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 […]

As he exits the Pentagon stage, outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shows once again that for the Bush White House, nothing succeeds like failure. In an elaborate ceremony carried live on all the cable news networks, President Bush and Vice President Cheney feted the disgraced Defense Secretary with glowing words, military pomp and even […]

Just weeks removed from their midterm calamity, the leading lights of the right continue to suffer from rhetorical destruction. The entropy in Baghdad, the looming report of the Iraq Study Group and the last throes of a rudderless Bush administration have produced yet another bumper crop of classic Conservative Quotes of the Week: "We've been […]

As regular readers can attest, Perrspectives usually (though not always) comes down squarely on the blue side of the national political divide. But when it comes to Ohio State-Michigan, the most intense rivalry in sports, I always back the red state, or more accurately, the Scarlet and Gray. Which is why for this one day, […]

With the truth about his neo-Confederate proclivities and stock swindles putting his Virginia Senate reelection bid in doubt, Republican George Allen turned to fiction to smear his opponent, Vietnam War hero Jim Webb. Citing disturbing content from Webb's combat novels (one of which, "Fields of Fire," appears on the Marine Corps' recommended reading list), Allen […]

The Republican implosion over Iraq, the Foley scandal and the North Korean nuclear crisis has produced yet anothe bumper crop of conservative quotes, quips and catastrophes. A small sampling from the talking heads of the right: "He [Rumsfeld] leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country." Chairman of […]

The last two weeks have produced a dramatic shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bite list. The exploding Mark Foley scandal, the disintegration of Iraq and the new terrorist detainee legislation sent a bevy of Republican ditties racing up the charts. Meanwhile, some old conservative standards have fallen by the way side. Soon-to-be former […]

Virginia Senator George Allen has once again confirmed the wisdom of the old aphorism that when stuck in a hole, stop digging. Just days after the "Macacagate" episode highlighted Allen's neo-Confederate proclivities, his ham-handed response to revelations of his Jewish ancestry put Allen in hot water. During his September 18 debate with Democrat Jim Webb, […]

On this the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Department of Defense once again organized the "Freedom Walk" 9/11 commemorative march to the Pentagon. But as I wrote last year in "9/11 and the Culture of Grief," this and other ritualistic displays of grief and remembrance reflect the new mass cultural experience of […]

Despite the growing outcry over its conservative 9/11 historical fiction packaged as fact, ABC is proceeding full speed ahead with this weekend's "Path to 9/11." The contrast with CBS' 2003 capitulation over its controversial mini-series "The Reagans" could not be more stark. The only similarity is both networks' kowtowing to the pressure and the agenda […]