"Waterboarding," would-have been GOP vice president Sarah Palin told a cheering NRA audience Saturday, "is how we baptize terrorists." On Monday, she defended the comments even her most ardent supporters called "sacrilegious," calling it "utterly absurd for MSNBC to suggest that I could put our beloved troops in harm's way." But MSNBC has plenty of […]

Last year, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) sponsored a bill prohibiting the Internal Revenue Service from implementing or enforcing any part of the Affordable Care Act. "The IRS," Grimm charged, "has proven to be a scandal-ridden organization that has abused its authority by targeting individuals and organizations." Two years earlier, he called for the repeal (though […]

According to the Daily Beast, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned a closed-door meeting on Friday that Israel risks becoming "an apartheid state" if a two-state peace deal with the Palestinians is not reached soon. While many of the usual suspects among Israel's hardline supporters in the United States will be apoplectic, any rage […]

Back in May 2009, the Washington Post touched on the greatest irony of the health care debate just beginning to grip the nation. "The Democrats' No. 1 domestic policy initiative," Alec MacGillis wrote, "is likely to help red America at the expense of blue." You didn't need a crystal ball to see why. The chasm […]

From time to time, Republican Party leaders are forced to remind their candidates that they are living in the 21st century. In early 2008, the GOP got diversity training in preparation for campaigning against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, including the guidance "you can't allow the party to be Macaca-ed." After the likes of Todd […]

At an event this week at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, 2016 White House hopeful Rand Paul came face to face with the inescapable conundrum for any Republican seeking the presidency. Hoping to secure the nomination of a party whose platform calls for a "human life amendment" banning abortion even in case of […]

Last week, the Topeka Unified School District in Kansas invited First Lady Michelle Obama to deliver the May 17 commencement address at a first-ever combined graduation event for four area high schools. Some students and parents aren't happy out of concern that there won't be enough tickets to accommodate all of their family and friends […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is facing a crisis, just not the one many pundits and most conservatives think. To be sure, the Republican excavation project to unearth the smoking gun proving the agency targeted right-wing "social welfare organizations" over their non-profit status will continue. As Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus described his party's […]

The Bundy Ranch controversy has now divided Nevada's two United States Senators. While Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) referred to Bundy's armed supporters as "domestic terrorists," his Republican colleague Dean Heller praised them as "patriots." Their disagreement begs the question: What do you call someone who owes the United States government a million dollars and […]