Today marks the 100th day of Michael Steele’s term as chairman of the Republican National Committee. And what a blooper reel it’s been. To commemorate the occasion, here’s some of the, uh, highlights from Think Progress: In all honesty, Steele’s struggles would be funny if they were not so sad and predictable. If you’re at Read More
(x-posted from U.S. of J.) One of the more interesting things about recent political history is the fact that it was only five years ago that various pundits and Democratic strategists were worrying about a permanent Democratic minority. After the 2004 election, Democrats were almost completely boxed in by a conservative Republican Party, and a Read More
In his inaugural column for the Times, Ross Douthat argues that Cheney should have run for president so that America could have had a stouter debate on torture during the campaign. McCain couldn’t hold the pro-torture platform because he didn’t agree with the Bush/Cheney stand, and so the Bush/Cheney stand and the viability of their Read More
Michael Tomasky makes one: Texas has been (in political terms, not necessarily cultural ones) a greasy white zit in the middle of America’s nose ever since Dwight Eisenhower warned the rest of us about crazy Texas millionaires in 1954. Today, it’s still Texas billionaires who finance insane right-wing smear campaigns on a regular basis. This Read More
Why can’t those foreigners have easy, ordinary, monosyllabic surnames like real Americans? AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Read More
(x-posted from U.S. of J) Shelby Steele on the GOP’s problems with minorities*: And here is conservatism’s great problem with minorities. In an era when even failed moral activism is redemptive — and thus a source of moral authority and power — conservatism stands flat-footed with only discipline to offer. It has only an invisible Read More
Completely Misreading the National Mood, AIG Makes It Rain. AIG, the mammoth and mismanaged insurer — which incidentally holds the global financial market by the balls — is giving out $165 million in bonuses after getting $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money. Everyone is pissed. AIG said its legally obligated to pay the bonuses, which Read More
Seemingly oblivious to the fact that a tentpole of the GOP’s platform is its opposition to abortion, Michael Steele gave a GQ interview in which he engages in some candid but politically problematic equivocation on the issue. How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your Catholic faith but by Read More
Stephen challenges Steele to a battle. [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.790037&w=425&h=350&fv=autoPlay%3Dfalse] A couple things. Bling is the corniest fucking word in the English language, and people really need to stop using it. It hasn’t been cool since Cash Money popularized a decade ago. I flipped open the New York Times recently and saw the phrase in ad Read More
Adam on Jindal’s awful, awful response: The press has, for some time, been running with the idea that Bobby Jindal is the GOP’s Obama. It’s unclear what prompts the comparison between the two other than that they are both young, brown, Ivy League-educated, and beloved by their respective bases. But it’s a comparison that the Read More
