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 […]

In the wake of the Massey Energy tragedy that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia, there appear to be two steps that could improve worker safety there. First, as the mine accident record of the last decade suggests, join a union. Second, put Democrats in the White House to reverse the GOP's nationwide gutting […]

A modest proposal: no one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism - ever. Ditto for anyone trafficking in Confederate nostalgia as a political strategy. Of course, that new red, white and blue rule would pose a problem for today's Republican Party. After all, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, the same man […]

As his somersaulting positions on abortion, immigration, Iran, Osama Bin Laden and myriad other issues showed, watching Mitt Romney's political gymnastics has long been painful. But with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney's contortionist act has reached a new low. Joining the ranks of Republicans demanding the repeal of a […]

If Republicans suffered a devastating defeat this week with the passage of President Obama's health care reform bill, Mitt Romney was the biggest loser of all. While the 2012 White House hopeful declared that "President Obama betrayed his oath to the nation," even conservatives acknowledged that the individual insurance mandate Massachusetts Governor Romney signed into […]

That 14 state attorneys general - 13 of them Republicans - have brought a lawsuit to stop the health care reform legislation signed into law Tuesday by President Obama is a perfect reflection of today's GOP. It not only confirms the Republican Party's longstanding mantra of "judicial activism for me, not thee." The suit, which […]

From the beginning, two great, largely unmentioned ironies hung over the contentious health care debate. The first elephant in the room (pun intended) is that health care is worst in those states where Republicans poll best. The second is that it will be blue state taxpayers helping fund the improvement of the dismal health care […]

For many Republicans from Dixie, the old times there are not forgotten. But in equating the health care reform bill to the "Great War of Yankee Aggression," Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has served up a double irony. For starters, Broun is among the growing legion of Congressional Republicans trying to kill Medicare through privatization. More […]

After his dismal performance at this weekend's CPAC conference, Minnesota Governor and 2012 White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty might want to ask for a mulligan. Before finishing a distant fourth in the CPAC straw poll, Pawlenty's speech was panned by the conservative faithful he sought to impress. Worse still, his painful Tiger Woods "9 iron" […]

Thursday's suicide airplane attack on the Austin office of the Internal Revenue Service by a disgruntled tax protester has once again focused attention on dangerously inflammatory anti-IRS rhetoric. To be sure, the language was threatening. "Gestapo-like tactics." "The IRS is out of control!" "Which would you prefer: having your wallet or purse stolen or being […]