April has come and gone, and virtually all of us have dutifully filed a tax return or an extension. The anti-tax mob hasn’t gone anywhere. Somebody’s going to have to pay the tab, according to their means. Despite the sequester that wasn’t supposed to be, replete with “For special friends of Rick’s” special interest mulligans, the bugaboo of taxation hasn’t left us.… [Read more]
Rand Paul (R-KY) wants to be President of the United States. He also wants African-Americans to believe that he is not a bigot. During his recent outreach visit to Howard University he relayed to the students of the elite, predominantly African-American institution that he has never been against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and that he does not have a bigoted bone in his body or a racist feeling in his heart.… [Read more]
It appears many of the Republican “true believers” aren’t observing Ronald Reagan’s famed Eleventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Add one more to the discarded pro-choice and sensible gun control missives of the Matinee Cowboy’s purged lines.
In the spirit of “Beware the Ides of March,” there’s a tempest in the G.O.P.… [Read more]
Those of us in the political pundit class tend to be big fans of Frank Capra’s 1939 Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Some of us keep replaying the film often enough to keep the lines fresh among the decaying political plant fiber in the Washington swamp.
Before the fabled filibuster was reduced from rare drama to daily droll by Senate Republicans under Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), once upon a time, filibustering was a marathon talking event.… [Read more]
For a guy who never has to face another election to keep his job, President Obama confidently strode to the dais to deliver a bright, ambitious smorgasbord of public needs and his answers to a weary, but recovering, nation saddled by an obstructionist Congress.
In a stirring address, the President told the Joint Session of Congress, America, and the world, that while much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. … [Read more]
As I watched Marco Rubio bat down strawmen during his response to the State of the Union address last night all I kept thinking was “this is ridiculous.” The man suggested that President was somehow anti-capitalist despite President Obama’s continued commitment to finding solutions that partner both public and private actors, with the latter taking the dominant lead.… [Read more]
Amid all the Progressive wailing and conservative faux victory laps, last week’s “filibuster reform” came out pretty much as I had expected it.
Our Federal legislative bodies on Capitol Hill continue to stick pretty close to what the Eighteenth Century powdered wig framers had intended. As a moderating influence to that rabble called the House of Representatives, the Senate is, by design, the “adult in the room.” Some rabble-rousers, such as Sen.… [Read more]
In one of her last official acts as America’s most-travelled Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared Wednesday to testify about the tragedy in Benghazi which killed our Ambassador and three others.
Republicans were waiting to get their last licks in on Secretary Clinton (and pray she doesn’t run for President in 2016.) Complaints from the freshman cheap seats and from the past their ‘Sell By Date” fossil obstructionists didn’t stick, except perhaps in the muddled mouthpieces of Fox News.… [Read more]
It would take a controversial, outcome changing, and bungled call by a stand-in scab referee in the Seattle Seahawks-Green Bay Packers game to get even notorious public union buster Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) tweeting in anger for professional football team owners to end their lockout and bring back competent unionized officiating. After all, it was something as vital as Monday Night Football, and not annoyingly coddled nurses, schoolteachers, and librarians minding our kids.… [Read more]
When you enter your local AT&T or Verizon Wireless store, chances are you are not thinking about your local and national candidates running for office. And why should you? What you may not know is that a portion of the money you spend on a new iPhone or Android could go toward helping causes that you don’t support. … [Read more]
