You know things are bad for the conservative movement when John Cornyn comes to the defense of Sonia Sotomayor. On Thursday, the Texas Senator called rejected as "terrible" charges from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich that Sotomayor is a "racist." Coming from a man who casually condoned threats against American judges, Cornyn's […]

48 hours after announcing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "appears to be racist," Republican Tom Tancredo today blasted her association with the National Council of La Raza, deeming the organization "a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses." As it turns out, of course, the GOP itself has a long tradition of reaching out […]

During his confirmation hearings in 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts introduced the sound bite that is now the predictable companion to Republican outrage over "judicial activism." "Judges are like umpires," Roberts analogized, adding, "Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them." Now as Senate Republicans seek to derail President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor […]

Back in 1998, Arizona Senator John Kyl was one of 28 Republicans to oppose the nomination Sonia Sotomayor to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. But while he was one of the most ardent voices demanding an "up or down vote" for President Bush's judicial selections in 2005, since November Kyl has been threatening to […]

In the run-up to President Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame last week, few of his opponents were as outspoken as William A. Donohue. After all, the face of the Catholic League compared Obama to Klansman turned conservative politician David Duke and denounced the President as "someone who supports selective infanticide." But now that Obama, […]

Despite encountering a wall of opposition from both the Obama administration and Congress during his recent visit to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted he would nevertheless expand existing settlements in the West Bank to account for "natural growth." But as the Israelis again made clear, they are relying on a secret 2004 agreement […]

"Senator, that I don't recall remembering." With those six words uttered during the furor over his purge of U.S. prosecutors, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales likely etched his epitaph. But as it turns out, "hypothetical" may be the most important word Gonzales ever spoke to Congress. New revelations this week suggest that in the spring […]

On Friday, President Obama addressed the graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy. In promising to "maintain America's military dominance," Obama also signaled a clear break with his predecessor's Manichean worldview and the Bush doctrine of preemptive war. As it turns out, George W. Bush debuted those discredited concepts seven years ago during a service academy […]

In the run-up to the war in Iraq, Dick Cheney infamously predicted, "My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted in liberators." Just days later John McCain too declared, "There's no doubt in my mind" that "we will be welcomed as liberators." Now six years later, George W. Bush is finally doing some liberating, […]

Yesterday, I detailed the legion of leading Republicans and their acolytes in the right-wing echo who less than two years ago insisted that the CIA was an "anti-Bush cabal" seeking to "undermine" the President. Leading the calls for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down over her claim the CIA "misled" Congress is her disgraced predecessor, […]