16 years and one wife ago, Newt Gingrich blamed Democrats for Susan Smith's notorious murders of her two small children. Now, a decade and a half after blaming "Lyndon Johnson's Great Society" for Smith's drowning of her sons, the former Speaker of the House is back to declare that "the Democratic leadership has to take […]

After a year of rancorous debate, Congress has given its blessing to the final health care reform bill. As expected, the reconciliation fixes to the $940 billion package received exactly zero Republican votes, passing the House 220 to 207 and 56 to 43 in the Senate. In theory, the born-again deficit virgins of the GOP […]

I've long felt that George W. Bush's acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention was among the most arrogant and reprehensible in the annals of American political oratory. But now that his party's overheated rhetoric on health care has helped foment threats and violence, Bush's address in retrospect was a masterpiece of projection as […]

After a year of denying the obvious, the American media is finally coming to the conclusion that the supposed Tea Party movement is simply a continuation of the failed 2008 Republican presidential campaign by other means. As the data show, the vast majority Tea Baggers don't merely identify themselves as Republicans, they vote for the […]

That 14 state attorneys general - 13 of them Republicans - have brought a lawsuit to stop the health care reform legislation signed into law Tuesday by President Obama is a perfect reflection of today's GOP. It not only confirms the Republican Party's longstanding mantra of "judicial activism for me, not thee." The suit, which […]

Fox News, the broadcast arm of the Republican Party, is breathlessly reporting on today's vice presidential F-bomb. During the White House signing event for the health care legislation passed Sunday, Vice President Biden turned to President Obama and mumbled, "this is a big f**king deal." But while the microphones barely picked up Biden's offhand, off-color […]

While Sarah Palin clearly does not read much in general, she seems to have skipped the Republican memo regarding the Tea Party movement in particular. Appearing on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Palin endorsed the notion of Tea Baggers brewing up third party candidates, a development she insisted "can actually help in this process." That […]

From the beginning, two great, largely unmentioned ironies hung over the contentious health care debate. The first elephant in the room (pun intended) is that health care is worst in those states where Republicans poll best. The second is that it will be blue state taxpayers helping fund the improvement of the dismal health care […]

After a year - decades, really - the debate over health care reform came down to a climactic vote in the United States House of Representatives. Many people of good faith in both political parties were separated by a genuine - and fundamental - ideological divide. But as their ferocity revealed, for the GOP the […]

Rule #1: No one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism. Rule #2: For a Republican Party intent on co-opting the Tea Party protests it helped foster, silence is golden. So while Democrats Tim Ryan (D-OH), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Barney Frank (D-MA) rushed to denounce the racist and homophobic slurs […]