Democrats
December 1, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The late Andrew Breitbart founded Big Government, Big Hollywood, and Big Journalism. Andrew doggedly pursued the story behind the allegations of Reps. Andre Carson, John Lewis, Emanuel Cleaver and James Clyburn that Tea Party protesters abused black congressmen with racial epithets while demonstrating against Obamacare on Capitol Hill on March 20, 2010. The story was reported as fact by news organizations including Fox News and McClatchy News, but Breitbart called
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November 29, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Susan Collins met with Susan Rice today. Rice was hoping, no doubt, to make a better impression on the Maine moderate than she did earlier this week on John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte. If Rice succeeded, she did so only marginally. Collins said afterwards that the meeting left her with a sense of disappointment with Rice. She added that she is not ready at this point to support
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November 29, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Democrats and liberals always bristle when you throw the “S-word” (socialism) at them, but have a look at the table below from a new Gallup poll released today: more than half (53%) of Democrats or Democrat-leaners say they have a positive attitude toward socialism. But I think the more striking number here is the line just above it: 75 percent of Democrats have a positive image of the federal government
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November 28, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
We’ve written, as has virtually every other commentator, about the “fiscal cliff.” But the term is probably a misnomer. It refers to the fact that, absent a budget deficit deal, taxes will rise on everyone who pays them and federal spending will be cut. The combined effect would be a small but discernible change in fiscal policy that might well slow the economy down or, given how slow the economy
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November 28, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Mel Reynolds has announced that he will run for the congressional seat held by Jesse Jackson Jr., who has resigned. “Swell Mel” held that seat, Illinois’ Second District, before Jackson. He resigned from Congress in 1995, after a jury found him guilty of having sex with an underage campaign worker. Reynolds later was convicted of federal charges of bank and campaign fraud. He remained in jail until President Clinton commuted
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November 26, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t recall any of us commenting on the plan of Senate Democrats to reform, and perhaps end, the filibuster. But Harry Reid and his crew seem prepared to push for major changes in the filibuster come January. If they do, it will trigger quite a battle and probably extinguish whatever chances exist for cooperation between congressional Democrats and Republicans. It isn’t clear just what Reid has in mind. One
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November 15, 2012 — John Hinderaker
In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama criticized President Bush for being a partisan and running a permanent political campaign following his re-election in 2004: Maybe peace would have broken out with a different kind of White House, one less committed to waging a perpetual campaign–a White House that would see a 51-48 victory as a call to humility and compromise rather than an irrefutable mandate. The ironies are thick.
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November 14, 2012 — Steven Hayward
It’s one thing to be jubilant about winning a tough election, and enjoying the agony of your defeated rivals, but it does seem to me that the triumphant Left are sore winners, displaying a predominant mode of anger rather than celebration and confidence. One small but telling item was the Twitter reaction among some lefties I follow to The Economist’s cover this week: “Now Hug a Republican.” The Economist had
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November 12, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. represents Illinois’ Second Congressional District, which consists of portions of the South Side of Chicago and its suburbs. The district isn’t “rotten,” but the representatives it sends to Congress sure are. Jackson himself is reportedly negotiating a plea deal with the federal government that would end his 17-year career in Congress. The deal would involve pleading guility to charges of misuse of campaign funds; repayment of
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November 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The Cretan philosopher Epimenides famously propounded the parodoxical assertion that all Cretans are liars. The cretin president Bill Clinton propounded his own version of the paradox yesterday in his capacity as Barack Obama’s foremost campaign surrogate. Campaigning for Obama in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon, Clinton regaled the crowd with his critique of the Romney campaign. “You’re laughing, but who wants a president who will knowingly, repeatedly tell you something he
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November 2, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday I noted the Islamist connection to the rise of Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison in 2006. Ellison found timely support among Hamas and friends. I thought that the Hamas-related support for Ellison was indicative of the melding of the left with Islamist forces at home and abroad. It is an alliance that Ellison embodies. The key man in the picture was Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR. Drawing
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October 31, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Tom Friedman ventured into the wilds this week, to his home state of Minnesota: I was debating whether to go to the Turkish-Syrian border this week or to visit my old high school in Minnesota. I decided to make the exotic foreign trip and go to Minnesota. I thought it might be useful to look at this election through the window of my hometown of St. Louis Park. I wish
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October 21, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Everyone who knew George McGovern will tell you—I heard this first from George Will many years ago—that McGovern was one of the most gentle, decent persons you’d ever encounter in American politics. “He comes on like Muzak,” James Jackson Kilpatrick wrote of him, “which descendeth like the gentle dew.” But McGovern’s name will always be associated, rightly, with the extreme leftward lurch of the Democratic Party. He said some truly
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I sometimes wonder, not just why so many people will vote for Barack Obama, but why anyone would vote for him, considering his record. There are multiple answers to that question, but one of them is: many of those who will vote for Obama have no idea what his record is. Take the case of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, one of the major news stories
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October 13, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
During today’s episode of the Hinderaker-Ward experience, Brian Ward made a great point about Joe Biden’s debate performance. Biden, said Brian, was behaving like a Democrat. Not all Democrats, of course, but certainly a great many of those one encounters on the internet. Like Biden, they are rude, eager to prevent the other side from talking, and prone to attack arguments they don’t like with bad behavior rather than reasoning.
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October 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker
…then it is hard to imagine who still believes the myth of Barack Obama. Next week’s New Yorker cover: So I guess it’s unanimous. Clint Eastwood was right. But here is what I don’t understand: why isn’t everyone embarrassed to be a liberal? Or, put another way, a Democrat? How is it that some people can witness the latest liberal fiasco–Romney sneaked a crib sheet into the debate! That’s the
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October 1, 2012 — John Hinderaker
That is a big topic on which much can be said. The U.S. has dabbled in National Socialism before; elements of Roosevelt’s New Deal emulated Mussolini’s policies, and were implemented by men who made no secret of their admiration for Il Duce. But it has been a long time since anyone has seriously tried to turn the United States in a National Socialist direction. Which is what Barack Obama seems
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