In the run-up to November's midterm elections, David Leonhardt of the New York Times presciently warned, "In their Pledge to America, Congressional Republicans have used the old trick of promising specific tax cuts and vague spending cuts," adding, "It's the politically easy approach, and it is likely to be as bad for the budget as […]

For years, Republicans have deployed the word "uncertainty" to stymie any public policy with which they disagreed. A decade after President Bush declared "scientific uncertainties remain" about global warming, virtually the entire Congressional Republican caucus has proudly joined the deniers' camp. Last month, GOP leaders revved up the uncertainty myth over taxes, falsely claiming that […]

On the day of his booking on conspiracy and money laundering charges five years ago, convicted felon and former House Majority Leader Tom Delay proclaimed, "Let people see Christ through me." Apparently, Delay's Jesus didn't believe in turning the other cheek, but instead accused the Romans of "criminalizing politics." Appearing on NBC's Today Show Thursday […]

With today's memorial service in Arizona, Wednesday is a day for all Americans to mourn the victims of Saturday's deadly shooting spree in Tucson. Sadly, with her aggressive defense of her past incendiary rhetoric, Sarah Palin has made it all about herself. Worse still, Palin has marked the attempted assassination of the first Jewish Congresswoman […]

In the hours after the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the first Jewish Congresswoman from Arizona, the New York Times visited her synagogue. After all, in 2006 Giffords explained, "My Jewish heritage has really instilled in me the importance of education and caring for the community." That must have come as a surprise to […]

With inexplicable acts of violence as with marriage, Newt Gingrich apparently believes the third time's a charm. Seventeen years after he blamed Susan Smith's drowning of her two young sons on "Lyndon Johnson's Great Society" and 11 years after accusing the "liberal political elite" over the Columbine massacre, Gingrich is using the attempted assassination of […]

In the wake of Saturday's bloodbath in Tucson, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced that Wednesday's vote on the GOP bill to repeal health reform would be delayed. (That is altogether fitting, as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords received death threats and saw her office vandalized after her March 2010 vote for the Affordable Care Act.) […]

"My tears are flowing and I am stunned and angered that Gabby Giffords was savagely gunned down while performing her congressional duties." So said Minnesota Republican Representative Michele Bachmann in response to Saturday's mass killing in Tucson. But less than a year ago, Bachmann called for resistance to cap and trade legislation, "I want people […]

In 1996, President Clinton responded to provocative Chinese missile tests near Taiwan with what PBS described as "the largest show of naval force since the Vietnam War." But the American goal of preserving Taiwanese independence through a policy of "strategic ambiguity" may soon be untenable. With the announcements of a new Chinese stealth fighter and […]

Today is shaping up as a very bad day for the quixotic GOP effort to repeal the 2010 health care reform law. Even as the number two House Republican Eric Cantor was telling the CBS Early Show that the Affordable Care Act is full of "budget gimmickry" that "costs over $1 trillion," the Congressional Budget […]