On Friday, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post proclaimed Mississippi Governor and former RNC chairman Haley Barbour "the most influential Republican in the country." If so, that dubious title is a reflection of the sad state of the GOP and the nation. After all, just days after Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's Confederate History Month proclamation […]

In the wake of the Massey Energy tragedy that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia, there appear to be two steps that could improve worker safety there. First, as the mine accident record of the last decade suggests, join a union. Second, put Democrats in the White House to reverse the GOP's nationwide gutting […]

Over the past few weeks, two conservative myths about the Tea Party movement have exploded. First, despite the best efforts of Republicans to paint the angry mobs as independents, a bevy of polls confirmed that Tea Party members are ideologically conservative and overwhelmingly vote Republican. Second, a new survey from the University of Washington revealed […]

Back in the 1980's, President Ronald Reagan hailed the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress." But as Tax Day approaches, conservatives have forsaken their patron saint, decrying the "redistribution of wealth" for working families provided by […]

A modest proposal: no one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism - ever. Ditto for anyone trafficking in Confederate nostalgia as a political strategy. Of course, that new red, white and blue rule would pose a problem for today's Republican Party. After all, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, the same man […]

Arizona Senator and self-proclaimed maverick John McCain raised eyebrows this week with declaration in Newsweek that, "I never considered myself a maverick." But as it turns out, this new role for the failed 2008 GOP presidential candidate isn't his second incarnation, but his fifth. In a thirty year career, John McCain has ping-ponged from Goldwater […]

In the wake of two new surveys from Gallup and the Winston Group, the conservative blogosphere and general media alike have been quick to proclaim the Tea Party movement "mainstream." While the Los Angeles Time promoted the "Myth-Busting Polls," one right-wing blog laughingly warned of a "Suicide Watch at DNC HQ." But while the new […]

With word that 89 year old Justice John Paul Stevens may step down from the Supreme Court as soon as this year, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate made clear his party wouldn't hesitate to filibuster Stevens' replacement. Asked if the GOP would resort to the obstructionist tactic it once routinely decried, Arizona's Jon Kyl […]

As his somersaulting positions on abortion, immigration, Iran, Osama Bin Laden and myriad other issues showed, watching Mitt Romney's political gymnastics has long been painful. But with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney's contortionist act has reached a new low. Joining the ranks of Republicans demanding the repeal of a […]

As FactCheck documented in detail, the Republicans' "scary claim" that the IRS will hire 16,500 new agents to enforce the new health care law "simply lacks any foundation in fact." But for a Republican Party which spent much of the 1990's successfully waging war on the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the richest Americans, […]