"Judicial activism" is in the eye of the beholder. Threatening judges is not. That explains why even Michael Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales, former Bush Attorneys General and ardent defenders of detainee torture and illicit domestic surveillance, denounced Newt Gingrich's assault on the federal bench as "dangerous, ridiculous, totally irresponsible, outrageous, off-the-wall and would reduce the […]

This is the time of year for family and friends to gather around the fire and over good food and drink, celebrate the season with songs like this one. (Sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas") On the first day of Christmas Republicans told me Obama's born in another country. On the […]

As the U.S. launched its invasion of Iraq back in 2003, General David Petraeus famously asked, "Tell me how this ends." Eight and a half years, 4,500 American servicemen and women killed, 30,000 wounded and over $1 trillion later, in many ways the answer is still unclear. Nevertheless, the same week President Obama declared the […]

After his disastrous $10,000 bet with Rick Perry comically backfired last week, multimillionaire Mitt Romney responded by trying to appear "human-like" with his tales of deprivation while serving as Mormon missionary in France in the 1960's. Now, his story about being forced to poop in a bucket is getting Romney in some deep merde. As […]

Earlier this year, 235 GOP House members and 40 Republican Senators voted for the Paul Ryan budget and its plan to ration Medicare. By ending the traditional government insurance program and leaving the elderly with under-funded vouchers to purchase much more expensive coverage from private insurers, Ryan's Republicans would dramatically shift the cost burden to […]

During his presidency and after, George W. Bush was often criticized as the "nobody could have predicted president." After all, from 9/11 and the post-invasion chaos in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina's drowning of New Orleans, the economic calamity of 2008 and so much more, Bush and his team repeatedly claimed "I don't think anybody could […]

With the rise of the Occupy movement and confirmation from the nonpartisan CBO that the U.S. income gap is at its highest level since 1929, defensive conservatives by necessity spawned a thriving if laughable cottage industry in income inequality denialism. Now with word from the New York Times that the share of income for the […]

So the GOP's petulance has come to this. Opposition by House Republicans to any payroll tax cut extension began to fade last week only after President Obama issued a veto threat against a GOP bill tying the continued relief for working Americans to approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project. The difference, Rep, Jeff […]

What's the difference between Newt Gingrich and God? God doesn't think he's Newt Gingrich. In a Republican presidential contest in which most of the major contenders, including Gingrich, claimed God "called" them to run, Newt alone worships at his own alter. Even after burning through three religions and three wives, Gingrich's self-proclaimed mission on earth […]

When House Speaker John Boehner denounced Democratic proposals to fund a payroll tax cut extension through a surtax on millionaires as a "job-killing tax hike on small businesses," he might have wanted to check with some first. As NPR revealed yesterday, the Congressional Republicans they consulted, including in the House and Senate leadership, "were unable […]