For conservative free-market ideologues, April has been the cruelest month, indeed. In a perfect storm washing over Republican foes of government regulation, the last several days alone featured unbridled Wall Street greed, corporate mismanagement of a devastating oil spill, and corruption and criminality in the nation's coal mines. Meanwhile, in another blow to GOP "repeal […]

That Sarah Palin, the propagator-in-chief of the ever-evolving "death panels" fraud deemed the Lie of the Year by Politifact, would blast President Obama for "perpetuating this myth that racial profiling is part" of the draconian new immigration law in Arizona was pathetically predictable. But what may come as an unwelcome surprise to the xenophobic denizens […]

The first lesson in Tea Party 101 is this: Tea Party supporters are just Republicans, only more so. They're old, white, very conservative and vote Republican. They shout the same incendiary slogans on display at any McCain-Palin rally circa October 2008. Tea Baggers and Republicans believe the same Bircher, Birther, Deather and Denier myths. And […]

Urged on by Newt Gingrich, a coalition of Tea Party groups last week unveiled their so-called "Contract from America." Now, Congressional Republicans including Eric Cantor (R-VA), Mike Pence (R-IN) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) are also hoping to mimic Gingrich's winning 1994 gambit with their own "Contract with America." But after reading the Tea Party's 10-point […]

From the beginning, the so-called Tea Party movement has merely been a continuation of the failed 2008 Republican presidential campaign by other means. In April 2009, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show highlighted that truth when he told furious Tea Baggers, "I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing." Now, a year later, Politico, […]

In a rare moment of Republican candor, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker debunked the talking point at the center of the GOP's campaign to protect predatory Wall Street bankers. Bucking his party's leadership, Corker defended reform provisions charging banks to create a resolution fund for winding down failing institutions, calling it "anything but a bailout." In […]

That Americans' trust in government has plummeted to near-record lows isn't a surprise. After all, as the Pew Research Center documented, distrust of Washington is an American tradition, one which tends to rise and fall inversely with the economy. But the spike in anger towards the federal government, a fury which doubled to 21% since […]

As Tea Party favorite Karl Marx once said, historical events occur twice, first as tragedy, then as farce. And so it is with the Tea Party "Contract from America." But rather than following Newt Gingrich's gimmicky 1994 path to retaking control of Congress, the Tea Partiers sound more like Ronald Reagan circa 1980. After all, […]

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 […]