues showed, watching Mitt Romney's political gymnastics has long been painful. But with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney's contortionist act has reached a new low. Joining the ranks of Republicans demanding the repeal of a federal health care law virtually identical to the one he championed in Massachusetts, the 2012 White House hopeful finds himself "in a box" or the... more Posted on April 3, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Tea Party Thanks President Obama for Tax Cuts After months of incendiary rhetoric reached a crescendo with the passage of health care reform last week, this announcement from a coalition of Tea Party organizations comes as a welcome relief. Perhaps cooler heads and a more civil political discourse will prevail in America after all. The full text of Thursday's press release follows below: __________________________ TEA PARTY THANKS PRESIDENT OBAMA FOR TAX CUTS Concedes U.S. Born President Not a Socialist, Anti-Christ RICHMOND, VA - A coalition of the leading... more Posted on April 1, 2010 \| Comments (11)

	Hutchison Breaks Promise to Leave Senate. Again. As Hotline, the Washington Post and others are reporting, Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will not step down and will instead serve out her term through 2012. Citing "President Obama's victory on health care legislation" and not her thumping at the hands of Rick Perry in the Texas GOP gubernatorial primary, Hutchison has reversed course on her pledge last fall to resign. If that broken vow to leave the Senate sounds familiar, it should. Kay Bailey Hutchison is just... more Posted on March 31, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Sarah Palin Double Dribbles on Right-Wing Violence As suspended NBA star Gilbert Arenas could attest, guns and basketball don't mix. But just days after getting roundly criticized for her incendiary language about the need for Republicans to "reload" and target the vulnerable Democrats in her crosshairs, Sarah Palin turned to Facebook to cloak her tough talk in an analogy to March Madness. As usual, in her adolescent rant the half-term Alaska Governor was too cute by half. Headlining the Tea Party rally Sunday in Harry Reid's hometown... more Posted on March 30, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	R is for Recess Appointment - and Republican Republicans are predictably apoplectic about the 15 recess appointments announced by President Obama this weekend. John McCain, who in 2005 praised George W. Bush's appointment of John Bolton as UN Ambassador as "the president's prerogative,"blasted Obama for showing "little respect for the time honored constitutional roles and procedures of Congress." Jim Demint accused the President of "mocking Americans" with his selections of "some pretty radical folks." As it turns out, the Republican hypocrisy is double. While the GOP's obstruction of... more Posted on March 29, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Follows Nixon's Route 66 While Richard Nixon never donned the dominatrix-on-a-motorcycle look on the campaign trail, Sarah Palin in many other ways appears to be following Tricky Dick's path to the White House. Similarly a "serial collector of resentments," Palin's language of "real Americans" who aren't "going to sit down and shut up" in the face of "lame-stream media lies" stirs echoes of Nixon's "silent majority." More importantly, Palin like Nixon in 1966 is targeting vulnerable Democrats in traditionally conservative districts to win Republican... more Posted on March 28, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Opposes Himself. Again. If Republicans suffered a devastating defeat this week with the passage of President Obama's health care reform bill, Mitt Romney was the biggest loser of all. While the 2012 White House hopeful declared that "President Obama betrayed his oath to the nation," even conservatives acknowledged that the individual insurance mandate Massachusetts Governor Romney signed into law is virtually identical to the federal one he now decries. And as his long history of acrobatic flip-flops and painful political contortion acts on... more Posted on March 27, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Newt Gingrich Blames Democrats for Violence. Again. 16 years and one wife ago, Newt Gingrich blamed Democrats for Susan Smith's notorious murders of her two small children. Now, a decade and a half after blaming "Lyndon Johnson's Great Society" for Smith's drowning of her sons, the former Speaker of the House is back to declare that "the Democratic leadership has to take some moral responsibility" for escalating right-wing threats and violence. And no doubt, now as then, Newt will claim "the only way you get change is... more Posted on March 26, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	The Bipartisanship Scorecard After a year of rancorous debate, Congress has given its blessing to the final health care reform bill. As expected, the reconciliation fixes to the $940 billion package received exactly zero Republican votes, passing the House 220 to 207 and 56 to 43 in the Senate. In theory, the born-again deficit virgins of the GOP should also have been happy. After all, the CBO forecasts the final health care bill for less than half the cost of the 2001 and... more Posted on March 26, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	10 Years After Bush's Worst Speech, GOP Offers Only Fear Itself I've long felt that George W. Bush's acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention was among the most arrogant and reprehensible in the annals of American political oratory. But now that his party's overheated rhetoric on health care has helped foment threats and violence, Bush's address in retrospect was a masterpiece of projection as well. In claiming that the Al Gore's Party of Roosevelt "had their moment" and had nothing to offer but "fear itself," Bush could have been... more Posted on March 25, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	The 5 Signs of Republican and Tea Party Unity After a year of denying the obvious, the American media is finally coming to the conclusion that the supposed Tea Party movement is simply a continuation of the failed 2008 Republican presidential campaign by other means. As the data show, the vast majority Tea Baggers don't merely identify themselves as Republicans, they vote for the GOP as well. And as it turns out, the wildest myths propagated by the Tea Bagger are broadly accepted by the Republican faithful. Even in... more Posted on March 25, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	AG's Fight to Preserve States' Dismal Health Care That 14 state attorneys general - 13 of them Republicans - have brought a lawsuit to stop the health care reform legislation signed into law Tuesday by President Obama is a perfect reflection of today's GOP. It not only confirms the Republican Party's longstanding mantra of "judicial activism for me, not thee." The suit, which challenges the individual insurance mandate originally proffered by Republicans, would require the Supreme Court to eviscerate over 200 years of precedent regarding the Commerce Clause... more Posted on March 24, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Sarah Palin Against a Third Party Before She Was For It While Sarah Palin clearly does not read much in general, she seems to have skipped the Republican memo regarding the Tea Party movement in particular. Appearing on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Palin endorsed the notion of Tea Baggers brewing up third party candidates, a development she insisted "can actually help in this process." That proclamation not only violates the GOP line proffered by Michael Steele, Michele Bachmann, Jim Demint and others that "We need to stop looking at the... more Posted on March 23, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	You're Welcome! From the beginning, two great, largely unmentioned ironies hung over the contentious health care debate. The first elephant in the room (pun intended) is that health care is worst in those states where Republicans poll best. The second is that it will be blue state taxpayers helping fund the improvement of the dismal health care systems in those reddest (and mostly southern) states. So to raging Red Staters furious about Sunday's landmark legislation, the message from Blue America is a... more Posted on March 22, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	What the Health Care Debate Was Really About After a year - decades, really - the debate over health care reform came down to a climactic vote in the United States House of Representatives. Many people of good faith in both political parties were separated by a genuine - and fundamental - ideological divide. But as their ferocity revealed, for the GOP the conflict all along was more about power than policy. Republicans were afraid not that Democratic health care reforms would fail the American people, but that... more Posted on March 21, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	GOP Leaders Embrace Tea Party Bigotry Rule #1: No one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism. Rule #2: For a Republican Party intent on co-opting the Tea Party protests it helped foster, silence is golden. So while Democrats Tim Ryan (D-OH), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Barney Frank (D-MA) rushed to denounce the racist and homophobic slurs of Tea Baggers directed at U.S. Congressmen, the GOP has thus far been silent. The absence of a rebuke for the shouts of the n-word... more Posted on March 21, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The 10 Republican No's on Health Care When it comes to the health care reform bill, perfect is the enemy of good. But Republicans are the enemy of everything. And on Sunday, every member of the House GOP will likely vote against the final health care reform bill that will bring coverage to 32 million more Americans, end insurance company abuses involving rescission, pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps on payments, all while slashing the federal budget deficit by $1.3 trillion over the next two decades. But in... more Posted on March 20, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Broun: Health Care for Red States a "War of Yankee Aggression" For many Republicans from Dixie, the old times there are not forgotten. But in equating the health care reform bill to the "Great War of Yankee Aggression," Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has served up a double irony. For starters, Broun is among the growing legion of Congressional Republicans trying to kill Medicare through privatization. More ironic still, the unhealthiest residents and worst health care systems can be found in pecisely those red southern states where Republicans poll best. To the... more Posted on March 19, 2010 \| Comments (4)

	CBO Highlights Republican Deficit Posturing The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates for the final health care bill are bringing smiles to Democratic faces. Over 10 years, the $940 billion package will cover 32 million more Americans while ending insurance abuses including rescission and the use of pre-existing conditions to deny coverage. But the ersatz deficit hawks of the Republican Party should be happy, too. For less than half the cost of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, the CBO forecasts the final health care... more Posted on March 18, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Sick and Tired of the Sick and Tired As the health care reform debate heads into its final days, the Republican opposition is turning on the sick themselves. This week, the right-wing echo chamber blasted an 11 year old boy whose mother passed away due to lack of health insurance. And a day after the conservative blogosphere protested that Obama insurance reform case study Natoma Canfield might yet receive charity from the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, furious Tea Party activists in Washington taunted a man suffering from Parkinson's disease.... more Posted on March 17, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Republicans Blasted U.S. Allies Over Iraq War While the U.S. continues its pushback against Israel's humiliating settlements announcement last week, Republicans in Congress predictably rushed to defend the Netanyahu government. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor branded the Obama administration "irresponsible" and claimed its treatment of the special relationship with Israel "jeopardizes America's national security." Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) parroted Likud Party talking points about American interference in a "zoning decision in its capital city." And for his part, John McCain blasted the "public disparagement" of Israel and... more Posted on March 16, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Distant Obama Cousin Slams Health Care Plan As Ron Reagan Jr. made clear to Frank Gaffney and Pam Geller, the relatives of political icons don't always echo their views. (Gaffney went so far as tell Reagan, "Your father would be ashamed of you.") Now, as the health care debate nears it climax, the Washington Times has trotted out Dr. Milton Wolf, "Barack Obama's second cousin once removed," to maul the President's health care plan. But while Dr. Wolf's personalized version of conservative talking points is music to... more Posted on March 11, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Tom Delay Insists Jobless Choose Unemployment Back in 2007, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay explained the Republican emergency room health care plan to a British audience. "There's no one denied health care in America," he announced to laughter, "there are 47 million people who don't have health insurance, but no American is denied health care in America." Which makes Tom Delay the perfect choice to make the GOP's case that the jobless choose to be unemployed. Delay's latest jaw-dropper came during his defense of the... more Posted on March 7, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Romney vs. Pawlenty on the GOP's ER Health Care Plan For years, Republican leaders including President George W. Bush, former House Minority Leader Tom Delay and current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have insisted that "no American is denied health care in America" because "you just go to an emergency room." But while Mitt Romney reminded Joe Scarborough that the funds Massachusetts used to pay to meet that federal requirement made the Bay State's near-universal health care program possible, his 2012 GOP White House rival Tim Pawlenty wants to eliminate... more Posted on March 4, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	For Hatch's GOP, No Reconciliation with the Truth When it comes to the budget reconciliation process in the Senate, the truth is not setting Republicans free. On Sunday, John McCain vowed to end the use of reconciliation to change Medicare, despite the GOP's repeated deployment of that same tactic for 30 years. Now, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who previously warned Democrats that resorting to the 51 vote simple majority to pass health care would trigger a "holy war," ignored his own voting record to declare in the Washington... more Posted on March 2, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	The Bunning Linguist As the lone objector standing in the way of a bill extending unemployment benefits for Americans hard hit by the recession, Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning may at this moment be the most hated political figure in the United States. And with good reason. His obstructionist grandstanding has not only single-handedly halted the extension of some unemployment and COBRA benefits, but led to the furlough of thousands of transportation workers and even blocked the Medicare "doc" fix needed to prevent a... more Posted on March 2, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	McCain: Prohibit Use of Reconciliation to Change Medicare Republicans desperate to halt health care reform at all costs are turning to a new gambit. To Democrats intent on passing a Senate bill with a 51 vote simple majority via the reconciliation process, Republicans for months have warned the move would trigger a "holy war" (Hatch), a "nuclear war" (Kyl) or even "end the Senate" (Alexander). Now, John McCain hopes to foreclose that option with an amendment that would prohibit the use of reconciliation to change the Medicare program.... more Posted on March 1, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Wins Gold Medal for Obstructionism Canada may have eked out a thrilling 3-2 overtime win over the United States in the Olympic hockey final on Sunday, but when it comes to political obstructionism, it's no contest. The AP is just the latest to document the Republicans' runaway gold medal in the filibuster. On track to easily shatter their previous record, the GOP has made obstructionism the new normal in Washington. As the chart above cited in January by The Atlantic's James Fallows shows, the number... more Posted on March 1, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Resurrection of Lamar Alexander In May 1996, a sheepish businessman admitted to a hotel bellhop, "There's a guy in the lobby who was running for president two months ago, and now I've forgotten his name." When the bellhop told him the man was the former Tennessee Governor, the businessman quickly remembered, "that's right, Lamar Alexander." Now, 14 years after he hung up his trademark red and black flannel shirt as he exited the 1996 Republican presidential primaries, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander suddenly matters again.... more Posted on February 28, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Revives the "Starve the Beast" Amendment "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years," Reagan Revolutionary Grover Norquist boasted, "to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Now, a generation after Norquist launched his crusade, Republican White House hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty are leading a new charge to "starve the beast." Even as these Republicans call for new Treasury-draining tax cuts, they are resurrecting a bad idea whose time never came: a balanced budget... more Posted on February 27, 2010 \| Comments (6)

	Pawlenty Calls for End to GOP's ER Health Care Plan For years, Republican leaders including President George W. Bush, former House Minority Leader Tom Delay and current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have insisted that "no American is denied health care in America" because "you just go to an emergency room." Apparently, Minnesota Governor and 2012 White House Republican hopeful Tim Pawlenty didn't read the memo on the GOP's emergency room health care plan. On Monday, the man who calls himself T-Paw told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren (around the... more Posted on February 26, 2010 \| Comments (10)

	At Health Care Summit, GOP Repeats Same "Start Over" Talking Point from July At Thursday's White House health care summit, President Obama pleaded with the participants for "a discussion, and not just us trading talking points." Alas, as Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander made clear from the get-go, the President was destined for disappointment. In his opening remarks, Alexander insisted Democrats should abandon the bills they've already passed and start from a fresh sheet of paper. But in proclaiming that "This is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and we ought to... more Posted on February 25, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	White House Summit Highlights Republican Malpractice Myths In the run-up to Thursday's White House health care summit, the Washington Post's Ezra Klein documented "the six Republican ideas already in the health-care reform bill." Among these is the GOP's favorite whipping boy, tort reform. But the Senate provision which "encourages states to develop new malpractice systems and suggests that Congress fund the most promising experiments" will never mollify Republicans determined to enact draconian curbs on malpractice awards to, as they say, "end junk lawsuits." As for the "sorry... more Posted on February 25, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Pawlenty Swings 9 Iron, Clubs Self After his dismal performance at this weekend's CPAC conference, Minnesota Governor and 2012 White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty might want to ask for a mulligan. Before finishing a distant fourth in the CPAC straw poll, Pawlenty's speech was panned by the conservative faithful he sought to impress. Worse still, his painful Tiger Woods "9 iron" joke about "big government" not only fell flat, but only served to highlight Governor Pawlenty's dependence on the very federal stimulus funds he routinely denounces.... more Posted on February 21, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Austin Attack Highlights Dangerous Anti-IRS Rhetoric Thursday's suicide airplane attack on the Austin office of the Internal Revenue Service by a disgruntled tax protester has once again focused attention on dangerously inflammatory anti-IRS rhetoric. To be sure, the language was threatening. "Gestapo-like tactics." "The IRS is out of control!" "Which would you prefer: having your wallet or purse stolen or being audited by the IRS?" "You don't need to send in armed personnel in flak jackets." "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS Man, let's try something different,... more Posted on February 18, 2010 \| Comments (13)

	For Republicans, Stimulus Reality Bites Back in January, a CNN poll revealed that "nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted." But one year after the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed into law, the numbers - and the overwhelming consensus of economists - tell the tale of its success. And as it turns out, that consensus is shared by dozens of Republican Congressmen whose money... more Posted on February 17, 2010 \| Comments (9)

	Capture of Taliban Leader Destroys Latest GOP Talking Point Last week, former Bush speechwriter and full-time torture apologist Marc Thiessen introduced perhaps the most comically hypocritical talking point in the perpetual Republican jihad against the Obama administration's war policies. In "Dead Terrorists Tell No Tales," Thiessen fretted that under President Obama, the United States is killing its enemies before getting a chance to torture them first. Six days later, the Washington Post amplified that line, warning "under Obama, more targeted killings than captures in counterterrorism efforts." But the revelation... more Posted on February 16, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	God Talks to Joe the Plumber. Again. If Joe Lieberman was the biggest ingrate in American politics, Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher is surely now the first. While Lieberman betrayed Barack Obama only months after Obama campaigned for him in Connecticut, the Plumber turned Tea Bagger has now turned his back on John McCain and Sarah Palin. Which can only mean that God must be talking to Joe the Plumber again. On Saturday, Joe revealed his disdain for his benefactors during a "Mobilize for Liberty" event in... more Posted on February 15, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Not Good and Pawlenty Three months after the launch of his Freedom First PAC, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty with his interview in Esquire took another step towards a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. But while the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza lauded Pawlenty's "stinging critique of GOP," in words and deeds the man who calls himself "T-Paw" is just the latest in the growing ranks of interchangeable conservative demagogues. From his Tenther fantasies and stimulus grandstanding to his simultaneous calls for making... more Posted on February 13, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Republicans Trying to Kill Medicare. Again. Back in October, Republicans leaders slammed party chief Michael Steele for his "Seniors' Bill of Rights" which promised "no cuts to Medicare." Not because they weren't issuing dire - and mythical - warnings that Democrats were "sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare." No, the GOP brain trust was furious precisely because Steele's was a promise they were already intent on breaking. After all, the same Republican Party which tried to kill Medicare in the 1960's and gut it... more Posted on February 12, 2010 \| Comments (4)

	Broder's Palin Worship Revives Stupid Candidate Theory Back in 1999, the New Republic displayed then Governor George W. Bush in a dunce cap to tout its cover story, "Why America Loves Stupid Candidates." Judging by David Broder's fawning paean to Sarah Palin today in the Washington Post, it may be time to debate the stupid candidate thesis again. Ironically, Broder's ode to Palin ("Sarah Palin displays her pitch perfect populism") arrives on the same day that conservative Jonathan Kay warned about the real story coming out of... more Posted on February 11, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Thiessen Laments Dead Terrorists Can't Be Tortured In the wake of the September 11 attacks, President Bush famously announced his plans for Osama Bin Laden, "There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" Bush, of course, failed to deliver Bin Laden in either state. But now that President Obama is killing large numbers of Al Qaeda members in the Pakistani safe haven his predecessor failed to dismantle, former chief Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen worries that "dead terrorists tell no tales."... more Posted on February 9, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	For Republicans, No Means No If nothing else, Barack Obama is a glutton for punishment. Apparently confident in his ability to manhandle the Republican leadership in the wake of his televised beat-down of the House GOP caucus two weeks ago, Obama has invited McConnell, Boehner and company to the White House for a health care summit. But instead of applying a full-court press on recalcitrant members of his own party to finally pass a Democratic bill the country so badly needs, Obama will waste yet... more Posted on February 8, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Republican Sexism Meets Palin's Sex Appeal As conservatives rush to defend Sarah Palin in the wake of her Tea Party "Telepalmter" episode, no reaction has been as comically hypocritical as that offered by the right-wing blog, Legal Insurrection. There, William Jacobsen bemoans the rash of adolescent "hand job" headlines in a stunning piece titled, "Palin Exposes Misogyny In The Democratic Base, Again." Stunning, that is, because her Republican admirers have made no secret about either their drooling reaction to Palin's looks or their sexist attitudes towards... more Posted on February 8, 2010 \| Comments (4)

	Palin's America Dependent on Divine Intervention Over the past 10 days, President Obama and Sarah Palin made clear everything you need to know about their dueling visions of America's character and its future. In his State of the Union address, the President rejected the notion that "our progress was inevitable," reminding the nation that "the only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard." But on Saturday night, the half-term Alaska Governor presented the assembled Tea Party faithful... more Posted on February 8, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	The Immaculate Convention "I'm mad, I'm really mad," the man said, adding, "It's not the economy. It's the socialist taking over our country." If you thought those words came from one of the 600 faithful breathlessly waiting to hear from Sarah Palin at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, you could be forgiven for your error. Virtually identical in tone and content, that frothing at the mouth anger was instead just one highlight of a McCain-Palin town hall rally in October 2008.... more Posted on February 6, 2010 \| Comments (2)

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

	GOP Budget Proposal: Ration Medicare, Privatize Social Security Throughout the bitter debate over health care reform, talking points about "rationing" and "cuts to Medicare" have been the twin pillars of Republican fear mongering. For example, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in June warned of reform that "denies, delays, or rations health care," only to falsely charge weeks later that Democrats "are going to pay for this plan by cutting Medicare, that is cutting seniors." But with the publication of the Republican "shadow" budget by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI),... more Posted on February 4, 2010 \| Comments (3)

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

	Palin Abandons Her "Screw Political Correctness" Mantra Last June, soon-to-be ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin praised Michael Reagan, lauding his propensity to "to call it like he sees it, and to screw political correctness that some would expect him to have to adhere to." As she headed out the door six weeks later, Palin promised to be "less politically correct" after her leaving office. Then after the Ft. Hood shootings in November, Palin said "profile away!" because such political correctness "could be our downfall." As it turns out,... more Posted on February 2, 2010 \| Comments (3)

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

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

	Deficit Hawks, Peacocks and Virgins Shaking his head at the bad economics and worse politics of the White House's proposed spending freeze, Paul Krugman deemed President Obama not a deficit hawk, but a "deficit peacock." "You can identify deficit peacocks," he wrote, "by the way they pretend that our budget problems can be solved with gimmicks like a temporary freeze in nondefense discretionary spending." But while Krugman is right to take Obama to task, he omitted an even more cynical player in the fiscal discipline... more Posted on January 29, 2010 \| Comments (2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	GOP Defends Trent Lott, Calls for Reid to Resign While President Obama declared "the book is closed" on Harry Reid's past "negro dialect" comment, Republicans are using the imbroglio to reopen the book on the disgraced Trent Lott. On Sunday, RNC chairman Michael Steele and Arizona Senator Jon Kyl insisted Reid should resign his post as Senate Majority Leader like Trent Lott before him. Sadly for the Republicans, there is no double standard at work here. Trent Lott didn't merely lavish praise on the legendary racist and segregation stalwart... more Posted on January 10, 2010 \| Comments (3)

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

	On Terror, GOP Goes from Oprah to Donald Trump Witnessing the Republican reaction to the Obama administration's handling of the failed Christmas bombing is like watching reruns of The Apprentice. Like Donald Trump, each conservative talking head proclaims "You're Fired!" to members of the Obama team. Of course, when President Bush presided over the 9/11 catastrophe, Osama Bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora, the baseless claims about Saddam's WMD, the disastrous invasion of Iraq and myriad other intelligence and national security debacles, Republicans instead played the role of Oprah.... more Posted on January 8, 2010 \| Comments (3)

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

	10 Moments in GOP Terrorism Accountability On Tuesday, President Obama described the failed Christmas airliner attack as a "potentially disastrous" failure of the system, one "that's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it." Unsurprisingly, the usual mouthpieces of the right like Peter King and Ron Christie have fanned out to demand "someone will have to go" and that Obama "fire those staff members who have failed their president and failed their nation." Even more predictable, of course, is that those same Republican voices were silent... more Posted on January 6, 2010 \| Comments (5)

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

	Republicans Now the Party of Armageddon When the obscure evangelical radio host turned Biblical numerologist Harold Camping predicts the end of the world will arrive on May 21, 2011, it's not a cause for concern. But what about when many of the leading voices of a major American political party not only look forward to the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ but believe it will come in the form of an End of Days conflict with Iran over the fate of Israel? Then you'd... more Posted on January 4, 2010 \| Comments (20)

	Rush Limbaugh Praises Blue State Health Care Last week, Republican strategist Kevin Madden chastised President Obama for choosing to vacation in a "foreign place" like Hawaii, concluding "it's much different than being in Texas." Rush Limbaugh, it turns out, couldn't disagree more. The right-wing radio host and avid golfer not only visits the islands every year. After his New Year's Eve scare with chest pains, Limbaugh had nothing but praise for the care he received there. And for good reason: while Hawaii ranks second in state health... more Posted on January 3, 2010 \| Comments (5)

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

	GOP's Madden Faults Obama for Being from Hawaii For some Republicans, among the sins of this President of the United States is being from one of them. That's the word from GOP strategist and Mitt Romney aide Kevin Madden, who on Wednesday declared that Hawaii "seems like a foreign place." That indictment came in response to a question from CNN's John Roberts regarding the "heat for this president from the Republicans" over the failed Christmas day airliner bomb. (Left unmentioned was the Republican double-standard for the 2001 shoe... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| Comments (6)

	Shoes vs. Underwear: The GOP's Terror Distinction The similarities between failed airplane bombers Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are striking. Each Al Qaeda convert was radicalized in London. Reid and Abdulmutallab were each subdued by fellow passengers after their explosive devices failed to detonate. The two men struck just as the President of the United States was starting his vacation for the Christmas holiday. In each case, the President spoke publicly about the incident only days later. And the Nigerian, just like Reid before him, will... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	For GOP, Short Memories on Terror Plots and Presidential Vacations That Republicans would try to politicize the failed Christmas terror attack was about as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Even less surprising is the utter falsehood and sheer hypocrisy of their ham-handed charges. For example, on Sunday Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) blasted the administration for not "connecting dots" despite having placed a hold on President Obama's TSA nominee and joining other Republicans in blocking new TSA funding. That came after Michigan Rep.... more Posted on December 28, 2009 \| Comments (18)

	McConnell and Friends Whitewash GOP Medicare Drug Plan Hypocrisy Only after both chambers of Congress had already voted on the health care reform bills which will cut the deficit, AP on Saturday belatedly looked back at the deeply flawed and unfunded Medicare prescription drug program Republicans jammed through Congress in 2003. 24 hours later, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on ABC's This Week to add his to the chorus of Republican voices protesting that was then and this is now. As Reagan Treasury official Bruce Bartlett told the AP,... more Posted on December 28, 2009 \| Comments (3)

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

	IRS Audits Finally Reversing GOP Bias for Wealthy Score one for working Americans. After enduring both the worst economic downtown and steepest income inequality since the Great Depression, new data from the Internal Revenue Service revealed that lower and middle class taxpayers are being audited at lower rates than the wealthy. And that may finally signal a roll back of the kid gloves treatment for the rich which followed the successful Republican war on the IRS in the 1990's. As the AP reported, in its efforts to recover... more Posted on December 23, 2009 \| Comments (1)

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

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

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

	GOP Gives Wealthy One Year Estate Tax Windfall For a handful of the very richest Americans, 2010 will be an excellent year to die. Thanks to Republican obstructionism on their behalf, the estate tax, which in 2009 will impact only 1 in 500 estates while generating tens of billion in revenue, will temporarily expire after December 31. Adding insult to injury, while the fortunate heirs of the largest fortunes toast their good fortune in 2010, their less well off counterparts may face higher tax bills even as they... more Posted on December 18, 2009 \| Comments (7)

	Tea Baggers Ignore U.S. Health Care's Daily "Die-In" On Tuesday, frothing at the mouth Tea Party faithful will protest health care reform legislation by descending on the Senate to holding a "die-in." But while the Tea Baggers will feign dropping dead to dramatize their opposition to health care reform they wrongly believe will leading to rationing, they seem blissfully unconcerned about the thousands of Americans who actually die each year due to lack of insurance. As TPM reported: Tea Party organizer Mark Meckler writes on his site: "The... more Posted on December 14, 2009 \| Comments (7)

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

	In Which Sarah Palin Learns About War Taxes Among the qualities that uniquely define Sarah Palin is that she doesn't know what she doesn't know. But as her confusion about the First Amendment or Alaska's energy production showed, Palin's ignorance of a subject is no barrier to her speaking out with great conviction about it. So it is once again with talk of potential tax increases to fund the escalating war in Afghanistan. War time taxes are never necessary, Sarah Palin seemed to suggest this week, because during... more Posted on December 9, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Orrin Hatch: New GOP Majority the Solution to Republican Failures From 2001 through 2008, what Thomas Frank deemed the Republican "wrecking crew" essentially demolished U.S. prosperity and the American dream. For the eight years George W. Bush presided in the White House and the six that the GOP controlled Congress, Republican stewardship produced endless budget deficits, a massive tax windfall for wealthy Americans, an unnecessary war in Iraq, sharp increases in poverty and those without health insurance and, of course, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. But as... more Posted on December 8, 2009 \| Comments (4)

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

	Notorious Hothead McCain Now "Madder Than I've Ever Been" Facing a surprisingly strong primary challenge from Tea Party darling J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Senator John McCain is now appealing to frothing-at-the-mouth Tea Baggers in the only language they understand: anger. But when McCain told Don Imus Friday that "I'm madder than I've ever been," that was really saying something. After all, with his explosive temper John McCain has been scaring the bejesus out of friends and foes - and even innocent bystanders - for decades. On Friday, the supposed Maverick... more Posted on December 6, 2009 \| Comments (4)

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

	Faith, Friends and Family: The Mike Huckabee Pardon Plan As it turns out, Mike Huckabee yesterday chose the right day to declare that "it's less likely than more likely" that he'll run for President in 2012. The horrific news that Maurice Clemmons, the repeat felon granted clemency by then Governor Huckabee in 2000, was suspected of executing four Washington state police officers won't merely cast a pall over his White House hopes. For the former Baptist minister turned GOP frontrunner, Sunday's slaughter resurrects Huckabee's disturbing history of intervening to... more Posted on November 30, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Republicans Give Thanks for Short Memories Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino's jaw-dropping statement Wednesday that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term" didn't merely serve to confirm President Obama's terrible judgment in appointing her to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. As it turns out, Perino's clumsy whitewashing of the 9/11 attacks is just the latest (if most pathetic) installment of the ongoing GOP project to selectively erase history. From their disaster in Iraq and neglect of Afghanistan to... more Posted on November 26, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Ari Fleischer Puts the BS in the BCS It's a crisis so serious that Republican Congressman from Utah and Texas have held hearings and called for investigations. Not into the Bush's administration's manipulation of Iraq intelligence, its detainee torture, the denial of global warming or the Katrina disaster. No, the outrage is the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) by which Division I college football annually determines its champion. And in an altogether fitting turn of events, the BCS has selected Ari Fleischer, the same Bush press secretary who faithfully... more Posted on November 25, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	The Republican Virginity Pledge With their virginity pledges and father-daughter purity balls, American conservatives have taken to public proclamations of their chastity and propriety. Now with its proposed "Ronald Reagan Unity Principle," the Republican National Committee is considering its own purity test for GOP candidates. But just like the right-wing teens that invariably violate their oaths of premarital abstinence, even the holiest of Republicans would fail the GOP's new Ten Commandments. Just like Ronald Reagan. Writing at the Red State blog, Erick Erickson opposes... more Posted on November 24, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Pray for Republicans: Luke 23:34. Just days after the shocking revelation that opponents of President Obama have been praying for his demise, another coded message in the form of Biblical verse has entered American political discourse. This time, however, the target of t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and signs is the Republican Party. And the meaning of "Pray for Republicans, Luke 23:34" isn't one of hate, but forgiveness. Then Jesus said, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." The meaning of Jesus' words... more Posted on November 23, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Sarah Palin's Willing Objectifiers As Sarah Palin travels the country filling her coffers, the debate rages as to whether the former Alaska Governor is a victim or beneficiary of sexism (or possibly even both). But while her allies and Palin herself have left little doubt where they stand in the wake of the Newsweek cover imbroglio, their words belie a different truth about who's objectifying whom. As many of her biggest supporters appear to admit, if Sarah Palin didn't look like she was still... more Posted on November 20, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	2009 Democratic Deficit Cutters vs. 2003 GOP Budget Busters A funny thing has happened on America's way to health care reform. As Republicans promise a "holy war" to block supposed "government-run" health care that would "break the bank", Democrats in the House and the Senate offered reform plans that would cover all almost Americans, plans which pay for themselves. As it turns out, that's a far cry from the GOP's deeply flawed 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit, an unfunded act of transparent pandering to elderly voters which saddled the... more Posted on November 19, 2009 \| Comments (2)

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

	Palin Fights Huckabee for the Hand of God Neither Mike Huckabee nor Sarah Palin believes in the theory of evolution. But with the posturing for the 2012 Republican presidential primaries already underway, each will soon learn about the principle of impenetrability. That is, when it comes to the GOP's religious right base, two White House hopefuls can't occupy the same space at the same time. And as her book makes clear, Sarah Palin seems certain that God is on her side, a position that Mike Huckabee has already... more Posted on November 17, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	GOP Embraces Medicare Official Bush Tried to Fire Politics, especially Republican politics, makes for strange bedfellows. With the AARP by their side, President Bush and his GOP allies in 2003 pushed for their unfunded and deeply flawed Medicare prescription drug plan. Now in their scorched earth campaign to block health care reform backed by the seniors' organization, the right-wing has declared war on the AARP. And the Republican partner swapping doesn't end there. Six years before Republicans hailed chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster this weekend for questioning the... more Posted on November 16, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Born Again Deficit Virgins Everything you need to know about the descent of the conservative movement into a hypocritical caricature is illustrated by two of its proudest constituencies: Republican deficit hawks and so-called "born again virgins." Having already violated the moral strictures they claim to hold dearest, each now asks the American people to join them in pretending their sin never happened. But unlike a generation of Republican leaders who built a mountain of national debt for the United States, the secondary virgins only... more Posted on November 15, 2009 \| Comments (12)

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

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

	For Midterms, Republicans Hope to Party Like It's 1966 As Politico reported Monday, Republicans in the wake of Saturday's cliff-hanger health care vote in the House immediately began their campaign to target vulnerable Democrats in traditionally GOP districts. But for a Republican Party looking to retake the House of Representatives in 2010, the formula for success may not be Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution that swept out 52 Democrats in 1994. Instead, the GOP role model may be Richard Nixon, whose one man whirlwind campaign during the 1966... more Posted on November 9, 2009 \| Comments (1)

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

	Gingrich and Perry Tout Texas Health Care Mess Everything, they say, is bigger in the Texas. So it is with the failure of the health care system. Leading the nation with a jaw-dropping 25% of its residents uninsured, Texas ranked 46th in the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 scorecard of state health care performance. All of which makes today's op-ed by Newt Gingrich and Governor Rick Perry touting the mess in Texas all the more puzzling. Just two days after the CBO dismissed a House Republican plan that would barely... more Posted on November 6, 2009 \| Comments (5)

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

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

	Jeb Bush's Brother and the GOP Attack on U.S. Capitalism On Wednesday, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush doubtless pleased his audience at the U.S Chamber of Commerce when he declared, "I think President Obama has used the bully pulpit as a way to attack capitalism." But in his knee-jerk assault on his brother's successor, Governor Bush conveniently omitted that George W. Bush compiled the worst economic record of any president since Herbert Hoover. Of course, when it comes to GDP, employment, the stock market or just about any other measure... more Posted on November 1, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	"Emergency Room" McConnell Claims Public Option May Kill You Back in September, a study by Harvard Medical School found that over 44,000 Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance. Now, in a complete reversal of both logic and the truth, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that it is the availability of a public insurance option which could prove fatal. Of course, McConnell's announcement that the public option "may cost you your life" should come as no surprise. After all, in July he echoed George... more Posted on October 30, 2009 \| Comments (5)

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

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

	Republican Malpractice Myths In recent days, Republican leaders have scored a series of political victories in their eternal quest for tort reform. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) told Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) that an onerous package of malpractice curbs he championed could save the government an estimated $54 billion over 10 years. That came on the heels of President Obama's latest offer to support limited tort reform as an olive branch to recalcitrant Republicans balking at his health care proposals, including... more Posted on October 23, 2009 \| Comments (5)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Republican Leaders Remind Steele GOP Hates Medicare As Politico reported Monday, Republicans leaders took RNC chairman Michael Steele to the woodshed for his high profile role in the health care debate. Furious that Steele's so-called "seniors' bill of rights" committed the GOP to "no cuts to Medicare," the Congressional Republicans told their chairman to "quit meddling in policy." Of course, given the GOP's 50-year war on Medicare, their fury should come as no surprise. Beyond his almost daily, run of the mill buffoonery, the leading lights among... more Posted on October 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

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

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

	Washington Post Aids GOP in Medicare Role Reversal Story That the elderly of all groups of Americans most strongly oppose President Obama on health care reform shows the success of Republican fear-mongering over supposed Medicare cuts and "death panels". And on Monday, the Washington Post did the GOP a great service in a piece titled, "On Medicare Spending, a Role Reversal." While exploring the impact of projected savings in the program that serves 46 million Americans, the Post left unchallenged the Republicans' laughable claim to be the new protectors... more Posted on September 28, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	"Hong Kong" Palin vs. "Katie Couric" Palin Turning to Sarah Palin to explain the international economy and the role of government is like asking a dog why it likes to lick its ass. But as an audience of investors and fund managers learned today in Hong Kong, Palin's cartoon-quality conservative platitudes don't merely fly in the face of the consensus of economic analysts. As a flashback to her catastrophic interview with Katie Couric reveals, Sarah Palin doesn't even agree with herself. Palin's rewriting of history begins with... more Posted on September 23, 2009 \| Comments (3)

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

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

	10 Lessons for Tea Baggers Back in April, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart offered some sound advice for frothing at the mouth Tea Baggers, "I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing." Now five months after their Tax Day outburst, thousands of vein-popping Obama opponents descended Saturday on Washington for Tea Party II. But while Glenn Beck's furious followers alternately slandered the President as a "fascist," a "communist" and worse, they remained unencumbered by either the thought process - or the truth. Here, then,... more Posted on September 14, 2009 \| Comments (12)

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

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

	Why Right-Wing Hissy Fits Work On Wednesday, the fact checking web site Politifact deemed a "pants on fire" lie the Republican claim that President Obama planned to indoctrinate America's school children in a broadcast next week. On Friday, press secretary Robert Gibbs rightly noted that presidents Reagan and Bush similarly addressed students in speeches which, as Steve Benen pointed out, actually promoted their agendas on taxes and education. Nevertheless, as ABC, the New York Times and Politico tell us, the "school speech backlash builds." All... more Posted on September 4, 2009 \| Comments (5)

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

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

	RNC's Steele Backs - and Opposes - Medicare Cuts If nothing else the GOP is an irony producing machine. The same Republican Party which fought to block Medicare in the 1960's and tried to gut it in the 1990's is now pretending to be the defender of the popular government-run health care program for America's seniors. RNC chairman Michael Steele is just the latest to deploy the elderly as human shields in the GOP battle to halt Democratic health care reform at all costs. But by both opposing and... more Posted on September 1, 2009 \| Comments (2)

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

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

	Smoking Grassley on Health Care Reform After his predictable experience with unified Republican obstructionism on the stimulus bill, President Obama must be high if he thinks there's a glimmer of hope for bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. Not because Sarah Palin is doubling-down on her "death panels" lie or Newt Gingrich is now fear-mongering over end-of-life care for the elderly he staunchly advocated just months ago. No, Obama's latest bad trip is thanks to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. One week after meeting with the President... more Posted on August 13, 2009 \| Comments (8)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	GOP Turns to Scare Tactics, Double-Talk on Medicare In his latest fear-mongering on health care reform, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that Democrats are intent on "sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare." Of course, McConnell's statement isn't merely false, it is comically so. After all, even as the program marked its 44th anniversary this week, his Republican colleagues like Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Tom Price (R-GA) continued the GOP's decades-long war against "government's intrusion into medicine through Medicare." More laughable still, Mitch McConnell was among... more Posted on July 31, 2009 \| Comments (3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Sotomayor v. the GOP's Post-9/11 Constitution As the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor predictably devolved into mindless Republican regurgitation about wise Latinas, empathy, judicial activism and New Haven firefighters, one revealing exchange about the impact of the September 11 attacks was largely overlooked. The 9/11 tragedy, Sotomayor insisted, "doesn't change" the Constitution. As it turns out, her claim that "the Constitution is a timeless document" is a far cry from the philosophy of Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn and other Republicans who brushed off... more Posted on July 16, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	John McCain Revises His Epitaph As he launched his first presidential run nine years ago, John McCain in December 1999 said of the Keating Five scandal that nearly ended his career, "The fact is, it was the wrong thing to do, and it will be on my tombstone and deservedly so." But as he made clear on Meet the Press this morning, the man who pompously claimed he put "country first" has apparently revised his epitaph. The two-word inscription memorializing his political career now reads,... more Posted on July 12, 2009 \| Comments (2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	The Curious Case of Tom Coburn Politics, they say, makes strange bedfellows. And perhaps none is stranger than Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn. As the Washington Post reported today, the tenant of the mysterious "C Street" brownstone was a key player in both the Ensign and Sanford affairs. As it turns out, the arch-conservative Coburn also happens to be a friend and confidante of President Barack Obama. During his nationally-televised implosion on Wednesday, disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford made passing reference to "the Fellowship," a... more Posted on June 26, 2009 \| Comments (2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Liddy, Gingrich, Limbaugh and Supreme Menstruation Back in 1995, Newt Gingrich famously concluded menstruation rendered women unfit for combat roles in the military. Now just two days after Gingrich branded Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "racist," convicted Watergate felon and right-wing radio host G. Gordon Liddy agreed that both of Newt's arguments disqualify Sotomayor. Period. After echoing Tom Tancredo's slander that the National Council of La Raza to which Sotomayor belongs is a "Latino KKK," Liddy Thursday recycled Gingrich's theory of menstrual disqualification: "Let's hope that... more Posted on May 29, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	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 (2)

	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 (2)

	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 (4)

	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 (4)

	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 (24)

	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 (6)

	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 (2)

	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 (2)

	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 (4)

	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 (31)

	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 (3)

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

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

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

	GOP Myths Claim Bush, Not Obama, Inherited a Recession Two days after Americans learned that U.S. household wealth plummeted by a staggering $11 trillion (an 18% drop) in 2008, the Washington Post featured a critique of President Obama's rhetoric attributing the recession to George W. Bush. But while Obama's statement that "by any measure, my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster" is inescapably true, his Republican opponents continue to stand truth on its head. It was George W. Bush and not Barack Obama, they falsely maintain, who inherited a... more Posted on March 14, 2009 \| Comments (17)

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

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

	After Death Threats, O'Connor Responds to GOP Attacks on Judges On Tuesday, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote OurCourts.org, her new online civics education project. But while O'Connor's goal is to counter alarming statistics including "only a third of Americans can name the three branches of government," her understandable motivation was the growing right-wing war on American judges. After all, amidst the incendiary rhetoric of John Cornyn, Tom Delay and other conservative leaders, Justice O'Connor was among those receiving... more Posted on March 6, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	"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 (2)

	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 (9)

	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 (2)

	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 (3)

	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 (31)

	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 (10)

	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 (3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Bush Latest GOPer to Show Democrats Better for the Economy On Friday, the New York Times provided a jaw-dropping analysis of the dismal state of the economy under George W. Bush. Just days after the Washington Post documented that Bush presided over the worst eight-year economic performance in the modern American presidency, the Times charted his historic failure in expanding GDP, producing jobs and fueling stock market growth. As it turns out, Bush is just the latest Republican to confirm the maxim that Wall Street and the economy overall almost... more Posted on January 24, 2009 \| Comments (1)

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

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

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

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

	Red States Show Highest Teen Birth Rates Just days after Bristol Palin officially became the poster child for her mother's failed abstinence-only sex education policy, a new report from the CDC revealed that in 2006 Alaska experienced the nation's fastest growing teen birth rate. While Mississippi suddenly surpassed Texas to earn the dubious leadership distinction, it comes as no surprise that the 10 worst performing states all voted for George W. Bush in 2004. Overall, teen birth rate jumped in 26 states, combining to reverse a 15-year... more Posted on January 8, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	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 (5)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	McCain Attack Boomerangs, Shows GOP Extremism on Abortion For the past two weeks, the McCain campaign and its allies have been waging an aggressive smear campaign designed to portray Barack Obama as out of the mainstream on the issue of abortion. But with his dripping condescension about the "health of the mother" in Wednesday's final presidential debate, John McCain turned the tables on himself. His adolescent "air quotes" not only confirmed his caustic disregard for the health and rights of American women. With his scorn, McCain also reminded... more Posted on October 16, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	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 (5)

	"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 (7)

	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 (10)

	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 (11)

	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 (14)

	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 (5)

	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 (12)

	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 (4)

	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 (4)

	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 (1)

	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 (2)

	"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 (5)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	McCain, Scalia and Yoo Peddle Discredited "Gitmo 30" Sound Bite In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Bush administration torture architect John Yoo thundered against the Supreme Court's restoration of habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo detainees. Branding the Boumediene decision "judicial imperialism of the highest order," Yoo like Justice Scalia and John McCain raised the specter of those 30 released Gitmo terrorists as a warning of the carnage the Court's ruling is certain to produce. Alas, as with so much else passing over John Yoo's lips, it simply isn't true.... more Posted on June 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	McCain Does the Hokey Pokey You put your right hand in. You put your right hand out... Like an overexcited kid at a birthday party, John McCain has been doing the political equivalent of the hokey pokey for the past two years. That is, after first running hard to the right to woo conservative primary voters, McCain then veered sharply left since wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination. And as the imbroglios this week over his shifting stands on immigration and embracing the religious right... more Posted on May 25, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	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 (7)

	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 (2)

	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 (2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	McCain's Answer for Poverty? eBay! In Martin County, Kentucky this week, John McCain added another one his "Forgotten Places" to the growing list of places his campaign would now like to forget. With a straight face, McCain told the residents of the economically devastated region that eBay represents their economic future. And he did so by appropriating the words of Meg Whitman, who just happens to be not only McCain's national campaign co-chair, but the former CEO of eBay. As NPR reported this morning, McCain... more Posted on April 25, 2008 \| Comments (164)

	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 (27)

	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 (20)

	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 (25)

	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 (3)

	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 (5)

	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 (12)

	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 (3)

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

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

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

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

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

	Forever Wrong: Five Years of John McCain on Iraq Just in time for the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain made an unannounced visit to Iraq. While McCain deemed the visit a "fact-finding" mission, his secret visit to Baghdad is just part of an extended photo opportunity in the Middle East and Europe designed to highlight his national security credentials. Unfortunately for McCain, his excellent Baghdad adventure could well produce the opposite effect. After all, this week's looming anniversary highlights that at almost... more Posted on March 16, 2008 \| Comments (12)

	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 (4)

	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 (8)

	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 (2)

	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 (68)

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

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

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

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

	McCain Blasts Obama for Bush's Attacks in Pakistan In his Wisconsin victory speech this evening, John McCain wasted no time in firing shots across Barack Obama's bow. Hoping to highlight the Democratic frontrunner's inexperience, McCain to partisan cheers ridiculed Obama's promises as "eloquent but empty." But in a preview of Republican duplicity to come, McCain blasted Obama's past advocacy of unilateral American attacks against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, attacks the Bush administration itself is now finally carrying out. In August, as you'll recall, Barack received a hellstorm... more Posted on February 19, 2008 \| Comments (33)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	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 (13)

	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 (3)

	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 (3)

	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 (8)

	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 (18)

	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 (4)

	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 (21)

	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 (10)

	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 (18)

	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 (2)

	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 (43)

	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 (9)

	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 (2)

	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 (2)

	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 (7)

	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 (2)

	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 (10)

	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 (2)

	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)

	Up or Down Vote: Death of a GOP Talking Point On Thursday morning, July 19th, the beloved GOP talking point "up or down vote" was officially declared dead. Its demise was little noticed in the aftermath of the Senate Republicans' successful all-night filibuster to block the Reed-Levin bill seeking to begin U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq. "Up or down vote" was killed by a desperate Republican Party trying to obstruct Democratic accomplishments at any cost in advance of the 2008 elections. And so far, the GOP seems to be getting... more Posted on July 22, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	UPDATED: The Offficial Republican Iraq Talking Points For those who may have missed it, the official Bush White House /RNC approved list of Republican talking points on Iraq has gotten a bit of a make-over in the past few days. President Bush's staggeringly incoherent surge interim progress report last week returned "We're Making Progress" to GOP mouthpieces everywhere. Then, the Senate Republicans' successful filibuster of the Levin-Reed after all night debate brought the Rove stamp of approval for "Political Stunt." (This turn of events signaled the death... more Posted on July 20, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	Vitter, Cunningham and the GOP's Parliament of Whores Some men pay for prostitutes while others get them for free. But whether Senator David Vitter or Rep. Duke Cunningham paid for pleasure with their cash or their votes, their Republican colleagues appear ready to protect their Johns all the same, at least as long as public opinion will allow. That seems to the lesson emerging from Washington today. While Vitter's GOP friends in Congress went on record to support their man, a new report from the House Intelligence Committee... more Posted on July 16, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	The National Review Jumps the Shark The National Review, the conservatives' official game day program for the war in Iraq, has finally jumped the shark. Like a long-running sitcom with declining ratings, aging stars and bereft of new ideas, the magazine has been reduced to bizarre stunts in a desperate plea for attention. This week, that desperation took the form of slandering the families of American troops going off to war in Iraq. And that was just for openers. As Chris Kelly detailed in the Huffington... more Posted on July 15, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Republicans Quiet on Iraqi - and Bush - Vacations Just one day after the Iraqi government received failing marks in President Bush's surge interim progress report, Americans learned that the Iraqi parliament is proceeding with its plans to take off the month of August. But while the American people may be up in arms, President Bush's amen corner is predictably silent. After all, given Bush's own record-setting penchant for vacationing during crises here at home, Republicans are understandably reticent to criticize the absentee government in Baghdad. Judging by the... more Posted on July 14, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Sex and Drugs Rock Republicans The developments of the last few days have not been kind to the so-called "values voters" of the Republican Party. One after another, paragons of conservative virtue have been going down (so to speak). And making matters worse, they are taking down the top GOP presidential campaigns with them. Florida State Representative Bob Allen is the latest victim of his own libido. The co-chair of John McCain's Florida campaign was arrested for offering to perform oral sex for $20 an... more Posted on July 12, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Nixon Presidential Library Fraud Ends As Bush's Begins With each day, the Bush presidency more and more resembles the disgraced tenure of Richard Nixon. This past week alone brought dubious assertions of executive privilege, new revelations of domestic surveillance and civil rights violations, similarly dismal poll ratings and even a presidential pardon. And now, it seems, the disturbing Nixon-Bush parallels extend to their presidential libraries. As the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and others reported today, federal archivists officially took control of the Nixon Presidential Library in... more Posted on July 11, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Issa Accuses Valerie Plame of Perjury Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) added another plaque to his wall of shame during House hearings today looking into President Bush's commutation of the Scooter Libby's sentence. Ever eager to defend the President and the flagging hopes of the Republican Party, Issa accused outed CIA agent Valerie Plame of perjury. Issa's previous career lowlights included his role in the firing of U.S. attorney Carol Lam and his pathetic weepy withdrawal from the 2002 California governor's race. But confronting Ambassador Joseph Wilson... more Posted on July 11, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	CIA: Resurgent Al Qaeda Now at Pre-9/11 Capability On Saturday, Americans learned that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2005 cancelled a major U.S. raid into Pakistan designed to decapitate much of Al Qaeda's senior leadership. Now, a new CIA assessment details the steep price the U.S. is paying for President Bush's failure to enforce his mantra of "no safe havens." U.S. intelligence analysts, the AP reports, have concluded Al Qaeda has "rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the 2001 terrorist attacks." This... more Posted on July 11, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Iraq Surge Wins Rave Reviews For the Bush administration, the marketing of the "surge" in Iraq more and more looks like an ad for a Hollywood flop. In this case, the box office numbers are in and the film is a dismal failure. And yet a small but reliable group of friendly critics continues to offer rave reviews for "Iraq: The Surge." No doubt, the tidal wave of bad news this week confirms Bush's Iraq escalation has achieved Ishtar-level disaster status. A mandated interim progress... more Posted on July 10, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	GOP Senator and Values Merchant Vitter on DC Madam List Louisiana Senator and family values merchant David Vitter is apparently the latest Republican stalwart to run afoul of his own libido. The AP reported Monday night that Vitter's name turned up on the client list of the DC Madam. And as Salon reported back in 2004, this episode is not Vitter's first prostitution imbroglio. The coming Vitter implosion is all the more enjoyable, given his pretensions as a national player. An outspoken storm-trooper in the battle against so-called "partial birth... more Posted on July 9, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	UPDATED: The Bush-GOP Scandal Document Center 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 Plamegate and the Scooter Libby commutation, the U.S. attorneys purge and illegal NSA domestic surveillance to Iraq intelligence manipulation, torture scandals and the ongoing Jack Abramoff fall-out, it's all there: Plamegate CIA Leak Resources U.S. Attorneys Scandal Document Center Iraq Intelligence and WMD Document Center NSA Domestic Surveillance Scandal Center Tom... more Posted on July 7, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Next John Edwards Story On the same day that the AP's John Solomon once again tried to perpetuate the tale of John Edwards' $400 haircut, a real story of tragedy promises to draw attention to Edwards' past. In Minneapolis, the powerful suction from a drain in a wading pool partially ripped out the small intestine of a six-year old girl. Hauntingly reminiscent of a $25 million jury award John Edwards secured in the case of five-year old Valerie Lakey, the Minnesota tragedy will no... more Posted on July 5, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Fred Thompson, Nixon Watergate Mole Back in May, I contrasted the Watergate legend of Fred Thompson with his current role as a fundraiser and spokesman for the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund. As a Republican counsel to the Senate Watergate committee, Thompson famously asked Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield if there were listening devices in the White House. In 2007, he asked President Bush to pardon Libby, a convicted felon and former Cheney chief-of-staff. As it turns out, Thompson's staunch defense of Plamegate mole Scooter Libby... more Posted on July 5, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Kurtzman on How to Fight a Conservative Over at About.com, Political Humor editor Daniel Kurtzman maintains one of the web's most comprehensive collections of political jokes, cartoons and images. (Full disclosure: some are them are from Perrspectives.) Now, he has come out with a fun-loving how-to book for liberals, "How to Win a Fight with a Conservative." In addition to his new book, Kurtzman has also put together a quiz to help you determine what type of liberal you are. His very short (and very fun) political... more Posted on July 5, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Libby and the GOP's Criminalization of Politics Defense As Scooter Libby awoke this morning to find God in his heaven and all right with the world, his apologists were fast at work in regurgitating the trusty Republican "criminalization of politics defense" to fend off criticism of President Bush's shocking endorsement of law-breaking. Of course, that's what the conservative movement has been reduced to. Whether the scandal involves the outing of Valerie Plame, the misdeeds of Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff, or the U.S. attorneys purge, we can always... more Posted on July 3, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Neither Right Nor Legal: Bush Commutes Libby's Sentence As expected, President Bush chose loyalty over the rule of law and commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby. While Vice President Cheney's former chief-of-staff still must face a two year probation and a $250,000 fine, the President sent a clear but cowardly message that breaking the law in the service of his agenda is the expectation in the Bush White House: "I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive.... more Posted on July 2, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Conservative Threat Level Raised to Orange on UK Terror, Cheney's Fourth Branch Despite polls numbers now reaching into the 20's for President Bush, the Conservative Threat Level has been raised to Orange/High (Church and State to Merge). Like a trapped rat, events this week showed the conservative movement remains rabid - and dangerous. The latest UK terror attacks in London and Glascow guarantee a new wave of Bush administration fear-mongering. Meanwhile in Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney briefly seceded from the executive to form a fourth branch of government even as the... more Posted on June 30, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	DOJ Wins Mississippi White Voter Suppression Case In May 2006, Perrspectives detailed the one of the few efforts by the Bush Department of Justice to fight election bias. In a tragi-comic inversion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the DOJ argued that the African-American Democratic Executive Committee chairman in Noxubee County Ike Brown led an effort to suppress the vote of white residents. As it turns out, on Friday a federal judge agreed that white voters were subjected to discrimination based upon their race. Given the... more Posted on June 30, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Giuliani's Bad Week The AP this morning served up a nice summary of what has been a very bad week for Rudy Giuliani. But the former New York mayor and 2008 GOP White House hopeful isn't the only conservative miscreant who's fallen on hard times of late. Mitt Romney, Ted Stevens, James Holsinger and Lurita Doan are just some of the wrong-doers of the right to feel the wrath of retribution. No doubt, the mayor of 9/11 suffered several body blows last week.... more Posted on June 26, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Man on a Mission: Romney's Vietnam Deferment As Perrspectives has detailed before, Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney seems pathologically incapable of keeping his stories straight. Whether the issue is abortion, stem cell research, rights for gay Americans or even his state of residence, Romney's rhetorical contortions have become legendary. As the Boston Globe suggested Sunday, Romney's flip-flopping even extends to his Vietnam draft deferment. As it turns out, Romney was one of a privileged number of Mormon missionaries who received Vietnam deferments in the 1960's. The... more Posted on June 25, 2007 \| Comments (7)

	Red States Opposing Employee Free Choice Act Need It Most In Washington this week, the Senate will take up the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Passed by the House 241-185 in March, EFCA would make it much easier for unions to organize. Predictably, red state Republican Senators backed by an alliance of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will likely prevent the measure from coming to a vote. Which is too bad. After all, from wages and benefits to job opportunities and collective bargaining rights, it is... more Posted on June 20, 2007 \| Comments (8)

	EXPANDED: The Bush-GOP Scandal Document Center 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, Plamegate, and illegal NSA domestic surveillance to Iraq intelligence manipulation, torture scandals and the ongoing Jack Abramoff fall-out, it's all there: U.S. Attorneys Scandal Document Center Iraq Intelligence and WMD Document Center Plamegate CIA Leak Resources NSA Domestic Surveillance Scandal Center Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff Scandal... more Posted on June 19, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Health Care the Latest Red State Failure A new study released this week revealed that Americans' health care varies dramatically from state to state. It should come as no surprise that in general Southern states ranked at the bottom in almost every category. After all, whether the issue is health, education, working conditions, or virtually any indicator of social pathology, things are worst in precisely those states that voted for George W. Bush. The Commonwealth Fund report, "Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System... more Posted on June 17, 2007 \| Comments (70)

	The Death of the Bush Doctrine That wheezing sound you may have heard this week amid the chaos in Gaza, the carnage in Baghdad and the conflict in Lebanon was the final gasps of the Bush Doctrine in its death throes. Just two years after the President and his neo-conservative allies basked in the glow of their self-proclaimed moment of triumph, the Bush Doctrine of no safe havens for terrorists, American preventive war and democracy promotion is discredited, discarded - and dead. The ruins of the... more Posted on June 16, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Libby Court's Walton Latest Target of Right-Wing Threats to Judges In a Washington court room today, Americans learned that the growing conservative campaign of judicial intimidation reached the Scooter Libby case. Judge Reggie Walton, recently appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to the FISA Court and who last week sentenced former Cheney aide Libby to 30 months in prison, announced that he had received threatening phone calls and letters. Apparently, threatening judges is now business as usual for the American conservative movement. Walton, noting that the threats would have no... more Posted on June 14, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	How to Make the Stem Cell Bill Veto-Proof Just two days after the third anniversary of the death of Ronald Reagan, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill easing restrictions on stem cell research favored by his family. But with President Bush promising to once again veto what he called "a recycled old bill," Democrats will need a new strategy to win one for the Gipper. As I wrote back in April, all the stem cell bill needs is a name change - and a little help... more Posted on June 8, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	God Speaks to Tom Delay - Again God is speaking to Tom Delay again. That's the word from the New Yorker, which details the Hammer's self-described divine inspiration in shedding his sinful ways and motivating his born-again determination to lead a new conservative grassroots movement. As Perrspectives has detailed before, it's hardly the first time Delay compared himself to Christ. In the New Yorker piece, Delay enlists Jesus in his crusade to tackle his own past demons, his growing disdain for Newt Gingrich and ever-intensifying hatred for... more Posted on June 7, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	UPDATED: Bush-GOP Scandal Document Center The Perrspectives 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, Plamegate, and illegal NSA domestic surveillance to Iraq intelligence manipulation, torture scandals and the ongoing Jack Abramoff fall-out, it's all there. Some of the latest developments and additions to the Perrspectives Document Library: U.S. Attorneys Scandal Document Center Despite Alberto Gonzales' vow to "sprint to the finish line," the... more Posted on June 3, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	McCain Attacks Himself on Plan B for Iraq In the wake of the Senate vote of Iraq war funding, Arizona Senator John McCain lashed out at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And, as it turns out, himself. On Friday, McCain raged against his Democratic colleagues Clinton and Obama for their no votes and "waving a white flag" to Al Qaeda: "What is Senator Obama and Senator Clinton's 'Plan B' if we withdraw?" Sadly for his fading presidential hopes, McCain acknowledged that he himself lacks any Plan B of... more Posted on May 25, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Fred Thompson: Watergate Hero Turned Plamegate Villain As Republicans await with baited breadth the signal that former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is jumping into the 2008 presidential race, more ironic revelations concerning the politician-turned-actor continue to surface. As it turns out, the Watergate hero who helped reveal Richard Nixon's Watergate cover-up is now helping Scooter Libby facilitate his Plamegate smoke-screen. To follow Thompson's evolution from nonpartisan truth seeker to Republican shill, take a trip back to the Senate Watergate hearings of 1973 and 1974. As I rediscovered... more Posted on May 25, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Politicizing Crime Among the least surprising developments arising from Monica Goodling's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee was the reflexive use of the "criminalization of politics" defense. Not by the witness, that is, but by Republican members of the committee themselves. That is to be expected. After all, whether the scandal involves Tom Delay, the outing of Valerie Plame, Jack Abramoff, or the U.S. attorneys purge, we can always count on the GOP to recast its rampant criminality as mere political disagreement.... more Posted on May 24, 2007 \| Comments (8)

	Mitt Romney's Hall of Shame It's been a good week so far for Mitt Romney. On Monday, new polls showed him leading the pack in both Iowa and New Hampshire. And if his growing attacks on Romney are any indication, John McCain is clearly answering yes to the Washington Post's question today, "Is Romney Moving Up?" But despite his improving poll numbers, perfect hair and gleaming teeth, Mitt Romney can't escape himself. As Ana Marie Cox documents in Time, Romney's unparalleled opportunism, cynical calculation, red... more Posted on May 22, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	When Bush Comes to Shove: Specter's Saga On Sunday, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter repeated his familiar pattern of feigned independence from the Bush White House. Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, Specter announced his expectation that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would resign in the face of a looming no-confidence vote in the Senate. But as I wrote in February, whether the issue concerns the political firings of U.S. attorneys, the illegal NSA domestic surveillance program, presidential statements or the Valerie Plame leak, Arlen Specter's initial outrage... more Posted on May 21, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Bedside Manners of Alberto Gonzales and Newt Gingrich While likely GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in April called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign over his "mishandling" of the U.S. prosecutors purge, it turns out the two men have a lot in common. As we learned on Tuesday, when it comes to pressuring the gravely ill, Gonzales and Gingrich share the same bedside manners. During his testimony Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey detailed then White House Counsel Gonzales' visit to... more Posted on May 16, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Encore Performance! Gonzales as Sgt. Schultz For those who missed Alberto Gonzales' act of self-immolation before Senate Judiciary Committee on April 19, the Attorney General is set to offer an encore performance during Thursday's hearing about the purged prosecutors before the House Judiciary Committee. As MSNBC, Politico and TPM Muckraker are all reporting, Gonzales will offer the House virtually the same disastrous prepared statement he offered the Senate last month. In addition to the tomorrow's expected endless repetition of "I don't recall," the hapless Attorney General... more Posted on May 9, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Evil of Banality: Republicans Speak on Iraq A sure sign of the GOP desperation over Iraq is ever-increasing Republican propensity to rhetorically reduce the conflict to the realm of the normal. With casual analogies to American sports, business, shopping, and history, Republican leaders try to conflate the Iraq chaos and carnage with the commonplace and carefree. Theirs isn't the "banality of evil," but instead the evil of banality. Consider the words of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who just this week compared the debate over war... more Posted on May 9, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	No GOP Plan B for Iraq By now, Americans should have grown accustomed to the Bush administration's opposition to Plan B. But as it turns out, the ideologues of the Republican Party not only oppose Plan B for American women. They oppose Plan B for American troops mired in the civil war in Iraq That's the message from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). On Sunday, Boehner stood by President Bush's surge strategy, proclaiming "We don't even have all of the 30,000 additional troops in Iraq... more Posted on May 7, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Flip-Flops on Bin Laden In last night's Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library, former Massachusetts Mitt Romney added Osama Bin Laden to his rapidly growing list of flip-flops. By alternately downplaying or emphasizing the importance of capturing Bin Laden as political circumstances require, Romney finds himself in good company - with President Bush. On Thursday, Romney-turned-Rambo declared that his presidency would signal that the end is nigh for Bin Laden. "He's going to pay, and he will die," a determined Romney said. Sadly,... more Posted on May 4, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Debate Reflections on Reagan Arriving just in time for tonight's Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library are the first sneak peeks of the Gipper's soon to be released diary. While Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and the rest vie to claim the mantle of "Reagan Conservative," you can contemplate Ronnie's insightful private admissions such as "getting shot hurts" and "I agreed to sell TOWs to Iran." But you don't have to wait for "The Reagan Diaries" to size up the man. Here... more Posted on May 3, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Iraq Mad Libs Watching President Bush deliver his promised veto of the Iraq supplemental funding bill yesterday was akin to a bad game of Mad Libs. The President predictably demonstrated his resolve by filling-in the blanks in his speech by resorting to his repertoire of worn-out Iraq talking points, such as "surrender date" and "handcuffing the generals." Now you can play Bush Iraq Mad Libs at home. Laugh for hours with family and friends as you construct your own after-the-fact bogus war rationale,... more Posted on May 2, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Mission Accomplished: 4 Years of GOP Iraq Talking Points On Tuesday May 1st, the United States will mark the fourth anniversary of President Bush's declaration of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. But as the carnage continues and the war funding debate rages, President Bush and allies in the conservative amen corners can only offer the American people new and recycled talking points to sell his catastrophically ill-conceived war without end. Here, then, is a look back at four years of wartime marketing gone bad. What follows below is by no... more Posted on April 29, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Surviving All Scandals: President Bush as Mr. Burns With each passing day, the scandal-plagued Bush White House more and more resembles a 2000 episode of The Simpsons. During a check up, the nuclear power tycoon Mr. Burns is informed by his doctor that "you are the sickest man in the United States. You have everything." (See a video clip here.) But the doctor reassures Burns that the news isn't all bad and that he will survive because "all of your diseases are in perfect balance." And so it... more Posted on April 26, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	The GOP War on the Doctor-Patient Relationship From the moment he entered the White House, President Bush proclaimed the "doctor-patient relationship" the centerpiece of his policies when it comes to Americans' health care. Just not, as it turns out, for American women. As today's Supreme Court decision upholding the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act shows, President Bush and his Republican allies don't care much at all about the doctor-patient relationship when it comes to women's reproductive health and safety. A quick look back shows that "protecting... more Posted on April 18, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	U.S. Attorneys and the Visible Hand of the Federalist Society Among the revelations contained in the latest DOJ document dump is the central role of the Federalist Society in entrenching the permanent Republican majority among the ranks of the U.S. attorneys. As FireDogLake, ThinkProgress and others have reported, membership in the Federalist Society was crucial to a favorable ranking by the Gonzales team entrusted with purging the USAs ranks of those not "loyal Bushies." But as Perrspectives detailed back in the spring of 2005, the conservative Federalist Society is the... more Posted on April 13, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Wolfowitz, Domenici and Delay Latest Right-Wing Wrong-Doers If April showers bring May flowers, then this April's deluge of conservative wrong-doing should produce a bumper crop of right-wing resignations and convictions later this year. Over the past few weeks, Republican luminaries past and present have offered up an almost endless string of gaffes, missteps, ethical lapses and criminal behavior. Let's start with in Washington with Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumseld's right-hand man and Iraq war architect at the Pentagon who now finds himself in serious trouble over at the... more Posted on April 12, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	How to Override the Bush Stem Cell Veto With Harry Reid's stem cell research bill headed to a Senate vote this week, Congressional Democrats and President Bush are on the brink of yet another confrontation. But while the White House is promising to repeat its 2006 veto, the ending can be different this time. All the Reid legislation needs is a name change - and a little help from Ronald Reagan. The failure to override President Bush's veto in 2006 shows that broad bipartisan backing in Congress, aggressive... more Posted on April 10, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Tommy Thompson and the Bush Kiss of Death On Wednesday, former Wisconsin Governor and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson joined the increasingly crowded field in the 2008 Republican presidential race. But thanks to his enabling role in President Bush's Medicare prescription fiasco, Thompson's White House prospects were already dim even before last week's announcement. Like Michigan's John Engler and New Jersey's Christie Todd Whitman before him, Thompson is yet another new wave Republican Governor of the 1990's whose rising star was snuffed out by the reverse... more Posted on April 8, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Happy Easter from Tom Delay On this Easter Sunday, Jesus is apparently not the only one who is risen. Tom Delay, the Prince of Darkness, is back from political exile with a fiery new book of right-wing rage. In it, the Hammer hammers friend (he described Texas GOP colleague Dick Armey as "drunk with ambition") and foe alike "(liberals have finally joined the ranks of scoundrels like Hitler"). As you enjoy this Easter Sunday with your respective faith, family and favorite chocolate bunny, take a... more Posted on April 7, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	Gonzales, Doan and the Republican Diversity Defense "Diversity" is one word that is rarely associated with the conservative movement in general and the Republican Party in particular. From immigration and affirmative action to redistricting and minority voting rights, the lily-white GOP and its amen corner advocate a monotone, melanin-free vision for America. But when it comes to efforts by Republicans Alberto Gonzales and Lurita Doan to convert their federal agencies into entrenched partisan redoubts of the GOP, the right has been very quick indeed to turn to... more Posted on April 1, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	NBC's Williams Nails Gonzales on His Catch-22 In a surreal interview today with Alberto Gonzales, NBC's Pete Williams highlighted the shifting sands underneath the Attorney General's increasing untenable position. With a single question, Williams revealed Gonzales' Catch-22 in the firings of U.S. attorneys: he cannot claim to both have played no role in the evaluations of the fired attorneys and know that their sackings were the result of performance issues: Williams: To put this question another way - if you didn't review their performance during this process,... more Posted on March 26, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Cornyn Threatens Judges, Protects Gonzales When it comes to defending the criminal wrong-doing of the Bush administration, few Republicans in Congress circle the wagons better than Texas Senator John Cornyn. With the exploding scandal over the firings of U.S. attorneys threatening the White House, Cornyn has come to the assistance of fellow former Texas Supreme Court justice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. How ironic then that the same John Cornyn who defends "the Judge" now was the same man who two years ago excused violence against... more Posted on March 25, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Specter's Failure to Launch Watching Republican Senator Arlen Specter challenge Bush administration wrong-doing is like witnessing a failed rocket launch. After the initial furious explosion of hot air, Specter almost immediately loses momentum and never breaks the dark gravitational pull of planet Bush. Specter's performance Thursday during the Senate Judiciary Committee's debate over issuing White House subpoenas in the firing of U.S. attorneys was certainly no exception. After the testimony two weeks ago of six of the fired prosecutors, Specter joined the bipartisan chorus... more Posted on March 23, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Bush Iraq Irony Watch: "A Clean Bill Without Strings" At this point in his dismal tenure, virtually any statement emanating from President Bush is dripping with irony. Today's speech marking the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is no exception. For even as the President lambasted Congressional Democrats about the need for "clean" Iraq war funding bill "without strings" attached, it is the Bush White House which continues to rely on such hidden provisos in its political purge of prosecutors and manipulation of the federal budget. In his... more Posted on March 19, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, "Mistakes Were Made" Edition The Bushboard List of Top 10 GOP Sound Bites has seen another shake-up at the top of the charts. With the exploding U.S. attorneys scandal, the Scooter Libby verdict and the debate over Iraq war funding, a new crop of Republican talking points is zooming up the rankings. Topping the charts is the Gonzales-Bush smash hit "Mistakes Were Made" from their tribute album to the former federal prosecutors, Eight is Enough. With the conviction of Dick Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby... more Posted on March 15, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Top 10 Reasons Gonzales Must Go In the wake of his tortured press conference yesterday, politicians and papers across the nation are calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. But despite the flood of revelations that the White House and Gonzales' Department of Justice authored a plot to purge U.S. attorneys for purely partisan political advantage, President Bush is standing by his man. Alberto Gonzales must resign. But his departure is required not merely because of his ham-fisted and duplicitous role in the firing... more Posted on March 14, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	The Link: GOP Purging Prosecutors - and Voters The exploding U.S. attorneys scandal threatens to engulf the White House with the revelations that the Bush administration as early as February 2005 contemplated sacking all 93 prosecutors. But today's stories in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the LA Times reveal more than a White House determined to enforce loyalty to President Bush and entrench partisan Republican hatchet men throughout the DOJ's ranks. Simply put, the Bush White House planned to systematically drive down the turnout of... more Posted on March 13, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	GOP Quotes of the Week, Rule of Law Edition It was another dismal week for the Republican Party and a Bush presidency now in its last throes. The growing scandals over political motivated firings of U.S attorneys, the conviction of Scooter Libby, FBI Patriot Act law-breaking, the Walter Reed disgrace and continued chaos produced an unusually heavy crop of lies, gaffes and distortions from the usual suspects on the right. U.S. Attorney Firings "People have to believe in what we say." Alberto Gonzales, March 9, 2007. "One day there... more Posted on March 11, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	NEW: The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents For the latest news, hearings, legal filings and other essential documents on the Bush administration's politically motivated prosecutor firings, visit Perrspectives U.S. Attorneys Scandal Document Center. The U.S. Attorneys Document collection includes: A complete archive of the latest news articles on the prosecutor firings, including updates on planned Congressional hearings and Alberto Gonzales' decision to reverse course on the White House's threat to legislative revision of the Patriot Act. Access to transcripts of recent Congressional testimony by the fired prosecutors,... more Posted on March 9, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Last Throes of the Bush Presidency For an already embattled White House, March 6, 2007 may have officially marked the last throes of the Bush presidency. In court rooms and Congressional hearings, in Iraq and in the polls, the Bush administration was deluged with a torrent of breaking news, all of it bad. Start with Tuesday's conviction of former Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby on four counts of obstruction and perjury in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. In revelation after revelation, the administration's duplicity in... more Posted on March 7, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Enter the "Sentence Scooter" Contest! The jury in the CIA leak trial of Scooter Libby has spoken. Now it's your turn. Enter Perrspectives' "Sentence Scooter Contest." You get to play judge and pronounce a fitting sentence for the incredibly guilty Mr. Libby, convicted on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. You'll not only have fun, you could also win a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate for your trouble. The rules are simple. Use the Comments Form... more Posted on March 6, 2007 \| Comments (74)

	Coulter's Slur and the Conservative Brand of Hate That Ann Coulter would call Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot" during a speech at one of conservatism's pre-eminent conclaves should come as no surprise. Mitt Romney's apparent refusal to disown Coulter's endorsement and the silence of the Republican cavalcade of candidates (John McCain, who didn't attend CPAC, notwithstanding) comes as no shock either. And no one should be stunned by the almost complete lack of coverage of the Coulter slur from the mainstream media. After all, as I... more Posted on March 3, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Romney, Cheney in Deep with Iran Investments In a high profile effort to bolster his credibility on national security, 2008 Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney last week called on New York to divest its pension fund of any holdings in firms doing with business with Iran. But as it turns out, it is Mitt Romney's former employer with the ties to Tehran. And as you'd expect, Dick Cheney's Halliburton is in deep as well. Following the lead of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Romney began... more Posted on February 26, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	All in the Family: Al Sharpton, Strom Thurmond and Other Ironies Almost four years after his death, the legendary segregationist Strom Thurmond continues to cast a long shadow over American politics and society. In perhaps the most ironic revelation of this Black History Month, genealogists have found that civil rights icon Al Sharpton is descended from a slave once owned by relatives of the late Jim Crow stalwart. According to the New York Daily News, researchers Megan Smolenyak and Tony Burroughs located evidence "establishing that Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a... more Posted on February 25, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Study: Voter ID Programs Suppress Turnout Just before November's midterm elections, a piece called "Divide, Suppress and Conquer" described the two-pronged Republican campaign strategy of mobilizing its conservative base while driving down the Democratic and independent vote. When it comes to vote suppression, a new study has found that the Republican tactics have been quite successful, indeed. In a report just presented to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University showed the impact of draconian new state voter identification laws.... more Posted on February 22, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	The Plane Truth: Private Jet-Setter Hannity Attacks Gore On Sunday night, Sean Hannity will unveil his latest smear campaign against Al Gore. Hoping to portray the Oscar and Nobel-nominated Gore as a "Gulfstream Liberal," the Hannity's America hit segment will try to paint the former Vice President as a private jet flying, carbon-burning, global warming machine. And Sean Hannity should know. After all, when it comes to hypocrisy over extravagant travel on private aircraft, Hannity is the master of hot air. In 2004, Hannity racked up the private... more Posted on February 18, 2007 \| Comments (21)

	Evil Doers of the Week It has been an extremely productive week for the Avenging Angel, punisher of the evil-doers of the conservative crusade. With the right on the run over its mismanagement of Iraq, dubious dealings with Iran, Congressional corruption and sordid personal meltdowns, the Republican locomotive is falling off the rails of public opinion. The Republican rot, as usual, starts with Iraq. Doug Feith, the former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, was savaged this week for his political manipulation of intelligence in the... more Posted on February 15, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Boehner: The American People Embolden the Enemy The House of Representatives began its debate on Iraq today. And almost on cue, House Republican leader John Boehner offered up the "embolden the enemy" talking point, still #1 on the list of Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. As the AP reported, Boehner put on an Oscar-worthy performance: "We will embolden terrorists in every corner in the world. We will give Iran free access to the Middle East. And who doesn't believe the terrorists will just follow our troops home?"... more Posted on February 13, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Ford Follies Just two days after I wrote about Mitt Romney's cynical decision to announce his GOP presidential bid in Michigan, the former Massachusetts Governor finds himself at the center of yet another interest group storm. This time, it's the National Jewish Democratic Council, which lambasted Romney for selecting the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn as the backdrop for his White House campaign kick-off. The Council's Ira Forman said he was "deeply troubled by Governor Romney's choice of locations" for announcing his... more Posted on February 13, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Runs - Away On Tuesday, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will formally enter the race for the 2008 Republican nomination for President. But by announcing his run for the White House in Michigan, Romney is trying to run away - far, far away - from his own moderate reign in liberal Massachusetts. Romney, of course, is nominally from Michigan, where his father George ran American Motors prior to becoming the Governor and an unsuccessful challenger to Richard Nixon in 1968. That's not what makes... more Posted on February 10, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	The Taxman Doesn't Cometh Monday's New York Times offers an analysis of the latest front in the partisan class war, the battle to collect unpaid taxes. The plot of this morality tale is predictable. On one side, Democrats seek to capture up to $100 billion in tax fraud to help fund their "paygo" budget plans. On the other, the GOP hopes to continue its gutting of the IRS and perpetuate the transfer of audits - and tax burden - away from the wealthiest of... more Posted on February 5, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Giuliani Announcement a Drag for GOP From the Giuliani camp comes word that the former New York mayor is moving one step closer to tossing his hat in the presidential ring. With the 2008 White House race already in overdrive, Rudy announced today that he was filing a "statement of candidacy" with the FEC. Polls suggest that the putative hero of 9/11 might very well be able to win the general election for the White House. But as I wrote in April and November last year,... more Posted on February 5, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Denies GOP Treason Label for Democrats A chastened President Bush ventured into enemy territory on Saturday to address the annual gathering of House Democrats. Obliterated in the November elections and facing both abysmal poll numbers and open rebellion over Iraq within his own party, the formerly fierce Bush with tail between his legs feigned a spirit of bipartisan cooperation: "I welcome debate at a time of war and I hope you know that. Nor do I consider a belief that if you don't happen to agree... more Posted on February 4, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, Emboldened Enemy Edition The building bipartisan opposition to the President's proposed troop surge in Iraq and the crickets-chirping reception to Bush's abysmal State of the Union address have led to another dramatic shake-up in the list of Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. The President's hard-charging counterattack has moved two right-wing talking points up the charts. The new #1 is the thrashing "Embolden the Enemy," performed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Robert Gates and Tony Snow, with guest vocals from Joe Lieberman. Jumping all... more Posted on February 1, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	GOP Quotes Du Jour, Cheney Implosion Edition In the war of words between left and right, the conservative chattering classes suffered from a rhetorical quadruple whammy this week. Reality was not kind to the right with Republican rebellion over the Iraq surge, the Libby CIA leak trial, President Bush's abysmal State of the Union and Dick Cheney's media implosion. Here, then, are Today's Mantras: "I'm not that good at pronouncing words anyway." President Bush, January 29, 2007. "I just want to tell you, I didn't do it."... more Posted on January 30, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Hagel and Bush's Bay of Pigs Moment With Senate debate on competing Iraq resolutions set to begin this week, Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel has emerged as the bete noire of President Bush and his remaining Republican allies in Congress. But while his ferocious opposition to the "Alice in Wonderland" surge in Iraq marks him now as a White House foe, back in 2005 Hagel offered Bush some sage advice that should have made him the President's best friend. The story of Chuck Hagel's wise counsel in June... more Posted on January 28, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Sam Brownback, American Taliban Lost in the flurry of recent presidential campaign announcements is one of the more intriguing developments of the modern political era. That is, while most candidates seek the White House with real aspirations to govern the nation, a self-chosen few such as Al Sharpton or Gary Bauer aim only to lead a movement or community. With his announcement on January 20, Republican Kansas Senator Sam Brownback uniquely hopes to do both. With GOP front-runners John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt... more Posted on January 25, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Top 10 State of the Union Highlights For those who had the good fortune to miss his 2007 State of the Union address, President Bush just offered the American people a stunning profile in rhetorical obfuscation and political comeuppance. Domestically, his seeming move to the middle on energy, immigration and health care may have alienated his own base while offering some prospect for deals with the Democrats. (Jim Webb's Democratic response is available here.) But in foreign policy and the war in Iraq, President Bush's language was... more Posted on January 23, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	GOP Quotes of the Week, Libby-SOTU Edition As George W. Bush prepares to deliver his 2007 State of the Union address, the President and his amen corner in suffered through another week of rhetorical distress. With the GOP in rebellion over the President's "surge' in Iraq and the CIA leak trial of Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby underway, Bush in succeeding weeks might look back fondly on his current 28% approval rating. Here, then, are the latest Quotes of the Week: "I will not be sacrificed so Karl... more Posted on January 23, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	SOTU Preview: 10 Things to Watch Tuesday's State of the Union Address should offer Americans compelling viewing. After the GOP's electoral disaster in November and the resounding thud that greeted the "surge" in Iraq, the 2007 SOTU can be said to officially mark the last throes of the Bush presidency. In anticipation of tomorrow night's presidential flight of fantasy, here are 10 things to look for in the 2007 State of the Union: 1. An Unhealthy Vision As his Saturday radio address made clear, President Bush... more Posted on January 22, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	GOP Flashback: "No Civil Liberties When You're Dead" What a difference a year - and electoral disaster - makes. As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the Bush administration's illegal NSA domestic spying last February, Republicans Senators rushed to the defense of the President and his program. Fast forward to yesterday's announcement by Gonzales that the White House was backing away from wiretapping without FISA court warrants and the GOP's histrionics seem all the more comical. As Perrspectives detailed last year, President Bush's amen corner on Capitol Hill offered... more Posted on January 18, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Avenging Angel Smites Rice, Snow and Stimson The Avenging Angel, smiter of the evil doers of the right, enjoyed another busy week punishing conservative miscreants for their misdeeds. In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued to disgrace the nation with her latest rhetorical disasters. Hoping to deflect criticism over the looming Iraq escalation, the feckless Rice feebly tried to assuage the Senate by referring her boss' wildly unpopular Iraq strategy as an "augmentation." In a rare moment of candor caught on tape, an unsuspecting Rice then... more Posted on January 17, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Understanding the White House's Iraq Vocabulary While a fierce battle over President Bush's "new way forward" in Iraq is being joined in the halls of Congress, an even more ferocious war of words is taking place to win the hearts and minds of the American people. Among Democrats, Republicans and the media at large, a rhetorical conflict to control the marketing of the Bush message on Iraq is well underway. From almost the moment the Iraq Study Group report landed with a thud on the President's... more Posted on January 15, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, 2006 Final Edition As 2006 comes to a close, the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites chart has been turned upside down. In the wake of the Republicans' midterm election nightmare and the battering of the Iraq Study Group report, a bevy of GOP favorites have fallen off the list. Nowhere is the shake-up more evident than in the declining fortunes of the Republicans' Iraq Remix LP. Smash hits with a great beat you could dance to like George Bush's thumping "Stay the Course"... more Posted on December 29, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Gordon Smith and the Resurrection of Trent Lott Back in November, BlueOregon highlighted the key role played by Oregon's Gordon Smith in restoring Trent Lott to the Republican leadership in the Senate. Now, the December 18th issue of the New Republic offers the rich backstory on Smith's indispensable help in resurrecting the disgraced Lott at the expense of the milquetoast Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander: "But then, Oregon Senator Gordon Smith rose to give a nominating speech for Lott. Smith's address was deeply emotional: He described Lott's honorable character... more Posted on December 28, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Brownback on the Red-Blue Divide In its December 18th issue, the New Republic offers a window into the soul of Kansas Republican Senator and 2008 White House hopeful Sam Brownback. Tracing Brownback's dual conversions from small government Gingrich acolyte to red meat culture warrior and from devout evangelical to Catholic firebrand, TNR ponders his presidential prospects. But Brownback's' new found extremism aside, the most illuminating nugget in Noam Scheiber's piece may be the themes of victimization and inferiority that underlay the rage and seething of... more Posted on December 26, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Happy Holidays from Barbara and George H.W. Bush The holiday season frequently features both selfless charity and empty gestures. For Barbara and George H.W. Bush, 2006 proved no exception. Appearing on ABC's This Week on Christmas Eve, the President's parents recalled their work over the past week ringing the bell for the Salvation Army in Houston. Calling it "the Lord's work," Bush the Elder declared "There's so many people in need, so many people that need help." Mrs. Bush concurred, adding: "Giving is so easy...We just ought to... more Posted on December 25, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	The Ideal Liberal Holiday Gift Perrspectives is pleased to offer the ideal holiday gift for that hard-to-please progressive on your list. As the New Year approaches, the Conservative Threat Level (CTL) t-shirt helps you and your ones resist the right-wing effort to turn back the clock to the Middle Ages. Visit the new Perrspectives store over at CafePress to get your CTL t-shirt today! By the way, the current Conservative Threat Level is Blue/Guarded: Upward Income Redistribution Underway.... more Posted on December 19, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Flashback: Rumsfeld Celebrated, Aspin Slandered As he exits the Pentagon stage, outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shows once again that for the Bush White House, nothing succeeds like failure. In an elaborate ceremony carried live on all the cable news networks, President Bush and Vice President Cheney feted the disgraced Defense Secretary with glowing words, military pomp and even a 19 gun salute. "This man knows how to lead and he did," Bush declared, "and the country is better off for it." But while... more Posted on December 15, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Death of the Bush Doctrine If a period of days can be said to mark the end of the era, this past week almost surely heralded the demise of the Bush Doctrine. On Wednesday, the Iraq Study Group dealt a death blow to the Bush foreign policy's three pillars of no safe havens, preemptive war and democracy expansion. But it is the passing on Thursday of the neo-conservative Cold Warrior Jeane Kirkpatrick that perhaps best symbolized the closing of the book on Bush's ill-conceived experiment... more Posted on December 11, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Hastert, Frist and Romney The Avenging Angel, punisher of conservative miscreants, enjoyed another busy week delivering retribution to the wrong-doers of the right. In one of the least surprising political announcements in recent years, former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist decided against a run for the White House in 2008. After his SEC insider trading investigation, misuse of campaign funds, stem cell flip-flop and Senate floor misdiagnosis of Terri Schiavo, Frist's presidential ambitions were already on life-support. Frist's political career, the Angel grins,... more Posted on December 8, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Quotes of the Week, Iraq Chaos Edition Just weeks removed from their midterm calamity, the leading lights of the right continue to suffer from rhetorical destruction. The entropy in Baghdad, the looming report of the Iraq Study Group and the last throes of a rudderless Bush administration have produced yet another bumper crop of classic Conservative Quotes of the Week: "We've been in this phase [in Iraq] for a while." President Bush, November 28, 2006. "This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to... more Posted on December 1, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Senate Rights Bush's Wrong on Wellstone With control of the Senate about to change hands, Democrats can begin the work of righting some of the many wrongs perpetrated by President Bush. Last week, the Senators took one small step forward, unanimously passing a resolution honoring the memory and contributions of their late colleague, Minnesota Democrat Paul Wellstone. The Senate's warm embrace of Wellstone provides a stark contrast with President Bush's mean-spirited, partisan slight in October 2002. Of Wellstone, killed along with his wife and campaign staffers... more Posted on November 25, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Attacks McCain; Pot Calls Kettle Black In a sure sign that the jockeying for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination is underway, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney fired the opening salvo against Republican front-runner John McCain. But in calling McCain "disingenuous," Romney also offered the first pot-calls-kettle-black moment of the '08 campaign. In advance of the GOP primaries, McCain and Romney alike are making hard right turns. As Perrspectives previously reported, McCain has sought to lock up the backing of the Bush political machine he once disdained. The... more Posted on November 24, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Lott, Romney Revive Republican Race Card While the GOP this week wrestled with its new status as minority party, leading lights Trent Lott and Mitt Romney showed the Republicans' attitude towards minorities remains unchanged. In the Senate, the Republicans resurrected Mississippi's Trent Lott as the new Minority Whip. Lott, who surrendered his Majority leader post in 2002 following his ebullient praise of GOP centenarian segregationist Strom Thurmond, squeaked by Tennessee's Lamar Alexander 25-24 in the closed-doors vote. Trent Lott, of course, is one of the most... more Posted on November 17, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Rudy '08: Giuliani Takes the Plunger With the mid-term elections only days behind us, the jockeying in the 2008 GOP presidential horse race has already begun. The flood of candidacy announcements and exploratory committees this week includes the predictable (John McCain), the improbable (Tommy Thompson) and the ridiculous (Duncan Hunter). But this week's most intriguing prospect may be Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and putative hero of 9/11. Polls suggest that Rudy might very well be able to win the general election for... more Posted on November 16, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Sinks GOP Majority Over Rumsfeld With the midterms now in the rear view mirror, history will record that President Bush committed the defining gaffe of the 2006 campaign. Try as they might, conservatives failed to turn John Kerry's clumsy "stuck in Iraq" stumble into the moment that snatched Democratic defeat from the jaws of victory. As it turns out, it was President Bush who sealed the fate of the GOP's congressional majority by offering job security for the "fantastic" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the... more Posted on November 15, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Sacrificial Sham: Bush Changes the Subject with Rumsfeld Sacking With Wednesday's post-election sacking of Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush showed once again that he's more concerned about managing the news cycle than America's national security. Facing the prospect of explaining away his party's "thumping" at the hands of the Democrats, Bush instead hoped to change the topic. The "blue wave" that swept the Republicans from Congress can in no small measure be attributed to Bush's failed presidency in general and the disaster in Iraq in particular. Exit polls revealed that... more Posted on November 9, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Divide, Suppress and Conquer: The GOP's 25% Strategy for 2006 As Tuesday's vote approaches, Democrats are buoyantly optimistic about their prospects for retaking control of Congress. President Bush is wildly unpopular. His handling of Iraq, the election's dominant issue, is backed by less than a third of the electorate. On issue after issue, voters across the United States support Democratic positions. And in generic Congressional polls, a majority of Americans consistently prefer Democrats over Republicans. Almost none of which matters for the Republican braintrust. For the GOP, 2006 isn't a... more Posted on November 6, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Quotes of the Week, Pre-Election Edition As election day nears, the rhetorical woes of the conservative chattering classes continue unabated. From President Bush's ill-conceived Rumsfeld endorsement to Ted Haggard's boy trouble, the Republican leadership and its amen corner are providing plenty of fodder for voters. "I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring with it all of my adult life." Ted Haggard, November 5, 2006. "We don't have to debate... more Posted on November 5, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Documents of Mass Destruction: GOP Puts Party Before National Security with Iraq Papers Once again, the Republicans have put partisan political advantage ahead of national security. And as the New York Times reports today, they may have just given Iran the recipe for a nuclear bomb as a result. As the Times article details, back in March conservatives desperate to salvage President Bush's debunked WMD rationale for the Iraq war demanded the publication of thousands of Saddam's captured documents. As it turns out, those "Operation Iraqi Freedom" papers published on a public web... more Posted on November 3, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Falwell Denies Haggard Links On CNN's Situation Room, a very uncomfortable Moral Majority founder and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell denied to Paula Zahn that knew Ted Haggard, the now disgraced former head of the National Association of Evangelicals. As with so much else, Falwell has it utterly wrong. The reality, as it turns out, is that Haggard and Falwell have been partners in a wide range of efforts where the wall between church and state once stood. As former Bush faith-based crusader David... more Posted on November 2, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	American Taliban Ted Haggard's Boy Trouble Among the many oversights of the Perrspectives web site is its failure to include New Life Church pastor Ted Haggard in its listing of the American Taliban. But breaking news from Colorado suggests that Haggard is about to add his name to the growing list of gay, anti-gay conservative crusaders. AmericaBlog reports that gay escort Mike Jones detailed a three-year relationship with Haggard during an appearance on Peter Boyles KHOW 630 AM radio show. According to Jones, Haggard frequently made... more Posted on November 2, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Kerry's Failed Joke, Bush's Sick Humor John Kerry's failed "stuck in Iraq" joke once again highlighted the Massachusetts Senator's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But as George Bush, Dick Cheney and their amen corner try to make hay at Kerry's expense to help the GOP's flagging midterm prospects, they should take care that Americans not be reminded of the President's own sick sense of humor. After all, Bush's jokes usually come at our expense. A sense of humor has always been... more Posted on November 1, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Abramoff: The Gift That Keeps on Giving While all eyes have been focused on the collateral damage from the FoleyGate scandal on Republicans' midterm prospects, convicted GOP uber lobbyist Jack Abramoff continues to be the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats. A flurry of stories over the past two weeks highlighted the Abramoff taint that keeps spreading across Republican ranks in Congress and the White House. GOP nerves no doubt grew more agitated with the news that Jack will be ensconced in the nearby federal prison... more Posted on November 1, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP Plays the Race Card in Tennessee In one of the least surprising developments of the 2006 mid-term election, the Republican National Committee is turning to the race card early and often. Nowhere is the GOP's race-baiting more prominent than in Tennessee, where an RNC ad titled "Call Me" depicts African-American Democrat Harold Ford as a Mandingo playboy debauching the white women of the South. The RNC effort to help its candidate Bob Corker is no doubt designed to conjure up memories of Lily Belle in Neil... more Posted on October 30, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Cheater in Chief: Bush as the MBA President With each passing week, Americans are provided more insight into the deeply flawed character and mounting sins of their President. The latest comes in the form of a study by the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University showing that more MBA students cheat than those pursuing other professions. In what should come a surprise to few, George W. Bush, America's putative first MBA president, is the poster boy for the country's most dishonest profession. Ironically, the Duke University report... more Posted on October 30, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Jim Webb and the Pornographers of the Right With the truth about his neo-Confederate proclivities and stock swindles putting his Virginia Senate reelection bid in doubt, Republican George Allen turned to fiction to smear his opponent, Vietnam War hero Jim Webb. Citing disturbing content from Webb's combat novels (one of which, "Fields of Fire," appears on the Marine Corps' recommended reading list), Allen and his amen corner have implied that Webb is a misogynist, pedophile or worse. As it turns out, poorly crafted, soft-core pornography seems to be... more Posted on October 29, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Hutchison Backs Iraq Partition, Endorses Clinton Balkans Policy With the looming midterm elections and the imminent report from James Baker's Iraq Study Group facing them like a double-barreled shotgun, Congressional Republicans are beginning to cut and run on President Bush's failed Iraq strategy. In recent days, Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and John Warner (R-VA) have garnered most of the attention with their critiques of a "stay the course" policy that has left Iraq "drifting sideways." But it is Kay Bailey Hutchison from the President's home state of Texas... more Posted on October 20, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Republican Quotes of the Week The Republican implosion over Iraq, the Foley scandal and the North Korean nuclear crisis has produced yet anothe bumper crop of conservative quotes, quips and catastrophes. A small sampling from the talking heads of the right: "He [Rumsfeld] leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace, October 19, 2006. "House Democrats plot to establish a Department of Peace, raise your taxes, and minimize penalties for crack... more Posted on October 20, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, FoleyGate Edition The last two weeks have produced a dramatic shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bite list. The exploding Mark Foley scandal, the disintegration of Iraq and the new terrorist detainee legislation sent a bevy of Republican ditties racing up the charts. Meanwhile, some old conservative standards have fallen by the way side. Soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert now has three smash hits at the top of the charts. Hastert's hard-rocking cut "(Democrats) Pamper the Terrorists" from... more Posted on October 19, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Ads We'd Like to See While the past week may not have been kind to the Republican Party, the events of the last several days need not spell doom for the GOP during the upcoming mid-term elections. After all, Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman and the Republican braintrust will not allow the Foley scandal, the explosive allegations in the new Bob Woodward book, the latest Abramoff developments or the downward spiral in Iraq to redefine the GOP. To help the Republicans extricate themselves from their current... more Posted on October 4, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	GOP Quotes of the Week The past several days have produced yet another bumper crop of Republican gaffes, goofs and guffaws. The new Woodward book, Mark Foley's predilection for post-pubescent pages, the Congressional codification of torture and the chaos in Iraq helped bring out a bevy of new verbal offenses from many of the usual suspects of the right. "I'm Mark Foley from Florida's 16th District. I'm co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, and I hope today's bill is a pedophile's worst nightmare... more Posted on October 2, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	A Sad Week for Black Republicans Like the spotted owl or the Pacific sea otter, Black Republicans are something of an endangered species. This week, a select group of African-American conservatives and their GOP allies showed why. On Monday, the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) debuted ads declaring that Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan and that Martin Luther King Junior was a member of the GOP. While no evidence apparently supports the group's claim that King was a Republican, the Klan's roots in the post-Civil... more Posted on September 22, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	George Allen Not Kosher Virginia Senator George Allen has once again confirmed the wisdom of the old aphorism that when stuck in a hole, stop digging. Just days after the "Macacagate" episode highlighted Allen's neo-Confederate proclivities, his ham-handed response to revelations of his Jewish ancestry put Allen in hot water. During his September 18 debate with Democrat Jim Webb, a bitter Allen reacted angrily to reporter Peggy Fox's question about his Jewish roots. Perhaps sensing that stories of his grandfather (and namesake) Felix' Jewish... more Posted on September 20, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Bush Document Library Perrspectives has expanded its Document Library to include latest news and essential documents involving the key scandals and controversies of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. The Abu Ghraib and Torture Scandal resources provide must-read background on the current debate over President Bush's proposed legislation to undermine the Geneva Convention. This includes former Secretary of State Colin Powell's correspondence to John McCain, as well as the letter from retired generals to the Senate Armed Services Committee, each arguing the... more Posted on September 19, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Amazing Race Card There's an old saying that a gaffe is what results when a politician inadvertently tells the truth. By that standard, then, the Republican Party must be confessing its deeply held beliefs when it comes to race. After all, despicable racial slurs like Arnold Schwarzenegger's lecture on black and Latino blood and George Allen's MacacaGate are only the latest signs that racial bigotry is not the exception in the GOP, but perhaps the rule itself. Bush League Racism The rot starts... more Posted on September 13, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Republican Quotes Du Jour The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and primary politics have helped to once again bring out the worst from the mouths of the right. Featuring fear-mongering, the politics of the pulpit and outright racism, here are the latest mantras from the leading lights of the Republican Party. "I wonder if [Democrats] they're more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people." House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), September 12, 2006. "I know Iraq is a mess... more Posted on September 13, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	ABC Slams New Iraq Documentary, Ignores Own 9/11 Right-Wing Fantasy With this weekend's upcoming mockumentary "The Path to 9/11," Disney and ABC are breaking dangerous new ground in the conservative propaganda war. Even as the ABC network follows in the footsteps of Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ in "mobilizing the base," ABC News on Sunday declared Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" a left-wing hatchet job "produced like a political campaign." A pre-election salvo designed to pin the blame for the September 11... more Posted on September 5, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Troubling Trends on Americans' Incomes Despite grandiose claims from the White House regarding the strength of the U.S. economy, a flood of new data helps explain Americans' continued feelings of insecurity. While the unemployment rate (4.7%), GDP growth (2.9%) and productivity gains (2.3%)look impressive, below the surface the picture for wages and income grows bleaker still. Whether the incumbent Republicans pay a price in November for that dismal performance remains to seen. The disturbing trends for Americans' incomes are beyond dispute. Since President Bush took... more Posted on September 4, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Stevens and Tomlinson Latest GOP Smitings The Avenging Angel, punisher of miscreants of the conservative ascendancy, offered yet more retribution this week in response to the latest Republican buffoonery. The fun and frolic began with Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens. The Republican porkmeister suffered a double-dose of humiliation just in time for Labor Day. Just days after it was revealed that Stevens was the "Secret Senator" who put a hold on a public database for federal grants and earmarks to contractors, the FBI pursuing corruption tied to... more Posted on September 3, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	God, Guatemalans and Other GOP Gaffes Just days after Senator George Allen's MacacaGate scandal, the Republican Party continued to offer a cornucopia of egregious gaffes and uproarious utterances. In Montana, Senator Conrad Burns lived up to his recent claim that he could "self-destruct in one sentence." Just weeks after attacking out-of-state firefighters who came to the aid of Montana, the Senator belittled the "nice little Guatemalan man" who does work on the Burns' house. Perhaps joking about Hugo's green card might earn Burn's a ticket back... more Posted on August 27, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	George Allen's Family Affair By now, Perrspectives readers have grown familiar with the surprising neo-Confederate tendencies of Virginia Senator and presidential aspirant George Allen. (His abiding love of the CSA flag and the heritage of the ante bellum South are all the more surprising, given that Allen was born and raised in Southern California.) Today, the New Republic's Ryan Lizza offers a deeper glimpse of Allen the thug and redneck as a young man, courtesy of the Senator's own sister. In 2000, Allen's sister... more Posted on August 23, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	George Allen in Black and White Virginia Senator and 2008 GOP presidential hopeful George Allen continued to burnish his neo-Confederate credentials this week. During a reelection campaign event in front of an all white audience, Allen singled out Jim Webb campaign volunteer and U.S. citizen S.R. Sidarth as a "macaca." In his apology, Allen feigned ignorance of the meaning of the term, a North African racial slur likely not unknown to Allen's Tunisian mother. This sad episode is just the latest chapter in Allen's lifelong romance... more Posted on August 20, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Conservative Threat Level Raised to Red/Severe With this week's revelations regarding the UK terrorist plot to blow up airliners en route the United States, the Perrspectives Conservative Threat Level (CTL) has been raised to Red/Severe (Return to Middle Ages Likely). Despite President Bush's poll numbers languishing in the low 30's, the 2006 GOP midterm platform of "nothing to run on but fear itself" got a giant boost with the UK airliner plot. Among other mouthpieces of the right, Vice President Cheney is already on message with... more Posted on August 11, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Plan B's Tangled Web President Bush's cynical efforts to block over the counter sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B have taken on almost comic proportions in recent days. But kowtowing to the radical right on Plan B has come at a steep price for Mike Leavitt, George Allen and other Republicans in the administration and Congress. The Senate confirmation hearings of acting FDA chief Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach offered a new chapter in the President's rearguard action to keep Plan B off drug... more Posted on August 10, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Delay, Ney Ballot Blunders Baffle GOP As the mid-term elections near, convicted Republican hyper lobbyist Jack Abramoff may well be the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats. Even as the GOP rushes to drop its Abramoff-tainted candidates from ballots in Ohio and Texas, its political problems only build. In Ohio, six-term Republican Representative and Abramoff golfing buddy Bob Ney dropped out of his race against surging Democratic challenger Zack Space. But State Senator Joy Padgett, Ney's hand-picked successor, may be ineligible to run under Ohio... more Posted on August 8, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Unbearable Whiteness of Mitt Romney Massachusetts Governor and '08 GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney showed his true colors in Iowa this weekend. Effortlessly using the racial slur "tar baby" to describe the Boston Big Dig project, Romney joined White House press secretary Tony Snow on the long list of Republicans who by design or by blunder traffic in the language and symbols of race baiting. The gaffe suggests that the shrink-wrap may be coming off the Romney candidacy. That Mitt Romney appears to be a... more Posted on August 1, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Burns, Bolton and Steele The Avenging Angel, punisher of the rascals of the right, had yet another busy week delivering payback. Out in Big Sky country, GOP Montana Senator Conrad Burns found himself in hot water this week for insulting firefighters who had been battling blazes in his state. In the midst of a tough reelection bid against Democrat and rancher John Tester, Burns heaped scorn on the visiting Augusta Hotshots from Virginia, telling them they had "done a poor job" and "should have... more Posted on July 30, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's Voting Rights Act In Washington today, President Bush signed a bill extending by 25 years the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In so doing, Bush once again succeeded in having it both ways. While publicly proclaiming his support for the Voting Rights in public, the Bush Justice Department has blocked its enforcement at every turn. The President's rhetoric, of course, is designed to establish Bush's civil rights credentials and aid the Republican Party's outreach to moderate and African-American voters. On Martin Luther King's... more Posted on July 27, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Hoekstra's War on the CIA For most watchers of the CIA, the return of Steven Kappes to Langley as the agency's number 2 man is a welcome development. Fluent in Farsi and Russian, the 23-year veteran of the clandestine service can bring a renewed focus on the CIA's core intelligence-gathering mission. Unfortunately, Kappes' return almost certainly signals the resumption of Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra's partisan war on the CIA. Hoekstra (R-MI), the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, was a strong supporter of Porter Goss, his former... more Posted on July 26, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Specter's Op-Ed: Cowardice He Can Live With In a bizarre Washington Post op-ed ("Surveillance We Can Live With") pitching his ill-conceived NSA eavesdropping compromise, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) shows all of the hallmarks of a man in the throes of severe cognitive dissonance. While essentially pronouncing the illegality of George Bush's illegal domestic surveillance program, he cannot bring himself to harm his President or his party. As we've come to expect, the battle between Specter's inner demons yields only frustration and cowardice. Specter gets... more Posted on July 23, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	IRS Slashes Staff Auditing Wealthiest Americans In the latest sign that Republican class warfare is alive and well in Washington, the IRS is planning draconian cuts to its team of estate tax lawyers handling the audits of the wealthiest Americans. In the next 70 days, the IRS will shed almost half of the 345 lawyers assigned to monitor the gift and estate taxes paid - or not paid - by those with some of the largest fortunes in the United States. This latest effort to gut... more Posted on July 23, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Leavitt Latest GOP Miscreant Bush Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt headlines another week of wrongdoing by the miscreants of the right. The HHS chief earned the wrath of the Avenging Angel this week for proving that charity does indeed begin at home. Bush's go-to man on blocking the morning after pill used a non-profit foundation to enrich himself and family members. With Senators clamoring for the IRS to close the "Leavitt loophole," the HHS head may have to turn to Plan B.... more Posted on July 23, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	George Allen's Flag Desecration As the Washington Post reports today, the already bitter Virginia Senate race between incumbent George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb is getting downright nasty. Watching his lead dwindle and his 2008 presidential hopes put in peril, the Vietnam-era freeloader Allen is attacking the patriotism of the Vietnam war hero Webb over the former Navy Secretary's refusal to join Allen in backing a constitutional amendment banning flag desecration. Ironically, it is the Confederate Flag George Allen seems most concerned about it.... more Posted on July 13, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	Conservative Quotes of the Week The past week has seen another bumper of crop curious quotes and glorious gaffes from the renegades of the Right. From the Valerie Plame affair and NSA domestic spying to adminstration flip-flops on terrorist detainees and the do-nothing Republican Congress, the mouthpieces of the conservative ascendancy this week offered Americans fresh heapings of hypocrisy with the occasional dollup of honesty. "The President is always right." Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, July 12, 2006. "It's... more Posted on July 12, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Stem Cell Veto Threat is Dems' Opportunity In an interview with the Denver Post editorial board, Karl Rove signaled that President Bush would use the first veto of his presidency to block Congressional stem cell legislation. For Democrats, that veto threat could be just what the doctor ordered. In a nutshell, Bush's 2006 base-baiting, red meat strategy could well backfire when it comes to stem cell research. In May 2005, 50 Republicans joined a united Democratic block in passing the bi-partisan Castle-Degette bill by 238-194. (The House... more Posted on July 10, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush-Style Brotherly Love in Poland On Friday, E.J. Dionne used Mexico's cliffhanger election ("It Couldn't Happen Here") to show the comparative electoral dysfunction of the United States. Not so tongue in cheek, Dionne asked of disputed voting results in a critical swing state, "How would it look if the governor of the state was your own brother?" For today, though, the most glaring case of brotherly love distorting the political process isn't George and Jeb Bush in the United States, but instead can be found... more Posted on July 8, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	"Define GOP" Contest Winners Perrspectives is pleased to announce the winners of our first ever "What Does 'GOP' Stand For?" Contest. Back in June, we asked readers to say what three words the acronym "GOP" suggested to them. Three weeks and hundreds of entries later, the Republican party of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Frist, Delay and Abramoff is no longer the "Grand Old Party." Instead, Perrspectives readers offered new definitions for today's GOP, the party of the prudish and the partisan, the power-hungry and the... more Posted on July 5, 2006 \| Comments (7)

	All Opposed, Say Ney Republican Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio's 18th district may be among the most vulnerable GOP incumbents in this fall's mid-term elections. Already facing a stiff challenge from Democrat Zack Space, Ney's deep involvement with imprisoned Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff has put his reelection to a 7th term very much at risk. And the bad news only got worse for Ney this week. Matthew Parker, the director of Ney's congressional district office, was subpoenaed as part of the Justice Department's probe... more Posted on July 3, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Bush-McCain Courtship Back in March, I documented the amazing transformation of John McCain from GOP maverick to Republican prostitute. As I wrote then, the Arizona Senator in his quest for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination exchanged his seething hatred of George W. Bush for a high profile bootlicking of the Bush political machine. On Monday, the New York Times offered a new installment in the budding courtship between McCain and Bush, his campaign 2000 tormenter. Summing up their changed relationship, McCain acted... more Posted on July 3, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Hamdan Deals Blow to Bush Domestic Spying The Supreme Court's ruling today in the Hamdan case wasn't merely a defeat for the Bush administration's system of military tribunals for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. As ThinkProgress describes, the majority's explicit rejection of broad presidential powers claimed by the White House to be inherent in the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) also imperils Bush's dubious arguments for the illegal NSA domestic spying program. The challenge for President Bush and his allies is clear. As... more Posted on June 29, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Supreme Win for GOP, Delay in Texas Redistricting Case Tom Delay may have left Congress in disgrace, but the U.S. Supreme Court presented the former Majority Leader with a parting gift on Wednesday. By a 7-2 vote, the Court essentially endorsed Delay's unprecedented Texas Congressional redistricting plan that delivered six new House seats to the Republicans in 2004. The only minor setback for the GOP came in a separate 5-4 ruling that Texas' new 23rd district violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act with its suspicious gerrymandering shifting 100,000 Hispanic... more Posted on June 28, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Define "GOP" Contest Ends June 30! This is just a quick reminder that there are only three days left in Perrspectives' "What Does 'GOP' Stand For?" Contest. Hundreds of people of all political stripes have already sent in their three-word definitions of the acronym "GOP." From "Grabbing Our Pensions" and "Gays On Pitchforks" to "Greed Over Patriotism" and "Going Off to Prison" (just to name a few), Americans of good will are rebranding the party of Bush, Rove, Frist and Delay. Get your entry in by... more Posted on June 27, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Warren Buffett Defends the Estate Tax On Monday, billionaire financier Warren Buffett made two important contributions to the public good. First, he announced a staggering gift of $30 billion of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Perhaps more important for America's future, Buffett came out swinging in defense of the estate tax. During his press conference, Buffett offered a strong progressive argument in support of the estate tax: "I would hate to see the estate tax gutted. It's in keeping with the idea... more Posted on June 27, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Rush Limbaugh June has been a busy month for the Avenging Angel, smiter of conservative miscreants. The fun and frolic starts with Rush Limbaugh, the face of right wing radio and prescription drug fraud. On Monday, Rush once again ran afoul of the law over his pill predilection. Only weeks after doing a deal over charges of doctor shopping for the painkiller oxycontin, Limbaugh was stopped at the Miami airport for possession of Viagra without a prescription. Like Bob Dole before him,... more Posted on June 26, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, Cut & Run Edition The past two weeks have seen a changing of the guard atop the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites list. With the contentious Congressional debate over the path forward in Iraq, the fire and brimstone Republican smash hit "Cut and Run" vaulted to the top of the charts. Performed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman and John Boehner with a chorus of hundreds on Capitol Hill, "Cut and Run" easily outpaced the new #2, "No Civil Liberties (When... more Posted on June 25, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Iraqi PM, U.S. Commander: Cut and Run Just days after President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress lambasted their Democratic opponents for supposedly wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq, the Iraqi government and American military leadership in Baghdad essentially endorsed the Democratic position to set a timeline to draw down U.S. troops. As Newsweek first reported on Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki endorsed a timetable for American withdrawal as part of 28-point national reconciliation plan submitted to the Iraqi parliament today. While Maliki proposed... more Posted on June 25, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Rap Sheet This weekend, Democrats in Congress moved quickly to oust Louisiana Representative William Jefferson from his seat on the powerful House Way and Means Committee. Facing strong opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi showed that Democrats would be quick to punish ethical transgressors within their ranks. The contrast with the Republican culture of corruption could not more stark. Jefferson, who housed $90,000 in cold cash from a Nigerian bagman in his freezer, is the exception that proves... more Posted on June 20, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Contest: What Does "GOP" Stand For? With the November mid-term elections rapidly approaching, Democrats are trying to counter the perception, fostered by the Republican media machine, that their party doesn't stand for anything. But what does the GOP stand for? That's for you to answer in the Perrspectives "What Does GOP Stand For?" Contest. The contest is simple. Tell us what you think the three-letter acronym "GOP" now stands for. With the one-time budget balancers now the budget busters and the isolationists now nation builders, what... more Posted on June 16, 2006 \| Comments (120)

	Ann Coulter and Conservatism's Continuum of Hate On the House floor Thursday, Democratic Congressman Rahm Emmanuel threw down the gauntlet and challenged his GOP colleagues to repudiate the bilious words of Ann Coulter. But as should be clear by now, they simply can't. Whether the issue concerns gay Americans, 9/11, abortion, judicial appointments or political corruption, a seamless continuum of hate runs from today's governing conservatism through to its most extreme proponents. And that means the Congressional GOP differs only in degree - not in kind -... more Posted on June 9, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Delay's Parting Shots June 8th will be remembered as a good day for freedom loving peoples everywhere. In Iraq, the brutal terrorist and Al Qaeda mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike. And in Washington, the indicted former House Majority leader and K Street mastermind Tom Delay bid adieu to Congress. But while Zarqawi went out with a bang, Delay hardly went out with a whimper. In his House valedictory of venom, viciousness and deceit, an unapologetic Delay showered... more Posted on June 9, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	666: Armageddon, Iran and Bush Foreign Policy June 6, 2006 (6/6/06) is the 62nd anniversary of D-Day, one of the most glorious - and bloody days - in American military history. But as the American Prospect reports, for evangelical leaders close to President Bush such as Texas Pastor John Hagee, the number 666 has another important meaning for the future of the United States. 666 is the number to be borne by the Anti-Christ in the coming battle of Armageddon, which if Hagee has his way, will... more Posted on June 6, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	Laura Bush and the ABC's of AIDS On Friday, President Bush sent the only remaining popular member of his White House team to address the UN General Assembly meeting on HIV/AIDS. Just days after a UN study reported progress in slowing the spread of AIDS, a smiling First Lady Laura Bush demonstrated why her husband's United States may still be the biggest barrier to defeating the global scourge. A sure sign of the lack of seriousness of the Bush administration was the make up of the American... more Posted on June 3, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Reagan and Bush in the Age of AIDS PBS this week aired "The Age of AIDS," perhaps the most powerful and devastating documentary on American television in years. The two part, four-hour special featured interviews and history from six continents and over a dozen countries detailing the path, the politics and the pain of 25 years of the AIDS pandemic. Perhaps the most disturbing thread running through "The Age of AIDS" is the myopic complicity of the American radical right in the needless death and suffering of thousands... more Posted on June 1, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	A BFD: The NSA, FCC, DOJ, EFF and AT&T New revelations in the NSA domestic spying scandal are now coming in a flood. Today, the FCC announced it could not pursue an investigation into the role of American telecommunications companies in illegal domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency because it was not granted the necessary security clearances. That announcement came just two days after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declared the Bush administration would track journalists' phone records and might prosecute reporters for publishing stories involving classified national security... more Posted on May 23, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Gonzales: Reporters Fair Game On Sunday, the cancer of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency continued to metastasize. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declared that journalists can and should be prosecuted for publishing stories involving classified national security information. "There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws." The Attorney General also made it clear that the... more Posted on May 21, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Final Word on Snow's Slur Last week, White House press secretary Tony Snow used his virgin press briefing to reintroduce the racial slur "tar baby" back into the vernacular. But while an unrepentant Snow attacked his critics as "unfamiliar with the pathways of American culture," it would appear that eBay offers a clear picture as to why Random House suggests "avoiding the use of the term in any context." As it turns out, an eBay seller by the name of "Our Southern Collectibles" offers Tar... more Posted on May 21, 2006 \| Comments (9)

	No Comfort for Bush on the Economy Nothing seems to frustrate the White House and the Republican leadership more than their abysmal poll numbers on the economy at a time of booming GDP and a resurgent job market. It is, they claim, all about the war. But as I wrote in the "Bush League Economy," the issue for the President and the GOP isn't the Iraq war overshadowing a robust economy, but the growing insecurity most Americans experience daily with surging energy prices, spiraling health care costs,... more Posted on May 19, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Pat Roberts on Civil Liberties: Drop Dead During his opening comments in the CIA confirmation hearings of General Michael Hayden, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) returned to a favorite Republican sound bite in defense of illegal domestic surveiilance by the NSA. Roberts proclaimed: "I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties. But you have no civil liberties if you are dead." On February 3rd, Roberts, who has stonewalled the Phase II investigation into the misuses of pre-Iraq war... more Posted on May 18, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Snow White During his virgin White House briefing today, new press spokesman Tony Snow reverted to his Fox News roots with his casual use of a racial slur. But in referring to a thorny question regarding President Bush's illegal NSA domestic spying programs as a "tar baby," Snow is just the latest conservative to show why the Republican outreach effort to African-Americans seems doomed to fail. Consider, for example, President Bush's own campaign to woo black voters during his calamitous campaign to... more Posted on May 16, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	The Question for Hayden: Is FISA Unconstitutional? With the confirmation hearings for his CIA director nomination set to begin on Thursday, General Michael Hayden will no doubt be grilled on the broadening scope and dubious legality of the domestic surveillance programs during his tenure at the NSA. As we learned last week, Hayden's NSA not only conducted warrantless electronic eavesdropping on Americans, but clandestinely built a massive database of their phone records as well. And just today, Brian Ross of ABC News revealed that he had been... more Posted on May 15, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	This Week in Republican Corruption The Avenging Angel, smiter of conservative evil doers, has had a very busy week. From the White House to the Kentucky State House, from Langley to K Street, the latest batch of Banana Republicans was exposed, indicted or jailed. Let's start with Robert Ray, Kenneth Starr's successor as Bill Clinton Grand Inquisitor, who got his just desserts this week in New York. Ray, who famously said of Clinton, "no person is above the law," surrendered to the NYPD on charges... more Posted on May 15, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Poll: Double Win for Bush on NSA Phone Records A new poll from the Washington Post suggests that the President Bush may be winning a double victory with his illegal NSA domestic surveillance programs. Americans seem willing to buy the White House's "tough on terrorism" hype at the expense of the law and their own civil liberties. And as an added ironic bonus, the President gets another opportunity to decry leaks that supposedly jeopardize national security. Surprisingly, the poll data show Americans even more content with revelations over government... more Posted on May 12, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Bush Cabinet's Cult of Personality As President Bush's approval ratings continue to plummet, the White House has upped the ante in politicizing virtually every Cabinet department. That's the clear lesson from today's news that HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson cancelled contracts previously awarded to critics of the President. That revelation came only 24 hours after the Washington Post reported that Department of Agriculture required its public spokesmen to include pro-Iraq war talking points in each speech. The Dallas Business Journal and later Reuters reported the Jackson... more Posted on May 9, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Life Imitates Art: Lynne and Mary Cheney Write Books Washington is all abuzz about the new book from Mary Cheney, "Now It's My Turn." But while bloggers and gay rights activists ponder the question of Mary Cheney's lesbian self-loathing in her father's Republican Party, another epic tale of forbidden love from the Cheney family has largely been forgotten. Back in 1981, Mary's mother Lynne Cheney published "Sisters," a tale of two women's hard lives and unspoken love in the Old West. The Second Lady showed could she could write... more Posted on May 8, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Picking a Fight Over Hayden As predicted, President Bush nominated Air Force General Michael V. Hayden to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA. And while the Hayden nomination brings with it a growing laundry list of problems, that's just fine with President Bush. After all, a fight is exactly what the Bush White House wants right now. The smallest stumbling block comes from the President's own allies. House Intel chief Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) expressed concerns over putting a military person in charge of... more Posted on May 8, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Malkin Rages Over "Los Rangers" One day after Cinco de Mayo, the puerile Michelle Malkin was once again on the culture warpath. The target of her outrage this time? Baseball's Texas Rangers, who donned uniforms on Friday bearing the text "Los Rangers." While I'm no supporter of the Rangers pandering to their growing Hispanic fan base, I find the virtriol and venom that Malkin and her fellow travellers offer over the jersey episode both fatiguing and ironic. After all, a previous owner of the Texas... more Posted on May 7, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Hayden In; Jury Still Out on Goss Departure Yesterday, I suggested that the spontaneous combustion of Porter Goss was a fitting end for the partisan hack installed by President Bush to lead the war-time CIA. But the jury is still out on the impetus for his sudden departure, what Goss himself today deemed "just one of those mysteries." So far, the Washington Post and New York Times have focused on political intrigue. The Post cited administration officials who claimed "there has been an open conversation for a few... more Posted on May 6, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Conservatives Say the Darndest Things Conservatives, to paraphrase Art Linkletter, say the darndest things. The past several days have been no exception, as the denizens of the right have served up a steady of diet of contradictory claims, egregious gaffes and downright disturbing ditties. Here, then, for your entertainment pleasure are the latest installments of "Today's Mantras." "Well, from my perspective, Heather and I already are married...The way I look at it, is we're just waiting for state and federal law to catch up with... more Posted on May 4, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Hot Tubs, Trial Lawyers and Republicans One of the Right's favorite bogeymen is the trial lawyers, the ambulance chasers supposedly behind skyrocketing health care costs and bankrolling the Democratic Party. But as Bush family consigliere James Baker III showed once again on the Larry King show last night, Republicans are just fine with trial lawyers when they need one. Baker and his daughter-in-law Nancy used the CNN setting to tell the story of the tragic death of his 7-year old granddaughter Graham, who drowned in a... more Posted on May 3, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Iran, Bush and the Second Coming The tensions between the United States and Iran reached a new level over the past week. Following a series of announcements regarding its nuclear program and tests of new weapons systems, Tehran announced on Tuesday that it was purchasing the sophisticated Tor M1 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia. On Friday, the IAEA released its highly anticipated report on the Iranian nuclear program and its failure to meet UN Security Council deadline to stop its uranium enrichment efforts. Secretary of State... more Posted on May 1, 2006 \| Comments (24)

	Rudy's Primary Problem As the 2008 Republican primaries draw near, the field of GOP presidential hopefuls is making its quadrennial journey to the extreme right. As USA Today, the New Republic, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, The Hill and even the Daily Show have reported, John McCain has already begun the trip to the "crazy base world" of the Republicans' religious right. But for Rudy Giuliani, the process of courting Christian conservatives is turning out to be a real drag. Jerry... more Posted on April 25, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	That's a Big No: Bush, Gas Prices and the Polls With gasoline prices skyrocketing around the country, a spate of opinion polls show that President Bush is running on empty with the American people. The new CNN/Gallup/USA Today survey puts Bush's approval rating at a dismal 32%. Perhaps even more glaring, a staggering 69% of respondents claimed that gas prices constituted a financial hardship. But if Bush is being punished for high energy costs, he has only himself to blame. This May 7, 2001 response by then press secretary Ari... more Posted on April 24, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Scott McClellan's Greatest Hits White House press secretary Scott McClellan made it official today, tearfully announcing his resignation. McClellan's was a long overdue and merciful act of political euthanasia, ending what one analyst last year deemed "a persistent vegetative state." McClellan's sublime ignorance, awkward dissembling and limitless ability to take a punch made him the perfect mouthpiece for the scandal-ridden Bush White House. His rumored replacements, including Fox News anchor Tony Snow and one-time Iraq coalition provisional authority shill Dan Senor, simply don't offer... more Posted on April 19, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP's Pulitzer Prize Winning Scandals The 2006 Pulitzer Prize awards were announced today in New York. If there is one common attribute many of the winners share, it is holding up a mirror to the scandals and corruption of the Bush administration and his Republican Party. The Pultzter Board recognized coverage of a broad range of Republican fraud, deceit and skullduggery, including the NSA domestic spying program, the CIA's secret prisons and the Jack Abramoff scandal, just to name a few. For example, Susan Schmidt,... more Posted on April 17, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Katherine Harris Down 30% On this Saturday before Easter, one resurrection that looks increasingly unlikely is that of Katherine Harris. In a new poll from Ramsussen, the Florida Congresswoman and doyenne of electoral deceit finds herself trailing incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by a staggering 30% in their Senate race. Harris' ill-fated Senate run was stillborn almost from conception. As I noted previously, the national GOP shunned her polarizing campaign from the start. In February, the trial of Duke Cunningham bagman Mitchell Wade revealed that... more Posted on April 15, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	General Agreement: Rumsfeld Fails the Aspin Test As the firestorm between the growing ranks of retired generals and the White House over Donald Rumsfeld continues to heat up, the Republican leadership in Congress remains largely - and predictably - silent. As I wrote back in December 2004, the Republican Party and its amen corner have decided that its 1993 "Les Aspin Standard" does not apply to Defense Secretary Rumseld and the Bush administration. That is, decisions that needlessly cost American lives in battle cost defense secretaries their... more Posted on April 15, 2006 \| Comments (7)

	Republican Terms Unlimited In 1994, the GOP rode the Contract with America and its call for term limits to an overwhelming victory in the midterm elections. Newt Gingrich, the architect of the '94 Republican Revolution, saw the term limits pledge as an essential ingredient to retaking the House. But in 1991, Gingrich called terms limits "a terrible idea." To no one's surprise, many of his Republican colleagues who took the pledge now agree with him. As CQPolitics reports, Tennessee Representative Zach Wamp and... more Posted on April 14, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, Iran Plan Edition The tumultuous events of the past week have led to a complete shake-up of the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. Rumored plans for military strikes against Iran, revelations regarding President Bush's authorization to leak classified national security information to target political foes and the resignation of Tom Delay have combined to send some newcomers up the rankings and drop some old favorites off the charts. Rocketing to number one is the thrash metal "Wild Speculation (Fantasy Land)" by George Bush... more Posted on April 13, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Banana Republicans in Ohio Kenneth Blackwell, the Secretary of State and gubernatorial hopeful, has added his name to the long list of Ohio Republicans smote by the Avenging Angel. It was revealed that Blackwell, a central villain in voter suppression by the GOP during the 2004 election, bought stock in electronic voting machine vendor and GOP cash cow Diebold. Meanwhile, the man he's trying to displace, Robert Taft, may be disbarred for ethics violations involving CoinGate's Tom Noe. And Ohioans thought the Cuyahoga River... more Posted on April 12, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Cornered by Bush Leak That President Bush authorized Scooter Libby to selectively leak portions of the highly classified October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate as part of a coordinated assault on Joseph Wilson and other debunkers of pre-war Iraq WMD claims should come as a surprise to no one. What is surprising is that at least one Republican has the courage and the honesty to acknowledge the hypocrisy and shamelessness of a President now revealed as "leaker-in-chief." Representative Ray Lahood, an Illinois Republican and staunch... more Posted on April 7, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Delay to Resign The Galveston County Daily News is reporting that Tom Delay will resign his seat this spring or summer. Coming just days after the guilty plea of his former aide Tony Rudy in the Abramoff affair, Delay has apparently decided not only to drop out of his reelection race, but to resign altogether. Delay cited troubling poll numbers as driving his decision. More likely, the collective weight of the Abramoff, Buckham, and TRMPAC scandals brought the Hammer down, so to speak.... more Posted on April 3, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Tom Delay's Christ Complex Tom Delay has never been shy about comparing himself to Jesus Christ. In 2001, Delay defended his none-too-subtle campaign to bring his fundamentalism to the United States Congress, "People hate the messenger. That's why they killed Christ." At last weekend's "War on Christians" conference, Delay's American Taliban allies elevated his Christ complex to the level of a crusade. Vision America founder and conference host Pastor Rick Scarborough led the way in the deification of Delay. Scarborough, whose latest book is... more Posted on March 31, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Brand W and the Midterm Elections Facing dismal poll ratings and the potential loss of both the House and Senate, the Republican National Committee appears set with its 2006 mid-term election strategy. Call it "Brand W." That is the central message in a memo from GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen to RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. Acknowledging the GOP's current challenges, van Lohuizen says the key to maintaining Republican control of Congress is reenergizing and mobilizing the Party's dispirited base. To do that, the memo claims, the... more Posted on March 29, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Terri Schiavo: One Year Later This Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo. While the battle to respect her wishes is thankfully past, the war over individual autonomy and the protection of private, personal life choices is far from over. As many of the leaders of the religious right convene at VisionAmerica's "War on Christians" conference, Terri Schiavo's parents Mary and Bob Schindler are coincidentally set to release their tell-all book. Meanwhile, husband Michael has broken his public silence, issuing his... more Posted on March 27, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Abdul Rahman and the Death of the Bush Doctrine Neo-conservative founding father Irving Kristol once famously said, a neoconservative is "a liberal who's been mugged by reality." Now the once-preening adherents of the Bush Doctrine are being beaten and battered by events on the ground. First came the Sharia-influenced constitution and sectarian violence in Iraq and the Hamas government in Palestine. With the possible execution of Christian convert Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan, neo-conservatives' faith in democracy promotion in the Middle East is falling victim to their own much-hyped law... more Posted on March 25, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Mind: Don't Worry, Be Happy These may be dark times for President Bush and the GOP, but Republicans are happy. Or at least happier than Democrats. That's the unsurprising conclusion of the annual survey of American happiness ("Are We Happy Yet?") by the Pew Research Center. Just as predictably, conservatives like George Will are happier still about what they see as vindication for their blighted ideology. On this as on so many other topics, Will has the morality play utterly backwards. But first a little... more Posted on March 23, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	The Top 10 GOP Sound Bites: Iraq Anniversary Edition This weekend's third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq brought another shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites List. Catapulting to #4 is the new White House medley, "We're Makin' Progress", performed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and General George Casey. Still topping the charts is the hard rocking smash hit, George W. Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program." Coming in a close second is Scott McClellan's lyrical magic, "Ongoing Investigation." Another cut from that same broken record, Karl... more Posted on March 20, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	The Prostitution of John McCain In case you missed it, this past week completed the transformation of John McCain from GOP maverick to Republican prostitute. In his no-holds barred pursuit of the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, the Arizona Senator has exchanged his seething hatred of George W. Bush for a fawning courtship and high-profile bootlicking of the Bush political machine. McCain's toadying started at last weekend's 2006 Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Facing certain defeat in the SRLC straw poll to hometown favorite Bill Frist, McCain... more Posted on March 18, 2006 \| Comments (12)

	Polygamy and the War on Gay Americans With its sympathetic portrait of a polygamous family, the new HBO series "Big Love," is helping to heat up the culture war. The show has been the fodder of a Newsweek feature on the polygamy rights movement, complete with headlines such as "Polygamists Unite!" For conservative stalwarts like Charles Krauthammer and Rick Santorum, "Big Love" is ammunition and seeming validation for their claim that same-sex marriage leads directly to legalized polygamy, incest and bestiality. As usual, the culture warriors have... more Posted on March 17, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Bush Losing the Cracker Vote The much-deserved indignities continue for President Bush. Just a day after a host of new opinion polls put the President's approval rating as low as 33%, Bush suffered a devastating blow from one of his core constituencies. George W. Bush is losing the cracker vote. On Thursday, pop star Jessica Simpson snubbed the President, choosing to skip an appearance at a Republican fundraiser featuring Bush. Simpson, who portrayed the Southern belle Daisy Duke in last year's film version of "The... more Posted on March 16, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Poll Watch: Bush and GOP Spiral Downward The latest wave of public opinion polls shows that President Bush's downward spiral continues unabated. The Wall Street Journal reports that Bush's approval rating has plummeted to 37%, with CNN coming in at 36%, a precipitous 10% drop from January. And while a comparatively upbeat Washington Post survey from March 6th put the President at a 41% approval rating, a devastating assessment from the Pew Research Center showed Bush at only 33%, the lowest mark of his presidency. There can... more Posted on March 16, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Harris Stays In Refusing to bow to the inevitable, Republican Congresswoman and 2000 GOP recount heroine Katherine Harris is staying in the 2006 Florida Senate race. Sidestepping a major address planned for this evening, Harris instead used the friendly confines of the Fox Hannity and Colmes program to declare her intent to continue her quixotic campaign the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson: "I'm staying. I'm in this race. I'm going to win. I'm going to put everything on the line." Ms. Harris may put... more Posted on March 15, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Norton, Norquist and Abramoff's Body Count In what may be the latest addition to Jack Abramoff's Republican body count, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced her resignation today. With Abramoff's legal team threatening to tell all about the "friends of Jack" throughout Congress and the Bush White House, Norton preemptively ended her career in government. As the Denver Post, ThinkProgress, Atrios and others report, Norton certainly has a lot of explaining to do. Norton protected her deputy and former energy industry lobbyist Steven Griles even after her... more Posted on March 10, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Abortion Flip-Flop The reaction to the draconian new restrictions on women's reproductive rights in South Dakota tells us a lot about the coming contest for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Virginia Senator George Allen wholeheartedly endorsed South Dakota's direct challenge to Roe. In his run to the right, John McCain tried to have it both ways. Most predictable, Mitt Romney confirmed the 2005 assessment of his advisor Michael Murphy that "he's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." Last... more Posted on March 10, 2006 \| Comments (10)

	Senate Intel Committee Caves on NSA Inquiry As predicted yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee today confirmed its status as a rubber stamp for the White House. The Committee, led by staunch Bush ally Pat Roberts (R-KS), rejected vice-chairman Jay Rockefeller's call for an investigation of the President's illegal NSA domestic spying program. Bowing to pressure from the White House, Majority Leader Frist and its chairman, the Intelligence Committee agreed only to institute a seven-member subcommittee, which along with staff, would receive full briefings on the program. Rockefeller... more Posted on March 7, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Frist's Flagging Prospects Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is at it again. Just days after threatening to gut the Senate Intelligence Committee if it launches an investigation of President Bush's illegal domestic spying program, Frist announced his new number one legislative priority: the Flag Amendment. Dr. Frist, whose accomplishments to date include witness malpractice in the Schiavo case and an SEC investigation for insider trading, once again has his eyes focused on the culture war prize of flag desecration: "I look forward to... more Posted on March 7, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Senate Showdown Tuesday on Domestic Spying Tomorrow is shaping as "Showdown Tuesday" for the Senate Intelligence Committee. On Tuesday, the Intelligence Committee led by Kansas Senator Pat Roberts will decide whether to investigate President Bush's illegal NSA domestic wiretapping. At this point, the vote could go either way. Whether Roberts' committee once again abdicates its oversight role likely comes to down the votes of three Republican members previously critical of the NSA program: Mike DeWine of Ohio, Maine's Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. DeWine,... more Posted on March 6, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Decline and Coming Fall of Katherine Harris Last week, I wrote about the tough times for the Florida's doyenne of electoral deceit, Katherine Harris. Already badly trailing in her Senate race to unseat Democrat Bill Nelson, revelations a week ago showed that Harris accepted $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Duke Cunningham sugar daddy, defense contractor MZM. Now comes the latest chapter in the decline and fall of Katherine Harris. On March 1, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported that former Harris scheduler Mona Tate Yost left her... more Posted on March 5, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Scandals Converge in Texas Redistricting Case On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that brings together three simmering Republican scandals. The GOP's unprecedented Congressional gerrymandering, Tom Delay's ethical failings and the Department of Justice's gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be among the story lines as the Roberts Court takes on the 2003 Texas redistricting cases. On its face, the Texas cases concern the constitutionality of a new Congressional district map put in place by Texas Republicans in 2003. Coming only... more Posted on February 27, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Hammer Time: Texas GOP Sends IRS After Delay Foe Two years ago, I wrote about the "Payback Principle" as one of the hallmarks of the Bush presidency. As it turns out, declaring total war to smear, intimidate, defame and destroy political opponents is common practice within the Texas GOP. That's what Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) found out when a Tom Delay ally in Congress triggered an IRS audit of the non-profit. As the Washington Post reported today, the IRS cleared Texans for Public Justice after an audit commenced... more Posted on February 27, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	From Bad to Worse for Katherine Harris Things just keep going from bad to worse for Katherine Harris. The GOP's 2000 Florida recount heroine is facing almost certain defeat in her upcoming 2006 Senate race, a campaign her one-time Republican backers in DC pulled out all the stops to prevent. Now comes the news that Harris accepted $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Duke Cunningham's bagman, Mitchell Wade of defense contractor MZM. Michael Crowley in The New Republic details Harris' fall from grace among national Republicans. Celebrated... more Posted on February 25, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Republicans' Constitutional Crisis When it comes to President Bush's illegal domestic spying program, his Republican allies over the last several days have shown that discretion is indeed the better part of valor. From the beginning, the administration's amen corner has aggressive claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the wartime Commander-in-Chief powers give President Bush the statutory and constitutional basis for sidestepping the FISA process for domestic electronic surveillance. But most in the GOP are downright sheepish... more Posted on February 20, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Presidents' Day Scandal Watch On this Presidents' Day, Washington and Lincoln must be spinning in their graves. While the government enjoys a day off, the Republican scandals enveloping the capitol continue to mushroom out of control. Among the lowlights: President Bush's allies in Congress are trying to block an inquiry into the illegal NSA domestic wiretapping program. Even as critics in his own party such as Lindsey Graham, Chuck Hegel and Arlen Specter question the legality of President Bush's NSA program, Intelligence Committee chairman... more Posted on February 20, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Avenging Angel Blasts Cheney, Starr and Steele It's been a busy few days for the Avenging Angel, smiter of right-wing miscreants. First, Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele found out the hard way that you shouldn't get caught pretending to be a moderate. The African-American Senate hopeful angered Jewish voters with his comparison of stem cell research to the Holocaust. As the Baltimore Jewish Council learned last week, Steele doesn't know from Mengele. Just days later, Clinton Grand Inquisitor Ken Starr found himself in the spotlight last week... more Posted on February 13, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Just Say Noe to Thugs For those who have been following the ethical trials and travails of the GOP, the Buckeye State brings us the latest chapter of the Banana Republicans. Ohio Republican fundraiser extraordinaire Tom Noe, a Bush pioneer and close supporter of Governor Robert Taft, has been indicted on 53 new counts of stealing over $1 million from a dubious state investment in rare coins. These counts come on top of earlier charges of illegally funneling over $45,000 to President Bush's 2004 reelection... more Posted on February 13, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Playing Dumb: Bush on Abramoff, Lay and Libby Facing increasing pressure over his ties to convicted Republican uber lobbyist Jack Abramoff, George W. Bush is doing what comes naturally: playing dumb. And why not? It worked for him with Ken Lay and the Valerie Plame leak. On January 26th, President Bush denied any relationship with Abramoff, a "Pioneeer" who raised over $100,000 for his reelection campaign: "You know, I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don't know him." Sadly for the President,... more Posted on February 9, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	The White House Flip-Flops on NSA Program Oversight President Bush has flip-flopped once again. Just 24 hours after Vice President Cheney firmly declared the administration would not more broadly share information with key Congressional committee members regarding Bush's NSA domestic spying program, the White House reversed course - sort of. The seeds of the turnabout were sown with yesterday's challenge from House Intelligence Committee member, Republican Heather Wilson of New Mexico. Wilson, who is also one of the few House GOP members to return contributions from Tom Delay's... more Posted on February 8, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The GOP's "Give Me Death" Defense on Domestic Spying During a break in the Senate testimony by Attorney General Gonzales this morning, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions resorted to the now standard Republican defense of President Bush's illegal domestic spying program. Call it the "Give Me Death" strategy. During brief comments to the press, Sessions referring to the rightness of Bush's domestic spying after 9/11 declared melodramatically: "Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because they are no longer with us." The Republican leadership is singing from the same Karl... more Posted on February 6, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Dishonoring Mrs. King In Atlanta this weekend, thousands braved unusually cold weather to pay their final respects to Coretta Scott King, who lay in state at the Georgia Capitol. That honor, withheld from her slain husband in 1968 by the legendary racist Governor Lester Maddox, comes as a bitter irony. For it was in the same Georgia Capitol only days before that the GOP-controlled legislature passed and Republican Governor Sonny Perdue signed a restrictive new voter ID card program designed to suppress minority... more Posted on February 5, 2006 \| Comments (9)

	CPAC 2006: Republican Party Animals Just in time for Lincoln's birthday, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will arrive in Washington. Next Thursday, February 9th, hundreds of right-wing activists, high-profile Republican politicians and conservative groups of all stripes will descend on the capital to give lie to the Great Emancipator's words, "with malice toward none; with charity for all." The CPAC 2006 speakers include Vice President Cheney, whose scheduled remarks are said to include a primer on Senate floor etiquette. UN Ambassador John Bolton... more Posted on February 2, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites: SOTU Edition With the NSA domestic spying scandal and Pesident Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address, the past week has seen another shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. Jumping to the top of the charts is the hard rocking smash hit, George W. Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program." Another cut from that same broken record, Karl Rove's "Pre-9/11 Mindset," vaulted to the #3 in the rankings. Still strong in second place is Scott McClellan's lyrical magic, "Ongoing Investigation." Dropping off... more Posted on February 1, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Top 10 State of the Union Highlights Faced with negative polls and a pessimistic American nation, President Bush's just completed 2006 State of the Union Address naturally focused on the theme of "the Hopeful Society." But like the stillborn "Ownership Society" vision before it, Bush's 2006 SOTU will be remembered not for its policy program, but for its partisan political purposes. The top 10 highlights: 1. Demonize the Democrats The President continued Karl Rove's 2006 electoral strategy to once again run on national security and brand the... more Posted on January 31, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	Branding the NSA Domestic Spying Scandal As part of its all-out campaign to defend its indefensible illegal domestic wiretapping program, the Bush administration is turning to one of its tried and true marketing techniques - branding. The product? The "Terrorist Surveillance Program." In speeches this week, President Bush, former NSA program manager Air Force General Michael Hayden and other White House surrogates will toe the party line and refer to the "terrorist surveillance program." To support the new GOP talking points, the White House web site... more Posted on January 24, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, Gonzales and the War on Voting Rights The Washington Post today offered a devastating look at the Bush administration's systematic attempt to undermine voting rights in the United States. The Post looks in-depth at cases in Georgia, Texas and Mississippi in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other Bush political appointees overruled career staff in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. In each, the DOJ granted "pre-clearance" to new state rules designed to suppress minority voter participation to the benefit of the GOP. As... more Posted on January 23, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Republican Plantation Politics On the same day that Republicans howled over Hillary Clinton's use of "plantation", a GOP term of art, President Bush was practicing some plantation politics of his own. In Washington on Monday, the President honored the life of Martin Luther King Jr. by calling for the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "We all must recognize we have more to do," Bush intoned, "And Congress must renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965." Too bad his Justice Department... more Posted on January 17, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Ralph Reed: Abramoff Crony and Fox News Scandal Analyst Fox News has nothing if not, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright might say, "cojones." Perhaps never more so than on Sunday, when its Big Story Primetime show featured Republican lobbyist and strategist Ralph Reed offering analysis on the Jack Abramoff scandal: 1:00am Big Story Primetime Abramoff Ripple Effect? Republican strategist Ralph Reed speaks out on the wide-spread impact of the disgraced lobbyist's scandal. Who better that Reed to provide insight and context into the exploding Republican scandals on... more Posted on January 16, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Engine Trouble for the Economy To kick-off his 2006 campaign for permanent - and dangerously irresponsible - tax cuts, President Bush crowed on Friday about his economic stewardship. "The American economy," Bush boasted, "heads into 2006 with a full head of steam." New economic data released on the same day, however, suggests that the American economic locomotive may be experiencing some engine trouble. After a stellar November, December produced only new 100,000 jobs, roughly half of the gains anticipated by analysts. Paradoxically, the .1% drop... more Posted on January 8, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	DeLay Down, Not Out Tom Delay, the former exterminator and ethically-challenged Texas representative, has bowed to the inevitable and finally stepped down from his House Majority Leader role. Facing a revolt from his own GOP colleagues in the wake of the Abramoff plea and new revelations of corruption, the Hammer in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert grudgingly gave up on his pyrrhic quest to hold on to his leadership post. Still, an unrepentant Delay vowed to fight for reelection even in the... more Posted on January 7, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Jack Abramoff & the Banana Republicans With today?s guilty plea by Republican uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Congressional GOP and its K Street poject may be in for a world of hurt. As many as 20 people in the House, Senate and other Republican circles in DC may be implicated. For all the latest news, documents, legal filings and timelines on the growing Abramoff and Delay imbroglios, be sure to visit the Perrspectives Abramoff/Delay Scandal Center. In the mean time, here?s an updated Most Wanted poster of... more Posted on January 3, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Yoo Da Man Karl Rove is widely credited with being "Bush's brain." But when it comes to the administration's dangerous and unprecedented expansion of presidential war powers, John Yoo is the President's mouthpiece. Only 34, Yoo, formerly of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel and now a professor at the University of California Boalt Hall School of Law, joins Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney as one of the preeminent if unlikely policy architects in the Bush pantheon. Wolfowitz, the former Defense Undersecretary, was... more Posted on December 23, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Mitt Happens Among the least surprising political announcements of 2005 is the word from Boston that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is not running for reelection in 2006. It is only the latest step towards a 2008 White House run for a man whose presidential ambitions started in the womb. The son of 1968 GOP presidential contender and American Motors head George Romney, Mitt?s gleaming teeth, perfect hair, venture capital resume and rescue of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics have put him on... more Posted on December 16, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	The Conservative Threat Level T-Shirt Perrspectives is pleased to offer the ideal holiday gift for that hard-to-please progressive on your list. As the New Year approaches, the Conservative Threat Level (CTL) t-shirt helps you and your loved prepare to resist the right-wing effort to turn back the clock to the Middle Ages. Visit the new Perrspectives store over at CafePress to get your CTL t-shirt today! By the way, the current Conservative Threat Level is Orange/Elevated: Church and State to Merge.... more Posted on December 15, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	The Wages of Spin As I wrote recently, the White House is increasingly frustrated by Americans' continued pessimism with the President's handling of the economy. Perhaps President Bush can find some solace that he seems to draw his greatest support in precisely those states where conditions are the worst for American workers. That would appear to be the central finding in a report just released by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. The report, titled "Decent Work in America: The... more Posted on December 9, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Bush League Economy Nothing, apparently not even the growing opposition to the war in Iraq, frustrates President Bush and the Republican Party more than Americans' consistently negative view of the economy. Despite 215,000 new jobs in November, stout 4.3% Q3 GDP growth and a whopping 4.7% gain in productivity, only 37% of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the economy. As one Wall Street analyst moaned on the RNC blog, "No matter what happens, no matter what data are released, no matter which... more Posted on December 8, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Republican Rap Sheet The explosion of scandals engulfing the Banana Republicans is producing a growing body count. In just the last week, California Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned his House seat after pleading guilty to taking over $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractor MZM. Jack Abramoff partner Michael Scanlon entered a guilty plea for his role in swindling Native American tribes, a turn of events that may imperil a host of others in Congress, including Ohio Representative Bob Ney. Meanwhile, the PlameGate/CIA... more Posted on December 1, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	GM and the War on Labor You can learn a lot about the state of class warfare in America just by reviewing the reaction to General Motors' recent announcement that it will lay off 30,000 workers and shutter a dozen plants in North America. While E.J Dionne at the Washington Post offered a thoughtful piece on the political responses to the impact of globalization and spiraling health care costs on manufacturing giants such as GM, Rich Lowry of the conservative National Review does what the right... more Posted on November 29, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Cheney and the "Same Intelligence" Myth In "Bush Rewrites History", I argued that in attacking opponents of its uses and manipulation of pre-war intelligence, the Bush White House and its amen corner were propagating four new myths. First, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their allies claimed that Congress has access to the "same intelligence" as the White House. Second, the President and his team asserted that two investigations of the Iraq war run-up found no evidence that the President or his administration had manipulated pre-war... more Posted on November 28, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Medicare's Prescription for Failure Last week saw the launch of the enrollment period for the new Medicare prescription drug plan. Judging by the initial reception by beneficiaries, Congress and the market alike, the Medicare drug benefit is off to a rocky start. That should come as a surprise to no one for a program that was designed to fail. All over the country, overwhelmed seniors wrestled with over 40 competing plans featuring conflicting formulary lists and dramatic geographic variations in premiums. Beneficiaries' confusion was... more Posted on November 23, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Schmidt, Woodward It's been a very busy week for the Avenging Angel, punisher of conservative miscreants. Last week, Bob Woodward, the famed Watergate reporter, confirmed that he sold his soul to the devil. First, Woodward penned two Bush hagiographies in exchange for exclusive access to the White House. Now it it turns out that Woodward, who on October 27th dismissed the CIA leak case as "gossip" and chided Patrick Fitzgerald as a "bull-dog", himself was told of Valerie Plame's identity in June... more Posted on November 22, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Rewrites History When in a hole, one of the timeless maxims of politics states, stop digging. President Bush, facing plummeting poll numbers, the festering PlameGate scandal and a growing national consensus that he misled the country into war with Iraq, has apparently decided to keep digging. In shameless and angry speeches in front of military audiences on Veterans Day and again in Alaska on Monday, the President in essence accused his critics of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. But in... more Posted on November 15, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Top 10 GOP Sound Bites: Rewriting History Edition The past week has seen another shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. After the President's shameless Veterans Day speech, the smash hit "Rewriting History", performed by George Bush, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, jumped to the top of the charts. Kay Bailey Hutchison's ode to Scooter Libby, "No Underlying Crime," dropped two places to #3, while Scott McClellan's ballad "Ongoing Investigation" held firm at #2. For the first time since January 2002, George... more Posted on November 14, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Hard Liners, Soft Porn One of most ironic - and enjoyable - side stories of the CIA Leak/PlameGate investigation has been the discovery of Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trashy 2001 novel, "The Apprentice." As the New Yorker describes at length, Libby, the right-hand man for staunchly conservative Vice President Dick Cheney, seemed quite comfortable writing about prostitution, deviant sexual acts and bestiality in his bizarre coming of age tale set in 1903 Japan. No doubt Libby's "man-on-deer" and "bear-on-girl" forbidden love scenes would make Rick... more Posted on November 10, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	Voting with Their Wallets Voters across the nation dealt a major defeat to the radical anti-government movement. In state after state, the people rejected the starvation tax policies of the Norquistas and reaffirmed their shared commitment to investment in essential public services. Looking ahead to 2006, this augurs well for good government Democrats and represents a stern warning to President Bush and the Congressional GOP. The triumph of common sense started in Colorado last week. There, voters overwhelmingly supported a suspension of the state's... more Posted on November 9, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Last Abortion Clinic Just as the Senate prepares to begin the confirmation process for staunchly anti-choice nominee Sam Alito, the PBS series Frontline aired a powerful and important documentary on the latest developments in the war over reproductive rights. The segment, "The Last Abortion Clinic", was a sobering assessment for pro-choice advocates. Frontline charted the growing strength - and success - of the anti-choice movement in Mississippi from the 1973 Roe v Wade decision through the present day. Constantly testing the "undue burden"... more Posted on November 9, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Roberts' Iraq Stonewall Crumbles Over the past week, Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas chose to ignore the old dictum, "when in a hole, stop digging." As I wrote last week, Roberts has been a key leader of an elaborate GOP effort to stonewall investigation into the Bush administration's uses and misuses of pre-Iraq war intelligence. Stung by the closed Senate session in which Democrats savaged his obvious obstructionist tactics, Roberts came out swinging. Now, Roberts is insisting that there is no evidence of... more Posted on November 7, 2005 \| Comments (9)

	Why the Senate Went to a Closed Session In case you were wondering, this is why Harry Reid forced the Senate into a closed session. Republican Chairman Pat Roberts on the Phase 2 Report on possible Bush White House manipulation of Iraq WMD intelligence: "I don't think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further." (March 31, 2005) "To go though that exercise, it... more Posted on November 2, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Fitzgerald, Iraq and the Truth About Pre-War Intelligence One of the most telling moments of special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference on Friday concerned the larger context - or lack thereof - for the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. "This indictment is not about the war. This indictment's not about the propriety of the war. The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified." Fitzgerald, of course, is right. Establishing the truth about the path to war in Iraq is not his... more Posted on November 1, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	The Top 10 GOP Post-Indictment Sound Bites Back in July, Perrspectives took a look at the Top 10 GOP sound bites. What a difference a hurricane and two indictments make. Catapulting to #1 in the charts after the Scooter Libby indictment is Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's smash hit, "No Underlying Crime (Perjury Technicality)." "Ongoing Investigation", the previous chart-topper from Scott McClellan and George W. Bush, dropped to #2. Moving to #5 is "Criminalization of Politics", as performed by Tom Delay, Ken Mehlman, Bill Kriston and Robert... more Posted on October 31, 2005 \| Comments (18)

	Indicting an Administration Special Prosecutore Patrick Fitzgerald has announced that Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby has been indicted on five charges on obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements. (Here are PDF's of the Libby indictment text and the Fitzgerald press release text.) The false statements occurred during interviews with federal agents in 2003. The perjury charges center on two different appearances by Libby before the grand jury. In response, Libby has tendered his resignation. At this time, the status of... more Posted on October 28, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Bush's Premature Withdrawal In one of the least surprising announcements to come of out Washington in recent years, President Bush bowed to the inevitable and pulled the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. Positioned as a principled withdrawal by a stalwart White House counsel concerned with preserving executive privilege, in reality the Miers collapse was both a total defeat for the President and a potent symbol of his political cowardice. The Bush nomination of Miers was stillborn. She was cannibalized by movement conservatives,... more Posted on October 27, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Blowback: Bush, Plame and the Politics of Payback Washington is on pins and needles as all await word from CIA leak special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Reuters reports that Fitzgerald may convene the grand jury as early as Tuesday to seek indictments. What began as an investigation into the outing of a covert CIA operative has grown to encompass perjury and obstruction of justice, and perhaps even cast doubt on the candor of the administration's rationale for the Iraq war. Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the Bush White House is... more Posted on October 23, 2005 \| Comments (9)

	Your Guide to PlameGate The specter of indictments in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case came in to greater focus today with the debut of a web site by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. The launch of the site is fueling speculation that next week brings a flood of documents from Fitzgerald, including possible indictments for Rove, Libby and the rest of the cast of characters. To follow all the latest developments and access a collection of the key articles, briefings, statutes, timelines and other... more Posted on October 21, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	What the President Knew and When He Knew It President Bush, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, has some 'splaining to do. Thanks to a piece in the New York Daily News, we now know the President's claims throughout the fall of 2003 that he had no knowledge of the identity of the Valerie Plame leaker are simply untrue. The article ("Bush Whacked Rove on CIA Leak") cites White House sources who describe a furious George W. Bush dressing down Rove in September 2003 for his role in the... more Posted on October 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Fox in the Hen House One of the recurring themes at Perrspectives is the growing Achilles Heel of the conservative movement. Dormant for two presidential elections, the yawning chasm between economic and social conservatives is reemerging, and with it, a serious threat to the Republicans' majority status. In the wake of its Schiavo disaster and the revolt over the Harriet Miers nomination, conservatives are coming to blows yet again. This time, the battleground is television content. The family values merchants at the Parents Television Council... more Posted on October 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Tom Delay's Media War Anyone who thought indicted Congressman Tom Delay would pass quietly into the night learned otherwise this week. The former House Majority Leader unleashed a full-scale assault against Travis County DA Ronnie Earle in court, on television and on the Internet. In so doing, Delay showed he is both ethically-challenged and media savvy. The legal challenges came as a surprise to no one. Delay's attorney Dick DeGuerin began by filing a motion to dismiss the case against his client. Ronnie Earle... more Posted on October 15, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Freeh at Last: Revenge and Revisionism at the FBI On Sunday night, former FBI head Louis Freeh introduced his salacious new Clinton tell-all book, My FBI, on CBS 60 Minutes. For Freeh, the book is an opportunity not only to cash in, but to lash out. Scolded by the 9/11 Commission and savaged by the critics of his tenure at FBI, Freeh is now getting a chance to tell his side of the story. It's too bad he doesn't seem to be telling the truth. Even in advance of... more Posted on October 9, 2005 \| Comments (11)

	No Judge of Character President Bush has tried to reassure anxious conservatives over his choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, testifying to her good character by saying " I know her heart. I know what she believes." They are not buying it. The conservative punditocracy and blogosphere are enraged with the Miers selection. George Will said that Bush "has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution." The President's amen corner is in full rebellion, with Charles Krauthammer... more Posted on October 7, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Stirling Work on the Delay Case Over the last several months, Perrspectives has amassed a large and growing document library regarding Tom Delay and his laundry list of scandals. One of the most important additions to the Tom Delay Scandal Document Center comes from Stirling Newberry of Blogging the President. Over at BOP and in a post at DailyKos, Newberry has unearthed a treasure trove of memos, emails and other correspondence involving Delay's TRMPAC, Texas legislators, Texas Republican contributors, and the Hammer's own staff. Last week,... more Posted on October 6, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Miers Fails the Three Strikes Test The judicial philosophy of Harriet Miers, President Bush's surprise choice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, remains a mystery. But what little is known about Miers suggests she is a political operative with some extreme views if not extreme qualifications. In a nutshell, Miers fails Perrspectives' "Three Strikes Test" for the Supreme Court. Back in July, I urged Democrats to hold their fire on John Roberts and focus instead on Bush's second nominee, taken for granted to... more Posted on October 4, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	America's Most Wanted The cavalcade of Republican corruption continues unabated. Only days after the first of two indictments of Tom Delay and the commencement of an SEC investigation into insider trading by Bill Frist, the PlameGate investigation is heating up once again. The Washington Post reports that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may pursue criminal conspiracy charges against Karl Rove and Cheney chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the payback outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. And ABC's George Stephanopolous claimed Sunday that... more Posted on October 2, 2005 \| Comments (11)

	An Army of One? The recruiting woes of the American military continue unabated. The AP reported today that the U.S. Army just completed its worst recruiting year since 1979. The shortfall for the all-volunteer force was among the most dramatic, both in absolute numbers (7,000) and as a percentage of the target (80,000), since the United States ended conscription in 1973. These disconcerting results reflect the ongoing chaos and unending carnage in Iraq. In this environment, the Army understandably will miss its goal of... more Posted on September 30, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	The GOP Scandal Documents With Tom Delay indicted and Judith Miller released from jail, the bubbling pot of Republican corruption, cronyism and skullduggery is reaching a boiling point. Ever the schadenfreude merchant, the Perrspectives Document Library is only to happy to offer the essential documents and materials for the Delay, Rove and other festering scandals of the Banana Republicans. The Tom Delay Scandal Center has all the key background for the Delay case and its spawn, including Jack Abramoff and David Safavian. The essential... more Posted on September 30, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Delay Indicted. Frist Investigated. God in His Heaven. It's been a bad day for the Banana Republicans. First, House Majority Leader Tom Delay was indicted. Then, the SEC announced it is launching a formal investigation into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's insider trading scandal. For today at least, God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world. Let's start with Delay, the man who promised to bring a "biblical worldview" to government. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicted the Hammer for TRMPAC's illegal use... more Posted on September 28, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Banana Republicans During a week when Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean tried to rally his party in a quixotic effort to block the confirmation of John Roberts, Republicans at all levels of government may have given him the keys to Congress. For Democrats, ending the epidemic of GOP corruption, patronage and cronyism has to be one sure fire theme for next year's mid-term elections. Memo to Dean: Clean Up the Mess in '06. The Republican rap sheet for the past week... more Posted on September 26, 2005 \| Comments (18)

	Sins of Commission The American people are rightly outraged by President Bush's refusal to call for an independent commission to investigate the disastrous government response to hurricane Katrina. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed that 81% of Americans would like to see an independent panel versus only 18% backing a Congressional inquiry. Democrats will pay no price for opposing both the defanged joint committee pushed by House and Senate Republicans and the sham White House investigation led by Bush homeland security advisor Frances Townsend.... more Posted on September 21, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	John Roberts, Chief Umpire? Among the rhetorical flourishes that characterized his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, none perhaps will prove to be as lasting or strategic as John Roberts' "umpire" analogy. Designed to disarm both conservative opponents of so-called "judicial activism" and liberal foes of right-wing ideology on the bench, the eloquent Roberts offered the soothing platitude, "Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them." Roberts� umpire approach was warmly received by fawning Republicans on the Committee. Democratic members, though,... more Posted on September 21, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Trojan Horse: The Bush Plan for Katrina Last Thursday�s speech by President Bush in New Orleans� Jackson Square kicked off the administrations� cynical campaign to snatch political victory from the jaws of defeat in the wake of its disastrous Katrina response. Karl Rove�s strategy for the coming 2006 mid-term elections will modeled on his 2002 GOP success with the Department of Homeland Security. With the Gulf States devastated, hundreds dead and thousands displaced, President Bush and the GOP will lace a popular recovery program featuring massive federal... more Posted on September 19, 2005 \| Comments (9)

	The Bush Speech in Black and White One of the more transparent aspects of President Bush's speech from New Orleans last night was its cynical outreach to African-Americans. Trying to break the stereotype of his administration and his party as modern day Confederates, Bush spoke eloquently of race and poverty in the Katrina disaster. Unfortunately, Bush's makeover as born-again racial healer simply isn�t credible, given his own penchant for racial stereotypes. Returning to the formula of his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush sought to... more Posted on September 16, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Bush's Katrina Cop Out The President's prime-time "Katrina Comeback" address was vintage Bush. Primarily designed to help him, and not the Gulf States, recover from his administration�s disastrous bungling of the Katrina response, Bush's speech offered to shower money on the devastated South. But in his typical fashion, George W. Bush held no one accountable and shunned independent oversight of the response and the rebuilding. Most of all, the Free Lunch President refused to ask the American people to pay for it. Let's start... more Posted on September 15, 2005 \| Comments (16)

	George Bush, Security Risk In a short statement on Tuesday, George W. Bush completely undermined the entire premise for his second term as President. With plummeting polls in the wake of his administration's bungling of the New Orleans disaster, Bush sought the appearance of accountability. He said tersely, "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." But in so doing, President Bush demolished his national security credentials. The same man who campaigned for reelection in 2004 as... more Posted on September 13, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	9/11 and the Culture of Grief This fourth anniversary of the devastating September 11 Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington were marked with the usual ritualistic displays of grief and remembrance. Some, like the World Trade Center ceremony in New York were heartfelt and moving. Others, like the Bush administration�s so-called "Freedom Walk" in Washington DC appropriated (or perhaps more accurately, misappropriated) the symbols of 9/11 for partisan political ends. And some, like the Nick Lachey/Jessica Simpson pop rendition of "America the Beautiful" simulcast... more Posted on September 11, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Estate Tax or Dynasty Dividend? In the wake of Katrina's devastation along the Gulf Coast, Americans should be united in providing relief, resources and support to all in need. But sadly, that massive relief effort will take place during a time divisive - and fundamental - debate about the very meaning of national unity in the United States. As New Orleans struggles for survival, the President and his amen corner are waging a full scale assault on the estate tax, what they derisively (and effectively)... more Posted on September 4, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Compassionate Conservatism, RIP Over two years ago, I wrote the words below as part of long piece titled, "The Opt Out Society: The GOP Threat to National Unity and the American Social Contract." Now, two years later, with New Orleans in ruins, hundreds dead and thousands more at risk, we see the willful neglect of the Bush administration and the morally bankrupt conservative public philosophy behind it in the clear light of day. Theirs is the Opt Out Society indeed. And in it,... more Posted on September 2, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	New Orleans Pays the Death Tax Now should not be the time, as Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly has noted, for the politics of blame. In the wake of Katrina's devastation along the Gulf Coast, Americans should be united in providing relief, resources and support to all in need. But sadly, that massive relief effort will take place during a time of divisive and fundamental debate about the very meaning of national unity in the United States. As New Orleans struggles for survival, the President... more Posted on August 31, 2005 \| Comments (36)

	Hurricanes, Divine Retribution and the Right In these times of American hyper-partisanship, even the response to an act of God like hurricane Katrina is revealing. The disaster, which devastated the extremely red states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, brought no snide claims of "divine retribution" from the voices of the left. No one declared that a just God wrought vengeance upon the South for its sins of slavery, succession, civil war, Jim Crow or more recently, its coronation of George W. Bush. Instead, the liberal blogosphere,... more Posted on August 30, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	What Is To Be Done: A 10-Point Plan for Iraq The debate over the American debacle in Iraq sounds more and more like the Fram oil filter ads from the 1970's. In those spots, a hard-nosed mechanic tells consumers, "you can pay me now or pay me later." The inevitable result of the current political dialogue over Iraq will be the "Fram choice" for Americans: the United States can lose now or lose later. On the right, President Bush and his fellow travelers refuse to accept accountability for selling a... more Posted on August 20, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	The Cindy Sheehan Rorschach Test The vigil of Cindy Sheehan outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch has come to embody all the anger and division of the increasingly counterproductive American debate over Iraq. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, says she wants to meet again with President Bush to ask him, "why did you kill my son?" But while she is lionized by the left and vilified by the right, Washington fiddles and Baghdad burns. The reaction to Sheehan by the Bush White... more Posted on August 10, 2005 \| Comments (25)

	Chaos Theory: Bush & The Bolton Diversion As expected, President Bush Monday morning made a recess appointment of John Bolton to the post of UN ambassador for the United States. This, despite Bolton's inability to get Senate approval, his lie regarding his testimony in the Plame affair, and the possibility of his own involvement in a White House orchestrated smear campaign against the Wilsons. Bush's move, though, may be less about his famed loyalty or legendary intransigence, and more a diversion aimed at creating chaos. At this... more Posted on August 1, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Roberts, Poppy and Attorney-Client Privilege With Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on John Roberts still over a month away, a battle royale over the nominee's paper trail is rapidly developing. But despite White House protests to the contrary, the conflict may be less about protecting attorney-client privilege, and more about protecting the President's father. First, a little background. As part of the confirmation process, Senate Democrats have requested documents from Judge Roberts' time in both the Reagan and Bush 41 White Houses. Yesterday, the Bush team... more Posted on July 29, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Top 10 Bush Sound Bites With the Karl Rove PlameGate scandal now in high gear, the Bush White House and the GOP leadership as usual have everyone singing the same tune. Over the last three weeks, their latest smash sound bite hit, "Don't Prejudge An Ongoing Investigation", has jumped to the top of the charts: Click here for performances of "Ongoing Investigation" by President Bush, Scott McClellan, and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.... more Posted on July 27, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	Holding Fire on Roberts In yesterday's piece "Supreme Limitations on Democrats", I argued that liberals and progressives of all stripes should not reflexively oppose the nomination of Judge John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. (Admittedly, when I wrote the piece, it was Judge Edith Brown Clement I had in mind.) The argument for restraint in the confirmation process is straight-forward. It's not just that Roberts is clearly a first-rate legal talent, unlike a Clarence Thomas. He simply does not cross the threshhold of... more Posted on July 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Supreme Limitations for Democrats With rumors swirling that President Bush has selected Edith Brown Clement of the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to be replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, Democrats can get to down the business of planning their response. Their response should be to vote to confirm Judge Clement. Why? In a nutshell, Democrats should grudgingly accept Clement because she simply does not cross the threshhold of unsuitability. 1. Anti-Choice History Not Sufficient for a No Vote Democrats cannot... more Posted on July 19, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	The Rove-Plame Scandal Document Library The Perrspectives Document Library has been expanded to include background articles and documents on the Karl Rove outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The Rove documents include the original Joseph Wilson New York Times op-ed, Robert Novak's column outing Wilson's wife Valerie Plame and key 2003 White House press briefings by Scott McClellan and President Bush. The Library also features key 2003 and 2005 articles on the scandal, as well as a timeline of entire affair. For future reference, links... more Posted on July 12, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Karl Rove Whack-a-Mole Contest Ever feel like there?s no justice? While the New York Times? Judith Miller sits in jail for protecting the identity of the Valerie Plame turncoat, Bush White House grand inquisitor and likely leaker Karl Rove remains at large. That?s why you need to play Karl Rove Whack-a-Mole, the Perrspectives contest that lets you be Karl Rove?s judge and jury (though not executioner). How to Play The contest is simple. You get to sentence Karl Rove for his crimes; the best... more Posted on July 7, 2005 \| Comments (51)

	Markets, Public Goods and Military Recruiting During Thursday's hearings of the Armed Services Committee, several Republican Senators blamed the usual suspects for the shortfalls in Army and Marine recruiting. James Inhofe (R-OK) lambasted unnamed Senate colleagues, adding the potential recruits are being discouraged "because of all the negative media that's out there." Kansan Pat Roberts chimed in, "with the deluge of negative news that we get daily, it's just amazing to me that anybody would want to sign up." But while these conservative Senators predictably pointed... more Posted on June 30, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	A Guide to the Bush Address on Iraq On Tuesday night, President Bush will take to the stage at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in a nationally televised address aimed at rebuilding public support for the war in Iraq. And well he should. Recent polls (from Gallup and Rasmussen, respectively) show that only 39% of Americans approve of the war in Iraq and that more people in the United States blame Bush (49%) than Saddam (44%) for the conflict. The torrent of revelations in 2002 pre-war British documents confirm... more Posted on June 27, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Unrepentant: Rick Santorum and the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal It has often been said that a gaffe is what happens when a politician speaks the truth. In Senator Rick Santorum's case, the Catholic Crusader of the Keystone State he has spoken the truth about what he believes. For Santorum, liberalism, the Enlightenment and the scientific method are apparently a far greater crime in America than the thousands of children raped and sodomized by priests in his beloved Catholic Church. As noted by the CapitolBuzz and Atrios, Santorum in a... more Posted on June 27, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Mississippi Wounds Still Unhealed In Mississippi, where Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was convicted today of manslaughter in the 1964 civil rights murders, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal asks its readers a simple question: Do you think the Edgar Ray Killen trial and guilty verdict will mend the old wounds of the 1964 slayings? The simple answer? No. No, the dark cloud hanging over Philadelphia, the state of Mississippi and the South won't be lifted by this single compromise verdict. The wounds certainly... more Posted on June 21, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Culture of Strife Across the nation this week, the Republican Party and its amen corner unleashed a tidal wave of dangerously irresponsible interventions into the most personal and intimate aspects of Americans' private lives. Whether they will pay a political price for their increasingly extreme - and unpopular - positions remains to be seen. Let's begin in Madison, Wisconsin, where the state assembly voted to ban the distribution and use of the "morning after" pill on state campuses. By a 49-41 vote, the... more Posted on June 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Ghosts of Mississippi There's an old saying that justice delayed in justice denied. Well, we're about to find out in Mississippi. Finally, 41 years after the fact, reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen will be tried for the infamous killings in Philadelphia, Mississippi of three Chicago civil rights workers. The three, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered while in Mississippi to register black voters as part of "Freedom Summer." With the complicity of the segregationist Neshoba County populace, no... more Posted on June 13, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	U.S. BS at the OAS The President and Secretary of State Rice took their Bush Doctrine cure-all to the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Miami this week. Unfortunately for them, the assembled OAS delegates showed no interest in drinking the Bush Kool-Aid. While President Bush touted the benefits of his troubled Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Condoleezza Rice tried the make the case for democracy promotion and fighting against instability in countries like Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti: "We must act... more Posted on June 7, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Confederacy of Dunces This weekend, the disgusting spectacle of the Confederate flag reared its ugly head once again, this time in Missouri. Republican Governor Matt Blunt ordered the flag to be flown for a day during a memorial service attended at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville. The 400 people in attendance didn't just lay roses and sing "Dixie." They raised the question as to whether the national Republican leadership is just whistling Dixie when it comes to celebrating the... more Posted on June 5, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	The Great Pretender The truth, the saying goes, will set you free. Not so for Massachusetts governor and certain 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In this week's National Review, Michael Murphy (Romney's version of Karl Rove) for once offered veracity to the public. About Mitt, Murphy said, "He's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." As a former resident of the Bay State, I can attest to the truthfulness of Murphy's admission and to the dissembling of his recantation.... more Posted on June 3, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Deep Throat Irony Watch: Linda Tripp Edition As I wrote yesterday in "Gagging on Deep Throat", the mouthpieces of the conservative ascendancy have had two predictable responses to the revelation that former FBI #2 man Mark Felt was Watergate's "Deep Throat." First, they rushed to Nixon's defense, seeking to rewrite history by calling his crimes no different in kind or degree than those supposedly committed by Kennedy, Johnson or Clinton, and his downfall the result of the perfidy of liberal media. (More on this topic in a... more Posted on June 2, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	Bob Woodward Comes Clean Bob Woodward has just published in the Washington Post an account of how the FBI's #2 man Mark Felt became Deep Throat. A key sound bite from Woodward's account, "There is little doubt Felt thought the Nixon team were Nazis." For more on the demonization of Mark Felt by both Nixon and Bush apologists, see "Gagging on Deep Throat."... more Posted on June 2, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Gagging on Deep Throat Karl Marx once remarked that historical events occur twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. When it comes to the scandal machines in the Nixon and Bush administrations, he could not have been more wrong. The reactions of Nixon contemporaries and today's Bush sycophants to yesterday's Deep Throat revelations are predictably - and eerily - similar. But the Bush team's own overt war against anonymous single sources and brutal retribution against whistle-blowers is no joke.... more Posted on June 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Sharpening Their Clause: The Coming Bush Judges Only days after the Senate reached a tenuous compromise to preserve the judicial filibuster, it appears the first Supreme Court vacancy of the Bush era may be imminent. AP reports that Chief Justice Rehnquist is preparing to step down and that the White House is already preparing to nominate his successor. There is an emerging consensus regarding the leading contenders for Bush's first Supreme. (Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic provided a thorough run down last fall.) More important than... more Posted on May 30, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Conservatives Gone Wild: Powerline Drool Edition In February, Perrspectives reported on (and Wonkette duly noted) the bizarre pubescent spectacle of right wing bloggers publicly drooling over women at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Now, Powerline, of Rathergate fame and supposed "blog of the year", adds its drool to the conservative bucket with its coverage and photos of the Miss Universe contest. And Powerline is not alone in the hormonal raging of the Right, as wingnut utopia Free Republic shows. It's nice to see the conservative... more Posted on May 27, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Paris Hilton and the Right Wing Food Fight The Parents Television Council is taking to the air waves to protest the new Paris Hilton ad campaign from West Coast burger chain Carl's Jr. The controversial and widely viewed ad depicts the vapid and scantily clad Hilton gorging on Carl's burger while performing a masturbatory car wash. But while right-wing watchdogs like PTC's L. Brent Bozell are predictably up in arms over the raunchy and tasteless promo, one aspect of the story has gotten virtually no attention. That is,... more Posted on May 25, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Stem Selling: The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act The momentum of politics and science is now with the Democrats in the battle to drive stem cell research in the United States. This week's announcement by South Korean researchers successfully producing healthy stem cells from the DNA of damaged tissue brought home the danger of the United States losing its leadership in the biotech sector. And new bi-partisan legislation in the House co-sponsored by Mike Castle (R-DE) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) shows that increasing numbers of Congressional Republicans will... more Posted on May 24, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Nuclear Freeze and Bipolar Disorder AP has reported that the Senate 12 have brokered an 11th hour deal to avert a showdown over the nuclear option. The deal announced by Senator John McCain preserves the Democrats right to filibuster, but gives Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor a vote on the Senate floor. If the early blogosphere feedback is any indication, the Right and Left share a common sense of rage and betrayal at the outcome: "Cowards. A Bunch of M-Fing Cowards!!!! "Trust"?... more Posted on May 23, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Judicial Filibuster Documents and Resources The Perrspectives Document Library has been expanded to include materials and resources for the Senate showdown over the judicial filibuster. The Judicial Filibuster Resource Center includes resource guides from the Center for American Progress and Media Matters, key background articles on the origins of the Nuclear Option, and background on key GOP players like Bill Frist and Manuel Miranda. The Judicial Filibuster Document Library also includes comparisons and archives of judicial vacancies under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. For... more Posted on May 19, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Single Sorcerers The ongoing Newsweek saga has given the Bush White House and its right wing jihadists what they see as a golden opportunity. Their simple goal is to use the Newsweek case and the Rathergate episode before it to wage a full scale assault on the credibility and objectivity of "mainstream press." In its place, they seek to substitute their own manufactured, alternate reality. Central to this campaign is the assault on media reliance on anonymous, single-sources. As Scott McClellan put... more Posted on May 19, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	The Pot Calls the Kettle Irresponsible The Bush administration and their amen corner continue to rain down hellfire on Newsweek magazine for the Koran desecration flap. Scott McClellan called it "irresponsible" and Ohio Representative and Tom Delay crony Bob Ney termed it "criminal." As I cautioned yesterday, the administration would do well not to overplay its hand. The image of the United States around the Muslim world was already deeply tarnished. And American credibility, after Abu Ghraib, Iraq WMD, and too many other instances to list... more Posted on May 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Faith-Based Intimidation So it's come to this. Pastor Chan Chandler of the East Waynesville North Carolina Baptist Church in North Carolina ejected nine members of his congregation because they did not vote for George Bush for President. 40 other congregants left his flock in protest. Welcome to the perversion that is George Bush's vision of faith America. The $8 billion Faith-Based Initiative sanctions discrimination by its recipients while involving the federal government in the functions of religious groups. In 2004, the GOP... more Posted on May 7, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	Still Doing Evil: Google and Political Speech Almost a year after Perrspectives' run-in with Google, it seems that the Internet giant is continuing to arbitrarily trample on the opinion speech of its advertisers. Apparently, the company whose corporate mantra is "do no evil" is persists in doing just that. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Google has gotten embroiled in the Tom Delay ethic wars. While Google was running an anti-Delay and from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), they refused a virtually identical anti-Nancy Pelosi... more Posted on May 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Failing The GOP Boy Scout Test Yesterday, embattled House Majority Leader Tom Delay pleaded, "Just think of what we could accomplish...if we spent less time on our soapboxes and more time on our knees." Unfortunately for the GOP, that advice is only making matters worse for hypocritical Republican politicians across the country. On the very same day as Delay's bizarrely ironic comments, Spokane Mayor and outspoken anti-gay Republican Jim West admitted to relationships with men, cruising gay web sites, and offering an internship to a Spokesman-Review... more Posted on May 6, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Pat Roberston's Second Term Agenda On ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBN mogul and 700 Club host Pat Robertson offered a short summary of his policy preferences for the second Bush term. The former presidential candidate weighed in across a range of issues concerning God and man. On the raging controversy over the judiciary, Robertson claimed that judges are a greater threat to the United States than Al Qaeda. He stated that only Christians and Jews should be judges and in essence called Supreme... more Posted on May 3, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	The Conservative Crack Up Thesis The past few days have seen the emergence of what can be called the "Conservative Crack Up Thesis." In the latest New Republic, everyone's least favorite contrarian Andrew Sullivan offers "Crisis of Faith: How Fundamentalism is Splitting the GOP." Simultaneously, University of Oregon professor Garrett Epps delivered "Conservatives in Conflict." And yours truly has written early and often on the potential for the implosion of the conservative movement. All of these pieces are variations on a theme. For Perrspectives, the... more Posted on April 26, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Conservative Theory of Evolution On Sunday, April 24th, Senate Majority Leader Bill First will join James Dobson, Tony Perkins and assorted members of the conservative American Taliban for "Justice Sunday." This made-for-TV event is part of the Right's ongoing war against Senate Democrats' use of the filibuster to block a handful of Bush judicial nominees. As Frist prepares to implement the nuclear option, it is worth noting the subtle irony at the center of the Justice Sunday event. As their flyer states: "THE FILIBUSTER... more Posted on April 21, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	Tony Perkins Joins the American Taliban With the Family Research Council's "Justice Sunday" coming on April 24th, FRC head Tony Perkins has earned a charter membership to the American Taliban. Perkins has led the Family Research Council since 2003, after previously founding the Louisiana Family Forum to fight the "increasing influence of the homosexual community on public policy issues" and authoring that state's covenant marriage legislation. Perkins likes to refer to the "homosexual death-style" and labels civil unions "a serious threat to the health of our... more Posted on April 19, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Delay's Judas Kiss As Malcolm Gladwell might put it, the Tom Delay saga may have reached a "tipping point." Across the House, the Senate and even the White House, Delay is under a withering assault from his erstwhile Republican allies. Many in the GOP, including the leadership, increasingly view Delay's judicial jihad and ethics imbroglio as threatening the Republican Congressional majorities in 2006. And while momentum has been building for his ouster, Delay's doom may be sealed by his own friends: Christopher Shays... more Posted on April 10, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Conservative Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry Once again, the conservative punditocracy and blogosphere is learning the painful lesson that the truth does not necessarily set you free. From Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to virtually the entire right-wing blogosphere, the regiments of right-wing venom were all wrong about the much-hyped "GOP Schiavo talking points memo." Over the past 10 days, they called it a fraud, or in Limbaugh's case, a Democratic forgery, all in the hope of a redux of the CBS Memogate affair. Unfortunately for... more Posted on April 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Easter Reflections on Tom Delay In recent days, criticism has unfairly rained down on House majority leader Tom Delay for supposedly comparing himself to Jesus. As Delay put it in his own defense, "people hate the messenger. That's why they killed Christ." On this Easter Sunday, it is worth noting that the similarities between Jesus and Tom Delay are striking: UPDATE: A PDF version is available here. For more on Tom Delay, see "The American Taliban" and "The Avenging Angel."... more Posted on March 27, 2005 \| Comments (29)

	Tom Delay Hypocrisy Watch As the Terri Schiavo tragedy continues, we've learned that most Americans believe that these complex, deeply private end-of-life decisions should be made by families, not the government. What we've also learned that is that one of the Americans who apparently feels that way is none other than Tom Delay. The Los Angeles Times reports that in 1988, Mr. Delay's own family chose to end life support for their 65 year old father, severely injured in a tragic accident: "There was... more Posted on March 26, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Achilles' Heels The political clash over the tragedy of Terri Schiavo is highlighting once again the Achilles Heel of the conservative movement. Dormant for two presidential elections, the yawning chasm between economic and social conservatives is reemerging, and with it, a serious threat to the Republicans' majority status. As we've noted before, the ascendancy of the Right is constantly threatened by the strains between social conservatives and their fiscally conservative, often libertarian allies. On one side, the religious Right of Robertson, Falwell,... more Posted on March 23, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	To Err is Texan Three critical points have been almost entirely absent from the media's discussion of the Terri Schiavo affair. I've written about two and others in the blogosphere have done a great job addressing the third: 1. Moral Arguments Favoring the End of Life Support A thorough discussion of the very strong moral arguments in favor of honoring Terri Schiavo's end-of-life request to her husband has been completely missing in the media. For my take, see: "Schiavo, Mill and the Culture of... more Posted on March 21, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Schiavo, Mill and the Culture of Living President Bush often likes to speak of a �culture of life�, a catch phrase that neatly frames his opposition to reproductive choice and stem cell research. The tragic case of Terri Schiavo, now featuring dangerously irresponsible and unprecedented Congressional intervention, is only latest chapter in his conservative playbook. It is high time to end the melodrama of Republican political opportunism and regain control of this debate. Progressives must do this not because we�re �right� or because our position in this... more Posted on March 20, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Bill Frist: Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hide Like death and taxes, you can always count on Bill Frist's hair to perfect and his politics to be opportunistic. His unprecedented and inappropriate meddling in the case of Terri Schiavo is no exception. Tom Delay is using the Schiavo case to distract attention from his imminent ethical implosion. The Republican Party leadership is using the Schiavo tragedy to energize its anti-choice base. In the case of the Senate Majority Leader, he's abusing his medical credentials and flouting his Hippocratic... more Posted on March 19, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Expanded Progressive Resource Center Perrspectives is pleased to announced the expansion of its Resource Center. It offers Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes one-stop shopping for political news, polls, columnists, blogs, publications, think tanks, and other organizations. Perrspectives' Resources also include extensive online sources for budget, demographic, economic and electoral data. New additions include: Expanded library of demographic data, including global, regional, state and city sources. New Social Security reference materials, including GOP uber-consultant Frank Luntz's GOP playbook. A new library of Oregon... more Posted on March 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Myth of the Bush Doctrine These are pretty heady days for the White House and its fellow travelers. In Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia, movements for popular, democratic change seem to rule the day. The wisdom, rightness and prescience of the Bush Doctrine, they say, have been vindicated. In triumphant and self-congratulatory tones, the President and his allies are taking credit for the sweeping reform throughout the Middle East. President Bush proclaimed, "Freedom is on the march." The National Review's Rich... more Posted on March 9, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Remembering Strom The grim legacy of Strom Thurmond seems to grow darker every day. A recently released 1965 FBI memo shows that segregationist Thurmond pressed the agency to go after civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who he deemed "controlled by communists." The FBI released the memo and 600 pages of other materials in its Thurmond file this week in response to requests from The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina. The September 1965 memo written by J. Edgar Hoover deputy Cartha... more Posted on March 3, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Fresh Air and Gray Skies: An Even Hand at NPR For the raging right, National Public Radio is the poster child for liberal bias in the media. From Accuracy in Media and the Media Research Center to the National Review and Bill O'Reilly, NPR (or "National Palestine Radio" to its detractors), is the bete noir. How very surprised, then, they must have all been while listening last week to NPR's Terry Gross on the Fresh Air program. Over three days last week, Gross brought in some of the heaviest hitters... more Posted on February 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Conservatives Gone Wild: Life Imitates Art at CPAC This year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) shows that life does indeed imitate art. In 1997, faux New Republic writer Stephen Glass fabricated "Spring Breakdown", an expose of young Republicans gone wild for booze, babes and Buchanan during the conference. Now, eight years later, CPAC's own credentialed bloggers are offering a similar (if somewhat milder) view of young conservatives gone wild. Like the Glass piece, CPAC's "Bloggers Corner" and blog aggregator show a fawning, post-pubescent fixation with women, some famous,... more Posted on February 18, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	Turning the Tables The Senate�s passage of the �Class Action Fairness Act� (CAFA) last week showcased two of the Republicans� most successful strategies for dominating political debate � Unopposable Utterances and Opposite Attractions. With the GOP stranglehold on the White House and Congress, it is high time the Democrats fought back using the very same weapons against them. But first a little background. The first of the Bush administration�s troika of tort reform initiatives (malpractice award caps and Asbestos litigation curbs are the... more Posted on February 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Ruy Texeira and the Whiteness of Being Over at Donkey Rising, Ruy Teixeira analyzes the raw data from the final NEP 2004 exit poll is search of an explanation for John Kerry's defeat. Not surprisingly, he concludes that "It's the White Working Class, Stupid." That is, Democrats not only got clubbed again by the GOP among working class white men (by 30% vs 29% four years ago), but were trounced among working class white women, with Bush's margin growing to 18% (from 7% in 2000). More alarming,... more Posted on February 9, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Banner Day for Republican Fraud Q: What do the new Bush Medicare budget forecast and ex-Talon News reporter Jeff Gannon have in common? A: They are both frauds exposed on the same day. Medicon Today, the Bush administration revealed that its 10 year forecast for Medicare, including the supposed prescription drug benefit, will be $1.2 trillion. That's $1.2 trillion between 2006 and 2015, not the $400 billion sold to Congress in December of 2003 or the $534 billion figure updated only two months later and... more Posted on February 9, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Bush, Race and the State of the Union During the February 3rd segment of the Abrams Report on MSNBC, part of the discussion focused on President Bush's surprising and vocal support for DNA evidence funding during the State of the Union address. Abrams and his guests seemed mystified as to why President Bush, a man who presided over more executions than any other contemporaneous governor, would have a "born-again" revelation as to the importance of DNA evidence in securing defendants' rights. As with virtually everything else with this... more Posted on February 4, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	State of Denial From the perspective of public policy and narrative, President Bush's 2005 State of the Union Address brought few surprises. But for sheer chutzpah, President Bush reached new heights. 1. The Social Security Shell Game As expected, Bush focused on Social Security privatization. Also as expected, he continued the selective use of numbers to create the phantasm of a "crisis." Needless to say, there was no mention of the $2 trillion cost and the serious risks of private accounts. Even more... more Posted on February 2, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	On the Wrong Side of History Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the Bush second inaugural, and the Iraqi elections, represent a democratic tide sweeping the Middle East, a sea change the whole world is watching. Sometimes, though,... more Posted on February 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Perrspectives' Social Security Document Library With President Bush and the GOP launching an all-out campaign for their misguided Social Security privatization plan, Perrspectives has assembled a library of resources to help you evaluate the pluses and (endless) minuses of the Bush proposal. The Perrspectives Social Security Document Library includes the Republicans' cynical game plan, the Trustees' 2004 Report, the 2001 report of the Presidential Commission, CEPR's simple fact sheet, and resources from AARP, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Campaign for America's Future... more Posted on February 1, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Hijacking Freedom Among the many sub-plots to watch for in Wednesday's State of the Union address will be President Bush's appropriation of the words "freedom" and "liberty" for his agenda and the GOP. As we've written before, the Republicans have dominated American policy debates through their manipulation and control of language. Whether through message discipline or superior framing (to use Lakoff's term), the GOP has won a succession of victories spanning tax reform, Medicare, environmental policy, and more. Bush's 2005 State of... more Posted on January 31, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	2004 State of the Union Flashback With President Bush's 2005 State of the Union approaching, my 2004 SOTU-eve critique of Bush's so-called Ownership Society still stands. State of Disunion Even with his shaky State of the Union address and dipping approval ratings, President Bush unfortunately remains in a strong position for the 2004 election. Saddam is captured, GDP is surging, and his reelection war chest has a staggering $100 million in the bank. And while his Democratic foes battle each other in primary contests across the... more Posted on January 31, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	George Bush: Making the World Safe for Democracy? In the aftermath of President Bush' second inauguration, there is a widespread consensus that taken literally, his address would commit the United States to a global campaign of democratic proselytization. American friends and foes, puppets and pawns, the wistful and the wary, all are understandably concerned. Before starting a panic over the President's apparent Wilsonian idealism on steroids, it is worth remembering that Bush has not always been the outspoken proponent of democracy, individual liberty and human freedom: "So it... more Posted on January 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Name That Bush Scandal Contest Results! To commemorate the Second Inauguration of President George W. Bush, Perrspectives is pleased to announce the winners of the "Name That Bush Scandal" Contest which concluded at noon EST, January 20, 2005. Perrspectives received entries from all over the United States (and the world, for that matter). We'd like to thank everyone who participated for their creativity, spirit, energy and, given the election results, understandable angst. But while America may be the place where , to quote President Bush, "wings... more Posted on January 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	African-Americans and the Bush Social Security Plan Only days after the Armstrong Williams paid-for-pundit debacle, President Bush used his January 12 "town hall meeting" to once again reach out to African-Americans. this time on his Social Security privatization plan. With a hand-picked audience of supporters present on stage and in the Washington DC audience, Bush was on the top of his game: "Another interesting idea...is a personal savings account...which can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track. "Secondly, the interesting... more Posted on January 13, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Bush's Social Security Smoke Screen As we previously discussed in "The Party of Choice", the Bush Social Security privatization is only loosely concerned about increasing market returns for retirement savings, providing greater freedom to American investors or even staving off a supposed funding crisis. Win or lose, the Bush plan seeks nothing less than to dramatically redefine the role of government while cementing the image of a majority Republican Party as the party of choice. But you don't have to take our word for it.... more Posted on January 6, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	The Party of Choice As President Bush ramps up his campaign for Social Security privatization, it looks like Democrats will once again win the battle of facts while losing the war of ideas. While his proposals are widely viewed as bad public policy and enjoy only lukewarm public support, regardless of its outcome Bush's crusade for Social Security reform will likely cement the positive image of the Republicans as the "party of choice." And apparently unaware of the largers stakes, it looks like the... more Posted on December 28, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Rumsfeld and the Aspin Test Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's comments to U.S. troops last week highlight once again the need for new leadership at the Pentagon. But while some Republicans are finally beginning to raise doubts about Rumsfeld, they have yet to hold him to the GOP's "Les Aspin Standard." That is, decisions that needlessly cost American lives in battle cost defense secretaries their jobs, but apparently only if Bill Clinton is president. John McCain, who sold his soul to George Bush in order to... more Posted on December 13, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Not That There's Anything Wrong with It Two recent news developments highlight once again the fallacy of "rational rejection" of the rights of gay Americans by social conservatives. In their ongoing quest to mask theology as social science, they have once run into the dual brick walls of the academy and the Supreme Court. The first instance of conservatives being "mugged by reality" (to appropriate neocon Irving Kristol's phrase) comes from the University of Virginia, where a study led by Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson showed that teenagers... more Posted on November 29, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	American Taliban The �War on Terror� has provided Americans with a helpful introduction to theocracy. The fight against Al Qaeda, the war on the Taliban, and the growing tensions with the regime in Iran has offered a quick primer on the hallmarks of the religious state. First is the rule of religious authorities, whether it be Bin Laden�s new Caliphate, Mullah Omar�s Taliban regime, or the mullahs in Tehran. Second is the imposition of the faith�s sacred texts as law, in these... more Posted on November 25, 2004 \| Comments (19)

	Red America: Coming to a Body Near You Sometimes, a single day of news tells you everything to know about what is or what is to come. On April 2, 2004, for example, the New York Times featured no fewer than seven stories covering different scandals, deceptions, stone-walling and perversions of science by the Bush administration. November 9, 2004 is another one of those days. Today's headlines provide a chilling preview of what life will be like over the next four years in George W. Bush's Red America:... more Posted on November 9, 2004 \| Comments (22)

	An Expanded Bush Second Term Agenda? During his November 4th press conference, President Bush offered few surprises in highlighting his aggressive second term agenda. Aside from potentially radical (and staggeringly regressive) tax reform, there was little new about Social Security privatization, caps on malpractice awards, and holding the line in Iraq. Rumors abound, however, that Bush's stalwart GOP allies in Congress have even more dramatic plans for spending the political capital W "earned" during the campaign. Put on the backburner prior to the election, several new... more Posted on November 5, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Five Lessons Learned: The Donkey Gets Its Ass Kicked While the Ohio saga may linger for some days, it's abundantly clear that the Democrats have suffered a devastating defeat. Bush has his mandate, the GOP owns Congress and the governorships, and the Supreme Court is only a matter of time. Let the recriminations begin. Progressives will no doubt cite a host of factors, from Kerry's wooden personality, the unshakable flip-flopper label, the Swift Boat slanders, "voted for it before I voted against it", among others. But these are questions... more Posted on November 3, 2004 \| Comments (29)

	The Stakes Every four years, the presidential candidates and their parties trot out the tired clich� that �this election is the most important in our lifetimes.� In 2004, the clich� is true. The outcome of the battle between George W. Bush and John Kerry will be a watershed event for the United States, a �line in the sand� as Bush the Elder would say. The stakes on November 2 are clear and dramatic: Will the American people choose to renew their social... more Posted on November 2, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Bush Top 10 Flip Flop List Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God." It has not, of course, worked out that way. As we pointed out... more Posted on October 1, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	RNC Irony Watch Perhaps the only joys in watching the Republican National Convention are the rich servings of irony. Served fresh in virtually GOP speech, these morsels of sweet revenge help slow my otherwise inexorably rising bile. It is worth bearing in mind that the Republican platform calls for a ban on same-sex marriage and equates the rights of a fetus with those of its mother. The Texas GOP platform is particularly frightening, which "affirms that the United States of America is a... more Posted on September 1, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	W's Failed Wartime Leadership During the first night of the Republican Convention in New York, John McCain and Rudy Guiliani were effusive in the their praise of President Bush's war-time leadership. They are dead wrong. As the current situation on the ground and history alike show, Bush's conduct of the war has been misguided, ineffective and yes, cowardly. As Perrspectives detailed back in February ("The War President?"), Bush has failed because he has ignored the four real requirements of American wartime leadership: 1. Call... more Posted on August 31, 2004 \| Comments (1)

	Five Global Challenges for a New American Internationalism That giant sucking sound you may have heard last week was the last vestiges of American unilateralism spinning down the drain. Perhaps barely noticed in the din and drumbeat of the Reagan commemoration, the short and unhappy life of President Bush�s policy of �America Alone� mercifully came to an abrupt halt. In securing passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing the new Iraqi Interim Government, the Bush administration unwittingly pronounced the death of an idea whose time had never... more Posted on June 18, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Reflections on Reagan Now that the orgiastic collective mourning of Ronald Reagan is complete, we can from the distance of a week honestly reflect on the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Here is a look back at the man and the myth, in his own words and those of who (theoretically) admired him... Continue reading "Reflections on Reagan"...... more Posted on June 12, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Enron, Markets ad Grandma Millie Once is a rare while, conspiracy theorists get it right. In the case of Enron, this occasional conspiracy theorist and ex-Californian hit it right on the head in 2001. As the audiotapes of its traders released by CBS News clearly show, Enron clearly manipulated the newly deregulated California energy market to extract outrageous � and illegal � profits from Golden State ratepayers. The real scandal of Enron, though, is so much broader than that. It�s not just that Enron conspired... more Posted on June 2, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Are We More Secure? As we mark the one-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush has made national security the foundation of his reelection effort. To no one�s surprise, the self-proclaimed �war president� is running on a theme of �steady leadership for changing times.� Given the traditional advantage the GOP has enjoyed with voters on defense and national security issues, the formula for electoral success seems straightforward: �President Bush made America safer.� Except that it�s not true. John Kerry and... more Posted on March 18, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Are You Better Off? During the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan quickly deflated Jimmy Carter�s reelection bid with a simple question, asking the American people, �are you better off today than four years ago?� The answer, at a time of high unemployment, staggering inflation, spiraling energy prices, and hostages in Tehran, was an obvious - and devastating - no. Now it�s George Bush�s turn to face the Reagan question. And as with Jimmy Carter, the verdict from the American people won�t be kind: the... more Posted on March 10, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	States' Blights As the past week�s Democratic debates in Los Angeles and New York showed once again, there are generally very few substantive policy disagreements between John Kerry and John Edwards. On the issue of same-sex marriage in particular, there is very little difference in their approach: play it safe. That may be politically expedient and even politically necessary, but unfortunately, it also dangerous to the cause of personal liberty. Unlike abortion rights, which enjoy consensus support nationwide, same-sex marriage is still... more Posted on March 2, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Slippery Slope Here we go again. Once again, the anti-choice movement, with support from congressional conservatives and President Bush, is pushing legislation that chips away at women�s reproductive rights. Once again, squeamish Democrats in the House and Senate are going along for the ride. And once again, they are playing directly into their opponents� hands, helping to bring about the gradual undermining of abortion rights... Continue reading "Slippery Slope"...... more Posted on February 25, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Unsafe at Any Speed Ralph Nader announced his candidacy for president on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on Sunday. For those who missed it, here is a sneak peak at the de facto 2004 Nader campaign platform. At first glance, it looks strikingly similar to George W. Bush�s program. At second and third glance, too... Continue reading "Unsafe at Any Speed"...... more Posted on February 23, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Miranda Warning Oliver North is living proof that crime does pay. The Fox analyst and host of �War Stories�, North was a central figure in the Reagan era Iran-Contra scandal, clandestinely funneling money and arms to the Nicaraguan contras in clear violation of the 1984 Bolland Amendment. North, of course, is also a convicted felon, though his 1989 conviction was later overturned on appeal by none other than Laurence Silberman, the newly named chairman of President�s Bush WMD panel. Enter Manuel Miranda,... more Posted on February 22, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The War President? Now there�s a surprise. President Bush is going to base his reelection on the claim of being �a war president.� (His �Ownership Society� vision, which he delivered stillborn during his State of the Union address, has apparently been put on the backburner.) As he told Tim Russert on �Meet the Press� and repeated to National Guard troops in Louisiana on February 17th: "I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war... more Posted on February 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part VI: The Democrats' New American Bargain in Action In 2004, Democrats must answer the GOP assault on national unity with a program based on reciprocity, responsibility and opportunity that calls on the best in Americans and their government. On national security, Democrats must not only pass the threshold of credibility, they must demonstrate clear leadership compared to the GOP. There is no better way to do this, substantively and symbolically, than through national service. While the volunteer army currently seems sufficient to fight foes abroad such as Afghanistan... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part V: A New American Bargain Democrats need a new, revitalized public philosophy and politics not only to achieve victory in 2004, but also to have any hope of attaining majority status in the next decade. In contrast to a conservative Opt Out ideology increasingly at odds with the best American civic traditions, Democrats should seek to usher in the "Reciprocity Society." Characterized by shared national identity and values, commitment to common goals and public institutions, national service, mutual responsibility, and universal opportunity, the Reciprocity Society... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part IV: Identity Politics and the Threat from the Left Unfortunately, Democrats cannot credibly speak of a politics of national unity and common American interest unless they make a clear break with the identity politics, multi-culturalism, and group privileges of the party's left. Democrats during the Clinton reign in the 1990's made great progress overcoming two of the three barriers to the party gaining majority status: being trusted on national defense and to provide economic growth. On cultural issues, however, the Clinton program of "100,000 cops" and welfare reform (not... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part III: Branding the Opt Out Society Democrats in 2004 would do well to emulate two successful approaches of their opponents in branding the GOP and its Opt Out philosophy. In 1994 with Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" and again with the 2000 Bush campaign, the Republicans succeeded in both labeling the Democrats as outside the mainstream while effectively positioning their own program in easily understood, hard hitting and, at least superficially, universally appealing sound bites. The result was and continues to be GOP domination of the... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part II: On Your Own The impact of the Opt Out Society can be seen across the policies the Bush administration has pursued since coming to office. These are consistently defined by three characteristics. First is market idolatry; all public policy issues are framed in terms of market choice, competition, and privatization. From school vouchers to a market for pollution credits, any outcome that results is by definition the right one, since it was freely decided by the market. Second, the politics of the Opt... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part I: Introduction There's an old saying that says, "don't bring a knife to a gun fight." Another old saw goes "know your enemy." Truer words were never spoken as Democrats approach the 2004 elections. President Bush, fresh off his victory in Iraq, the staged performance on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, and the capture of Saddam, has maintained strong approval ratings. But while the president wraps himself in the flag and the banner of unity in the American war against terror, the... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Smallness of King George Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Richard Nixon represents the dark side of the American spirit." Well, RFK never met George W. Bush. Not since the days of Tricky Dick has the White House seen such a secretive, paranoid and vengeance-filled occupant. President Bush may not have the Plumbers, CREEP (the Committee to Re-elect the President), or the "Enemies List", but in its essence his administration has all the same hallmarks as the Nixon team. The politics of retribution, secrecy, and... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	State of Disunion Even with his shaky State of the Union address and dipping approval ratings, President Bush unfortunately remains in a strong position for the 2004 election. Saddam is captured, GDP is surging, and his reelection war chest has a staggering $100 million in the bank. And while his Democratic foes battle each other in primary contests across the country, Bush used his prime-time address to the nation to unveil his future for America, one grandly titled the "Ownership Society." The administration's... more Posted on January 21, 2004 \| Comments (0)