In late-2011, when House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened not to raise the debt ceiling (a political tactic never before used by Congress that affected the nation’s credit rating) the novelty of it had some pull. But when they followed up immediately with the “fiscal cliff” maneuver there was...
It’s a welcome step to see President Obama appoint two Vietnam veterans to serve as Secretaries of State and Defense. John Kerry and Chuck Hagel are two people who have experienced war directly and have voiced publicly their deep ambivalence about war. Too bad in 2002 neither of them were willing to risk their...
In his State of the Union address when President Barack Obama paid tribute to Desiline Victor, the 102-year-old African-American woman from North Miami who was forced to wait for hours to cast her ballot last November, he was highlighting not only the Florida Republican Party’s voter suppression efforts but the tortured history of race...
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid talked a big game about taking apart the filibuster leading up to his Grand Bargain with Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Senator now promises to play nice. But like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown he has once again snookered the hapless Majority Leader. Reid has rewarded...
When President Barack Obama signed executive orders yesterday outlining 23 actions aimed at blunting the effects of gun violence in America he urged citizens to contact their congressional representatives: “Get them on record,” he said. “Ask your member of Congress if they support universal background checks to keep guns out of the wrong hands....
During the Republican primaries Newt Gingrich tried to distance himself from the deeply unpopular “Ryan budget” that would voucherize Medicare and shred the social safety net by labeling it “right-wing social engineering.” Truer words have never left the former Speaker’s lips. Yet despite President Obama’s re-election and the victory of a half dozen progressive...