Remember when President Bush forgot to thank God in his 2008 Thanksgiving address? Neither do the conservatives now apoplectic that Barack Obama's 2011 remarks contained no reference to the Almighty. Nevertheless, the usual suspects on the right are frothing at the mouth over the perceived slight from the man many still pretend is a secret […]

Here in a nutshell is the state of play in the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes: alleged serial sexual harasser Herman Cain is being surpassed by confirmed serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. With Mitt Romney stalled and Cain hemorrhaging support from women voters, polls from CBS and Marist show the former House Speaker has surged into a […]

Back in 2005, Republican strategist and Mitt Romney adviser Michael Murphy created quite a stir when he declared of the Massachusetts Governor, "He's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." Over the last few weeks, Romney has once again confirmed what might be called Murphy's Law. The one-time Planned Parenthood donor who […]

For social conservatives, it is often said, life begins at conception and ends at birth. If so, nowhere is that more true than in Mississippi. After all, the Magnolia State seems poised to pass Amendment 26, the so-called "personhood" initiative which by defining a fertilized egg as a human being would ban virtually all abortions […]

Five years ago, Massachusetts Governor and first-time GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney declared, "People in this country want a person of faith to lead them as their president." Just not his faith, according to that most Republican of audiences at this week's Values Voters Summit. Hoping to capitalize on polls showing almost a third […]

Judging from the recent media coverage, it's springtime for the Republican Party and Jewish voters. Driven by the special election results in New York's ultra-orthodox 9th district and President Obama's refusal to follow the Republican lead in toeing the Likud Party line, conservatives have tried to drive home that point by explaining "why Obama is […]

Liberals, the tired conservative slander states, hate America. That, of course, is nonsense. Liberals simply want to deliver on the national promise of a more perfect union, to shorten the distance, as Bruce Springsteen aptly put it, "between American ideals and American reality." But if the past three Republican presidential debates are any indicator, it […]

Americans are increasingly aware that most of the 2012 Republican White House hopefuls claim God called them to seek the presidency. But only now are voters learning from the GOP field that He has apparently issued a "directive" for the United States to be a dutiful appendage of the Likud Party in Israel. So as […]

Americans can be forgiven for assuming Michele Bachmann was deadly serious when she repeatedly joked this weekend that God was using an earthquake and hurricane to send a divine message to restrain federal spending. After all, Bachmann has not only proclaimed time and again that the Almighty called her to seek higher office; in 2009, […]

For weeks, Republican presidential candidates have been a running a gauntlet of ever-more draconian pledges put forth by party purists. Grover Norquist's anti-tax oath, the Susan B. Anthony List anti-abortion manifesto , the "Marriage Vow" and the "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge are just some of the multiplying litmus tests now demanded by social and […]