During their rare moments of candor, Republicans leaders agree with President Obama that failing to raise the U.S. debt ceiling would be "catastrophic." Two years ago, Speaker John Boehner acknowledged "that would be a financial disaster, not only for our country but for the worldwide economy." Senator Lindsey Graham concurred, warning that not lifting the […]

As part of their never-ending campaign to canonize President Ronald Reagan, conservatives three years ago proposed replacing Ulysses S. Grant on the 50 dollar bill with the likeness of the Gipper. But while his hagiographers mercifully failed in that quest, a new and altogether fitting denomination has emerged to memorialize Reagan. The much-discussed one trillion […]

As McClatchy and the New York Times among others have documented, Senators and Representatives in the minority party have often voted against debt ceiling increases. Whether motivated by opposition to larger spending or tax legislation, or as a symbolic vote to embarrass the president and his Congressional majority (as Senators Obama and Reid did in […]

The Republican opposed the Iraq surge and favored regional negotiations with Iran and Syria. The GOP luminary has cautioned against pre-emptive strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities. He publicly criticized Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. He advised the presidential campaigns of both John McCain and Mitt Romney on national security policy, and in 2000 […]

On Friday, 67 House Republicans voted against $9 billion in funding to replenish FEMA's flood insurance program in the wake of super storm Sandy. Among those naysayers were five Gulf State Congressmen including Mississippi Rep. Steven Palazzo, whose 4th District was one of the most extensively damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Of course, back […]

For each of the last 38 years, Lake Superior State University has published its "List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness." But missing from the dozen terms and phrases including "double down" and "spoiler alert" sentenced to the school's rhetorical death row for 2013 is one […]

With the fiscal cliff averted, Congressional Republicans are turning to their next--and more important--hostage. Without draconian spending cuts, they promise, the GOP will block any increase in the debt ceiling of the United States. In response, President Obama said, "I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay […]

If nothing else, the right-wing temper tantrum over Tuesday's "fiscal cliff" agreement is rich with irony. After all, the "crisis" was never really about deficit reduction (which the expiration of the Bush tax cuts would have handled quite nicely) but the very real danger of slashing the national debt too fast and thus triggering an […]

As President Obama and Congressional leaders negotiate in Washington, the American people need to keep a couple of things in mind about the looming "fiscal cliff." For starters, the issue is not that the national debt will go up (which roughly half of those in one poll believe to be the case), but that it […]

France has been a bogeyman of the American right for years. Mitt Romney, after all, made enmity towards Paris' "big government, big taxation, welfare state" a talking point of his campaign. For his part, John McCain joked that the French "remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who is still trying to […]