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 […]

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 […]

On Sunday, the New York Times revealed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates penned a secret memo warning "the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran's steady progress toward nuclear capability." Predictably, within hours of the story's publication John McCain pounced on the opportunity to bash President Obama on yet […]

"The biggest threat facing this country," President Bush declared on September 30 2004, is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network." But in the wake of the successful Nuclear Security Summit this week, Bush's conservative water carriers are blasting President Obama for the substantial progress made towards stopping the dangerous black […]

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, […]

With Tax Day again upon us, two story lines will predictably dominate the media coverage on April 15th. In their perpetual war on taxes, conservatives will claim that rates are too high even as those Americans who receive tax credits get "welfare." Meanwhile, frothing-at-the-mouth Tea Partiers will protest about being "Taxed Enough Already." Sadly, the […]

For the millions of Americans struggling to find jobs or pay their mortgages, the Dow Jones' flirtation with 11,000 isn't particularly meaningful. But for the legions of right-wing talking heads who even before the November 2008 election declared Barack Obama's supposed "socialism" would "tank the market," the Dow's 38% gain since Obama's inauguration is indeed […]

On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the nonprofit group which officially marks the birth and death of economic downturns, announced that the Bush Recession which commenced in December 2007 isn't over, at least not yet. Despite the promising signs of economic growth, job creation and a bull market, the NBER arbiters of […]

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 […]