Beginning in early July, Capitol Hill Republicans introduced a new talking point, proclaiming the $787 billion economy recovery package (ARRA) a "dismal failure." Sadly for the GOP, as Stephen Colbert might say, reality is showing its well-known liberal bias. After steep declines of 5.4% and 6.4% in the previous two quarters, gross domestic product fell […]

Moments after the House passed a $2 billion extension to the wildly popular "cash for clunkers" program, John McCain in a double-irony announced he would oppose the bill in the Senate. Ironic, it turns out, not merely because the Arizona Senator has 13 cars and so could benefit even as he personally stimulates the economy […]

Saturday's Wall Street Journal features a fascinating interview with John McCain by editor Stephen Moore. Fascinating, that is, as a study of revisionist history and selective amnesia by both men. While Moore now praises McCain as "one of the lead critics of Obamanomics," in the past the former Club for Growth president groused his organization's […]

In a jaw-dropping DaliyKos/Research 2000 poll released today, a stunning 58% of Republicans did not believe (28%) or were unsure (30%) that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the United States. To be sure, this is a Southern pathology, a region home to 69% of all birthers and the only part of the […]

In his latest fear-mongering on health care reform, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that Democrats are intent on "sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare." Of course, McConnell's statement isn't merely false, it is comically so. After all, even as the program marked its 44th anniversary this week, his Republican colleagues like Roy […]

Even as Republicans wage their new war against the latest efforts at health care reform, they are still fighting the last one. 44 years after the passage of Medicare, Republicans leaders like Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) are attacking Democratic proposals by blasting the popular health system for America's elderly. Sadly for the GOP, Medicare's proven […]

Seven years ago, President Bush's chief of staff Andy Card famously explained the administration's post-Labor Day campaign for war with Iraq, "'From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." As cynical and deceitful as the ensuing six month marketing effort was, President Bush at least knew what he was selling. […]

To be sure, the preliminary analyses from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have not always bolstered the Obama administration's case for health care reform. But on one vital issue - the impact of the so-called "public option" on employer-provided health care in the U.S.- the CBO numbers backed the administration's case and decimated another Republican talking […]

In her fiery parting shot in Fairbanks Sunday, now-ex Governor Sarah Palin resorted to all of her now trademark rhetorical tactics. Bashing the media while using the U.S. military as human shields, she told the television cameras, "How about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit makin' things up?" She warned listeners of "enslavement […]

As she prepared for her final day in the Alaska governor's office Sunday, Sarah Palin's last week on the job produced more of the same head-scratching that has defined her 10 months on the national stage. Despite her demonstrated ignorance of Alaska energy production during the 2008 campaign, Newt Gingrich Wednesday declared, "Her knowledge of […]