For the first time since the shocking revelations of secret VA patient waiting lists came to light, President Obama on Wednesday seemed to equivocate on his support for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. "I know that Rick's attitude is if he doesn't think he can do a good job on this and if he thinks […]

With its shameful backlog and secret waiting lists at some of its facilities, the Veterans Health Administration is facing an urgent crisis. But the only reform certain to make things worse would be to privatize the system of 1,700 VA facilities that serve 8.76 million American vets. Despite its troubles, studies consistently show that VA […]

Last week, a new study published in Social Psychology and Personality Science offered some very timely--if very predictable--findings about women candidates in politics. Even as Republicans were launching vicious attacks about Hillary Clinton's age and health while rushing to the defense of Oregon GOP Senate hopeful and accused stalker Monica Wehby, Dartmouth College professor Eric […]

If nothing else, the Republican Party is a perpetual irony producing machine. Karl Rove, a man nicknamed "Bush's Brain" for guiding an alcoholic to two terms in the White House, suggested 2016 Democratic frontrunner Hilary Clinton suffered brain damage as a result of a December 2012 fall. Rove, who now contends a concussion could be […]

With less than week to go before the Oregon Republican Senate primary, pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby has a healthy 14 point lead over her GOP opponent, Jason Conger. For Republicans hoping to retake the Senate in November, Dr. Wehby, the subject of a fawning New York Times profile, represents their best chance for a blue […]

John McCain on Tuesday declared he would send U.S. special forces into Nigeria "in a New York minute" to free hundreds of school girls held hostage by Boko Haram. McCain's enthusiasm in unsurprising, given his past support for deploying American forces almost anywhere for almost any reason. Except, it turns out, to the place that […]

And now for today's quiz: When is $10 billion greater than $310 billion? When Republicans control the House of Representatives. Yes, the American people got another lesson in GOP math this week when House Republicans refused to budge on a $10 billion, five-month extension of unemployment benefits for 1.3 million long-term jobless workers while the […]

There are tragedies and then there are scandals. The killings of four Americans in Benghazi, as investigations by the State Department and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have already confirmed, was a tragedy, and likely a preventable one. But the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture was both a tragedy and a scandal. The […]

In the face of protests from some students and faculty, former Bush National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice withdrew as featured commencement speaker at the upcoming graduation ceremonies for the Rutgers University class of 2014. Predictably, conservatives were apoplectic, complaining "College campuses essentially operate on mob rule at this point." Former House […]

In the 20 months since four Americans were killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, two official investigations reached pretty much the same conclusions. The State Department Accountability Review Board (ARB) and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) looking into the tragedy attack each found an opportunistic […]