After the harsh winter weather that helped bring U.S. economic growth to standstill, the strong May jobs report came as very good news. The U.S. added 280,000 new jobs and saw signs that wage growth is picking up steam. Even the uptick in the unemployment rate to 5.5 percent represents a positive development, as more […]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. That's especially true with former American presidents, whose approval numbers invariably rise as their time away from the Oval Office increases. That's one reason why Politico and the right-wing commentariat trumpeting a new CNN/ORC poll showing that George W. Bush now enjoys a higher approval rating than President Obama […]

With the loss of Ramadi to ISIS forces, the Republican Party has launched one of its most ambitious myth-making operations in recent memory: Barack Obama lost Iraq. "We had the conflict won," John McCain declared this week, "thanks to the surge." Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard and the Project for a New American Century […]

"Knowing what we know now." With those five words, virtually the entire 2016 Republican presidential field erased over 12 years of GOP talking points steadfastly supporting President Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq. But that phrase is much less important in what it says about the past (after all, as many have noted, we had plenty […]

While investigators are working to understand the causes of the deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia, the Republicans' best and brightest are adding insult to injury. On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to slash $260 million from Amtrak funding. Meanwhile, David Frum, the man who brought you "the Axis of Evil," […]

On April 15th, Congressional Republicans missed their deadline for the fiscal year 2016 budget resolution. Nevertheless, and despite their differences on defense spending and the voucherization of Medicare (absent from the Senate bill), the GOP conferees aim to balance the budget in 10 years by slashing over $5 trillion in social programs and safety net […]

With the President's nominee for Attorney General languishing in the Senate, John Cornyn (R-TX) issued this statement: "Throughout her career, Loretta Lynch has proven to be an independent voice for justice and a strong advocate for the United States Constitution. Her experience and qualifications as a lawyer, prosecutor and dedicated advocate for the rule of […]

The New York Times on Sunday featured a fascinating interview with President Obama conducted by columnist Tom Friedman. In the U.S., most analysts focused on the President's salesmanship of the just-concluded Iran nuclear deal and the "Obama Doctrine" behind it. But in Israel, left and right alike zeroed on President Obama's pledge that "if anybody […]

When it comes to the Iranian nuclear program, the United States is rapidly approaching a point of no return as the P5+1 talks are coming down to the wire. But if the negotiations in Geneva fail or if their opponents in Congress succeed in blowing them up, leaders of both U.S. political parties will have […]

Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin created quite the uproar when he condemned Senate Republicans for sending Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch to "the back of the bus." But Durbin didn't need to reach all the way back to Rosa Parks in 1955 to denounce the GOP's grotesque obstructionism. The story of Judge Michael Mukasey in […]