To be sure, the growing tensions - and stakes - over the Iranian nuclear program are different in kind and degree from the brinksmanship of the Cuban Missile Crisis 47 years ago. But events of the past week have stirred the echoes of that confrontation with the Soviet Union. In each case, an international gathering […]

Among the most discussed if least enlightening polls in recent months is the PPP survey revealing that Republican "birthers" far outnumber Democratic "truthers." That is, there are many more delusional right-wingers who doubt President Obama was born in the United States than confused left-wingers who believe President Bush allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen. But […]

Turning to Sarah Palin to explain the international economy and the role of government is like asking a dog why it likes to lick its ass. But as an audience of investors and fund managers learned today in Hong Kong, Palin's cartoon-quality conservative platitudes don't merely fly in the face of the consensus of economic […]

Speaking at Philander Smith College in Little Rock Monday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared, "Dr. King would be disappointed in the political leadership of this country for failing to address the least of us." But while Steele denied "we're all doing all this blocking" on health care, he also left unmentioned that 58% of Republicans […]

One day after the Washington Post's Bob Woodward published the confidential McChrystal report on Afghanistan, the Politico asked, "Who leaked and why?" But while the article speculates on the identity and motivation of the leaker, one issue - the punishment of Woodward's source for revealing national security documents -remains off the table. Which is a […]

As previously detailed here, the state of Oklahoma has become the poster child for the often comic and always tragic contradictions of the Republican war on health care reform. A 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund ranked Oklahoma dead last in state health care performance. Yet in 2008, the Sooner State remained among the most […]

In his Washington Post column Sunday, David Broder provided some insight into the bi-curious political disposition of the Montana Senator Max Baucus. As he contemplated entering politics in the 1970's, Baucus apparently asked veteran New Dealer James Rowe, "Do you think I should run as a Republican or a Democrat?" So it should come as […]

Recently, I put forth the "Iron Law of Birtherism," which simply notes that the Obama citizenship denial movement is strongest in precisely those states where Republicans poll best and health care is worst. Now, a new study again confirms red state birtherism is literal, revealing that the most faithfully religious - and Republican - states […]

With his seriously compromised and deeply flawed legislation, Senator Max Baucus has achieved rare bipartisan consensus on health care: virtually everyone from both parties hates his bill. But with his feeble acknowledgement that despite all of his kowtowing to his GOP colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee "no Republican has offered his or her support […]

On September 15th, 2008, the Dow Jones plummeted by 504 points as the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers triggered the implosion of Wall Street. And on that day a year ago, Republican presidential candidate John McCain declared the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." But while Ben Bernanke today declared the Bush recession "very likely over" […]