For political discourse to function at all, competing sides have to agree on certain base facts. There has to be a reality that everyone can recognize before rivals can debate more sophisticated and complex questions. For example, former [tag]Alabama[/tag] [tag]Supreme Court[/tag] Chief Justice [tag]Roy Moore[/tag] (R), who’s about to lose a Republican gubernatorial primary, insisted […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Though some polls showed Pennsylvania’s Senate race narrowing, a new Rasmussen poll shows state Treasurer [tag]Bob Casey[/tag] (D) expanding his lead over Sen. [tag]Rick Santorum[/tag] (R). The poll now shows Casey ahead, […]
The incident sparked a few headlines last year, but it seemed like one of those stories that would fade away. Fortunately, this new [tag]lawsuit[/tag] will remind people about a pretty ridiculous skirmish. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a group of women who claim their constitutional rights were […]
Sean Wilentz thinks the current occupant of the Oval Office may be the [tag]worst [/tag][tag]president [/tag]in American [tag]history[/tag], but as far as the electorate is concerned, Bush is at least the worst of the post-WWII era. Strong Democratic sentiment pushes President George W. Bush to the top of the list when American voters pick the […]
On Tuesday, Red State, the far-right blog, noted a series of shootings in Milwaukee and, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, argued, “After 175 years of occupation, we are seemingly unable to extract ourselves from the quagmire that apparently is Wisconsin. I say it is time America cut its losses and pulled out of [tag]Wisconsin […]
Five months ago, [tag]Department of Homeland Security[/tag] Secretary [tag]Michael Chertoff[/tag] said his agency had finally changed the way in which it distributes federal [tag]grants [/tag]to states and localities. Whereas the old system relied on a bizarre proportional method in which smaller states (and less likely [tag]terrorist [/tag][tag]targets[/tag]) got far more funding than needed, Chertoff said […]
I would have been more than happy to let this story go away, but the [tag]AP[/tag]’s [tag]John Solomon[/tag] has taken his reporting to such a reckless level, it needs to be condemned far and wide. Let’s recap for a second. Solomon reported on Monday that Senate Minority Leader [tag]Harry Reid[/tag] received free tickets to a […]
Back in March, I had an item about Republican use of the phrase “[tag]Democrat Party[/tag],” which is the GOP way of using grammar for childish purposes. I asked readers for ideas about what name Dems could use to tease Republicans — and you guys came up with a lot of suggestions. As it happens, my […]
Projects like this one seem to pop up about once a presidential cycle, but [tag]Unity08[/tag] is under the impression that it’s on to something different. A group of old Washington hands has launched a campaign to remake Internet politics, taking a forum that until now has been associated with ideologues and angry partisans and using […]
The conflicts between the religious right movement and, well, everyone else on earth are well known. But [tag]the Guardian[/tag]’s [tag]Stephen Bates [/tag]has a terrific item today on the under-reported conflicts within the [tag]religious right [/tag]itself. Bates talked to [tag]Randy Brinson[/tag], for example, who helped organize the Redeem the Vote initiative in 2004, but who is […]