‘A very serious appeal to a racist sentiment’

Way back in March, Republicans started worrying about Rep. Harold Ford’s (D) Senate campaign in Tennessee. GOP officials unveiled what they called the “Fancy Ford” campaign, complete with a website, created by the NRSC, which included pictures of Ford and expensive restaurants, hotels, cigars, meals, and Playboy bunnies. Ford is African American — and the […]

Gibbons kept his illegal immigrant housekeeper in the basement

The Nevada gubernatorial race seemed to be a relatively low-key affair. Rep. Jim Gibbons (R), a popular long-time congressman, has led Senate Majority Leader Dina Titus (D) in most polls, and appeared on-track for a victory in a state that tends to like Republican governors. Last week, however, we learned that a woman called 911 […]

Bush’s other war

Maybe I’ve let my subscription lapse on Far-Right Talking Points Weekly, but at what point did conservatives get together and decide that the war in Afghanistan is going well? Two months ago, Ann Coulter told Fox News, “Things are going swimmingly in [tag]Afghanistan[/tag].” This week, Bill [tag]O’Reilly[/tag] went even further, saying that the notion that […]

Another day, another House Republican facing a criminal investigation

We’re well past the point in which House [tag]GOP[/tag] [tag]scandals[/tag] are embarrassing; we’re now quickly approaching farcical. Federal authorities in Arizona have opened an inquiry into whether Representative Rick Renzi introduced legislation that benefited a military contractor that employs his father, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The officials said the inquiry was at an early […]

Tuesday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * I fully acknowledge the fact that I’m a sucker for Olbermann’s monologues. What’s more, I just keep enjoying them more and more. Last night’s was another gem on the nature of Republican fear-mongering. As with the other special commentaries, don’t miss it. * Roll Call noted this morning that […]

Hastert calls a whole lot of Americans ‘foolish, naïve, and dangerous’

I realize House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) must be a little on edge — he’s about to lose his job, he unexpectedly was forced to talk to investigators about his role in the Mark Foley scandal — but if he doesn’t want people to think he’s desperate, he’ll probably have to tone down the hysterical […]

FRC’s list of ‘family-friendly’ lawmakers

At one of my previous places of employment, I took great pleasure in preparing analyses of the Christian Coalition’s legislative scorecards. Every year, the CC would pull together 10 to 15 specific floor votes in each chamber, many of which were carefully chosen to help improve Republicans’ ratings. The results were rather predictable — Democrats […]

The latest in a long line of ‘new’ plans

U.S. and Iraqi officials rolled out the latest in a series of “plans” for the future of the war, but looking over the details, there are some new words, but old substance. Top U.S. officials in Iraq today predicted that Iraqi security forces could be largely self-sufficient within 12 to 18 months and said the […]

Those pesky American workers think wages are more important than GDP

When Republicans express dismay over public disappointment with the economy, it’s generally indicative of how out of touch the party really is. When the New York Times does the same thing, it’s just odd. In many ways, the economy has not looked so good in a long time…. But Republican candidates do not seem to […]

Santorum is the only thing standing between us and fascism

In May 2005, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) raised a few eyebrows when, during a debate on the “nuclear option,” he compared Democrats’ approach to Bush’s judicial nominees to Adolf Hitler in Paris in 1942. Some of the cooler heads among us argued that Santorum was not necessarily drawing a moral parallel; he was only using […]