It's been a bad day for the Banana Republicans. First, House Majority Leader Tom Delay was indicted. Then, the SEC announced it is launching a formal investigation into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's insider trading scandal. For today at least, God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world. Let's start with […]

During a week when Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean tried to rally his party in a quixotic effort to block the confirmation of John Roberts, Republicans at all levels of government may have given him the keys to Congress. For Democrats, ending the epidemic of GOP corruption, patronage and cronyism has to be one […]

The American people are rightly outraged by President Bush's refusal to call for an independent commission to investigate the disastrous government response to hurricane Katrina. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed that 81% of Americans would like to see an independent panel versus only 18% backing a Congressional inquiry. Democrats will pay no price for opposing […]

In a short statement on Tuesday, George W. Bush completely undermined the entire premise for his second term as President. With plummeting polls in the wake of his administration's bungling of the New Orleans disaster, Bush sought the appearance of accountability. He said tersely, "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job […]

Over two years ago, I wrote the words below as part of long piece titled, "The Opt Out Society: The GOP Threat to National Unity and the American Social Contract." Now, two years later, with New Orleans in ruins, hundreds dead and thousands more at risk, we see the willful neglect of the Bush administration […]

Now should not be the time, as Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly has noted, for the politics of blame. In the wake of Katrina's devastation along the Gulf Coast, Americans should be united in providing relief, resources and support to all in need. But sadly, that massive relief effort will take place during a […]

As expected, President Bush Monday morning made a recess appointment of John Bolton to the post of UN ambassador for the United States. This, despite Bolton's inability to get Senate approval, his lie regarding his testimony in the Plame affair, and the possibility of his own involvement in a White House orchestrated smear campaign against […]

With the Karl Rove PlameGate scandal now in high gear, the Bush White House and the GOP leadership as usual have everyone singing the same tune. Over the last three weeks, their latest smash sound bite hit, "Don't Prejudge An Ongoing Investigation", has jumped to the top of the charts: Click here for performances of […]

In yesterday's piece "Supreme Limitations on Democrats", I argued that liberals and progressives of all stripes should not reflexively oppose the nomination of Judge John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. (Admittedly, when I wrote the piece, it was Judge Edith Brown Clement I had in mind.) The argument for restraint in the confirmation process […]

The Perrspectives Document Library has been expanded to include background articles and documents on the Karl Rove outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The Rove documents include the original Joseph Wilson New York Times op-ed, Robert Novak's column outing Wilson's wife Valerie Plame and key 2003 White House press briefings by Scott McClellan and President […]