As the 2008 campaign begins in earnest, one of the emerging storylines is so-called hyperpartisanship, the bitter and increasingly divisive conflict between Democrats and Republicans that is said to be fueling cynicism - and apathy - among voters. In Iowa, Barack Obama proclaims that he will transcend partisan cleavages, while John Edwards vows to fight. […]

In one of the most disgusting and disingenuous acts of political misdirection in recent memory, former Reagan and Bush 41 advisor Bruce Bartlett is asking Americans to ignore the Republican Party's racist present and instead focus on the Democratic Party's racist past. Taking to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Bartlett extracted a catalog […]

A Washington Post report that the Bush administration is facing a massive backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications for U.S. citizenship is sadly unsurprising. After all, as the Katrina disaster and new passport fiasco demonstrated, incompetence is the hallmark of President Bush's Department of Homeland Security. But with the news that hundreds of thousands […]

One day after the House approved an Iraq war funding bill mandating American troop withdrawals, Republicans blocked a similar measure in the Senate. With GOP intransigence and a certain veto from President Bush leading to a high-stakes showdown they seem destined to lose, Democrats need a different strategy - at least for now. One way […]

Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Minnesota Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone. But while much of the liberal blogosphere has remembered Wellstone's fighting spirit, grassroots populism and prescient courage in opposing the war in Iraq, little attention has been paid to President Bush's despicable eulogy of Wellstone on that sad day. As we […]

When it comes to health care, Hillary Clinton of all the presidential candidates faces a special burden. As her rivals left and right unveil their health care plans, Senator Clinton is moving cautiously, as if seeking a vaccine to protect her from a recurrence of her 1990's experience. Call it Hillary's Inoculation Strategy: go slow, […]

With their shocking surrender over President Bush's draconian new FISA law this weekend, Congressional Democrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They not only had the votes to safeguard American civil liberties and prevent the legalization of past Bush White House criminality. On FISA as we knew it before August 5, 2007, Democrats had […]

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That may well be an apt description of John Edwards' "Road to One America" tour, his 11 city, three day journey to bring attention to the persistent - and resurgent - scourge of poverty plaguing the United States. But while Edwards' call to address […]

On the same day that the AP's John Solomon once again tried to perpetuate the tale of John Edwards' $400 haircut, a real story of tragedy promises to draw attention to Edwards' past. In Minneapolis, the powerful suction from a drain in a wading pool partially ripped out the small intestine of a six-year old […]

Over at About.com, Political Humor editor Daniel Kurtzman maintains one of the web's most comprehensive collections of political jokes, cartoons and images. (Full disclosure: some are them are from Perrspectives.) Now, he has come out with a fun-loving how-to book for liberals, "How to Win a Fight with a Conservative." In addition to his new […]