The simmering controversy over the display of the Confederate flag by public entities remains a festering sore on the American body politic. And over the past week, voices from the left, right and center weighed in on the ongoing disgrace that is the public romance of the CSA banner in South Carolina, Mississippi and elsewhere […]

Tuesday's State of the Union Address should offer Americans compelling viewing. After the GOP's electoral disaster in November and the resounding thud that greeted the "surge" in Iraq, the 2007 SOTU can be said to officially mark the last throes of the Bush presidency. In anticipation of tomorrow night's presidential flight of fantasy, here are […]

Out of Austin, Texas comes word that the president of the University of Texas is forming a panel to decide the fate of numerous campus statues depicting Confederate leaders such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. President William Powers Jr. summarized the lingering controversy: "The whole range of options is on the table. A […]

As 2006 comes to a close, the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites chart has been turned upside down. In the wake of the Republicans' midterm election nightmare and the battering of the Iraq Study Group report, a bevy of GOP favorites have fallen off the list. Nowhere is the shake-up more evident than in the […]

In its December 18th issue, the New Republic offers a window into the soul of Kansas Republican Senator and 2008 White House hopeful Sam Brownback. Tracing Brownback's dual conversions from small government Gingrich acolyte to red meat culture warrior and from devout evangelical to Catholic firebrand, TNR ponders his presidential prospects. But Brownback's' new found […]

In a sure sign that the jockeying for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination is underway, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney fired the opening salvo against Republican front-runner John McCain. But in calling McCain "disingenuous," Romney also offered the first pot-calls-kettle-black moment of the '08 campaign. In advance of the GOP primaries, McCain and Romney alike are […]

While the GOP this week wrestled with its new status as minority party, leading lights Trent Lott and Mitt Romney showed the Republicans' attitude towards minorities remains unchanged. In the Senate, the Republicans resurrected Mississippi's Trent Lott as the new Minority Whip. Lott, who surrendered his Majority leader post in 2002 following his ebullient praise […]

As Tuesday's vote approaches, Democrats are buoyantly optimistic about their prospects for retaking control of Congress. President Bush is wildly unpopular. His handling of Iraq, the election's dominant issue, is backed by less than a third of the electorate. On issue after issue, voters across the United States support Democratic positions. And in generic Congressional […]

As election day nears, the rhetorical woes of the conservative chattering classes continue unabated. From President Bush's ill-conceived Rumsfeld endorsement to Ted Haggard's boy trouble, the Republican leadership and its amen corner are providing plenty of fodder for voters. "I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so […]

The revelations that the Reverend Ted Haggard tried but didn't inhale a gay prostitute came as a shock to many of the leading lights of the religious right. Moral Majority founder and fellow Bush faith-based stalwart Jerry Falwell was driven to lie about his past partnerships with Haggard. A "heartsick" James Dobson of Focus on […]