In 2009, only 1 in 500 American estates paid taxes. But thanks to the obstructionism of Senate Republicans led by Arizona's Jon Kyl, the estate tax temporarily lapsed for 2010, a hiatus that could portend massive windfalls this year for the heirs of the largest fortunes in the United States. Now as Congress moves to […]

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 […]

As she left office 10 months ago to earn $12 million, half-term Governor Sarah Palin declared, "It's all for Alaska." Now, joining Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in Phoenix t defend that state's draconian immigration law, Palin announced, "We're all Arizonans now." But while the latest roar from the Mama Grizzly is music to the ears […]

With President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan, some conservatives are lamenting the prospect of a United States Supreme Court without a single Protestant justice. But for Pat Buchanan, the corollary is that one religious group is being dangerously overrepresented on the nation's highest court. Given Buchanan's checkered past, including as it does periodic defenses of […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

As oil was spreading across the Gulf on April 29, AP reporter Calvin Woodward did some spreading of his own. Amplifying the predictable Republican talking point, Woodward asked, "Will this be Obama's Katrina?" Now a week later, his AP colleagues H. Josef Hebert and Erica Werner have responded with an emphatic no in an article […]