For Republicans hoping to preserve the Bush-era tax cut windfall for the wealthy, the past week was not a happy one. While billionaire Warren Buffett asked Congress to "stop coddling the super-rich," GOP representatives found themselves under attack from constituents who polls show overwhelmingly support debt-reducing tax increases. So, it should come as no surprise […]

Karl Marx famously said that "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." So it is with Texas Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry. After all, Perry isn't merely trying to follow the path blazed by his predecessor from the Lone Star State to the White House. Not four years removed from Bush's […]

At an event in Iowa Monday, President Obama explained that venomous political rhetoric is nothing new in American history, noting "Lincoln -- they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me." Judging by the immediate and furious reaction from the conservative commentariat, right-wingers are none too happy about Obama's passing […]

During the just concluded debt ceiling crisis, only one American political party was willing to see the United States default and its economy crippled rather than raise the nation's borrowing limit. That culprit was the Party of Lincoln, whose namesake once explained the Confederacy's threat to the Union, "one of them would make war rather […]

That all six of the Republicans selected to the Congressional debt reduction "Super Committee" are signers of Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge is hardly surprising. But the choice of Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is an especially fitting one for the GOP. After all, Kyl didn't merely define a generation of Republican talking points when he explained […]

Reveling in the political opportunity presented by America's economic woes, Republicans are taking President Obama to task for stating the simple truth, "much of it I inherited." While GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney charged, "It's just blame, blame, blame - It's a blame presidency," former Bush press secretary turned Fox News regular Dana Perino complained, "The […]

In the wake of S&P's reduction of the U.S. credit rating, Republican leaders and amen corner are apoplectic about what Democrats John Kerry and David Axelrod deemed the "Tea Party Downgrade." Sadly, there's one small problem for the right-wing bloggers insisting "they can't possibly sell that" and for the GOP presidential candidates attacking President Obama […]

If nothing else, the 2012 Republican presidential contest has forced GOP White House hopefuls to run a gauntlet of ever more draconian pledges demanded by party purists. At the top of the list is the Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which demands candidates "solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases." But at […]

Among the things we learned during this week's debt ceiling debacle is that Republicans in general and their Tea Party hardliners in particular don't like to be called "hostage-takers" and "terrorists." While Sarah Palin called Vice President Biden's alleged use of the T-word "appalling," Rep. Jeff Landry (R-LA) suggested it was the Obama administration "who's […]