Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854, Redux By Tony Blankley
We are now beginning to enter the Kansas-Nebraska Act stage of the socialist crisis of the Republic.
Political Commentary
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March 27, 2010
March 26, 2010
Straddling the Party Line: Health Care and the Tenuous Twenty By Isaac Wood
Looking back at last Sunday’s House vote on health care reform, it is crystal clear that the party leanings of congressional districts, not just the party identification of the congressmen, influenced the final tally. Currently, there are 46 Democrats in the House who represent districts won by John McCain in 2008.
March 26, 2010
Hamstrung By Health Care? By Rhodes Cook
Each party in the last two decades has benefited from “big wave” elections to win control of the House of Representatives – the Republicans in 1994, the Democrats in 2006 and 2008, when they turned a distinct minority in the House into a solid majority.
March 25, 2010
Springtime for Libya and Terrorism By Debra J. Saunders
If you want to know how Americans may look at Sept. 11 in another 10 years, look to Libya. In a luxury villa in Tripoli, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi -- the convicted bomber of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that left 270 dead -- has been living in style since his "compassionate release" from a Scottish prison last August, precipitated by reports that al-Megrahi had less than three months to live. You may recall the scene at the Tripoli airport, where the Lockerbie bomber received a hero's welcome before a crowd waving Libyan flags and Scottish saltires.
March 25, 2010
The Wingers Who Cried Wolf By Joe Conason
Listening to right-wing talk radio on the day after Congress passed health care reform, Bill O'Reilly was stunned. To him, the hosts and the callers sounded "crazed" as they shrieked about "the end of the world, we're socialist now, we have to take the country back."
March 25, 2010
Take Student-Loan Companies Off Welfare By Froma Harrop
When the government hands money to poor people, that's welfare, Republicans say. That's taking money from productive taxpayers and encouraging dependency, they assert.
March 24, 2010
Obamacare: "The Bigger The Lie" By Howard Rich
Lost amid the partisan sniping and procedural jousting over the passage of “Obamacare” is a fundamental, unavoidable hypocrisy - one that’s worth unmasking as Washington politicians continue to ignore the will of the American people and plunge our nation deeper into full-blown socialism.
March 24, 2010
Guts and Glory By Susan Estrich
No Republicans supported Medicare in the House of Representatives until it reached the floor. It came out of the House Ways and Means and Rules committees on strict party-line votes. On the procedural vote that brought Medicare to a vote, exactly 10 Republicans voted for the bill. Only when it was clear that Democrats had the votes did it become a "bipartisan" bill, passing with the support of 70 Republicans and 237 Democrats.
March 24, 2010
Sunday's Socialist Triumph By Tony Blankley
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday launched the Democrats' argument for the health care bill, claiming, "This is an American proposal that honors the traditions of our country." Does that suggest that opposition is un-American? And what are the traditions that are American that this law fulfills? The Democrats argue that the bill fulfills the "right" of all Americans to government-assured health care services. The congressional Democrats claim many other things that a majority of the country believes to be inconsistent with truth and reality.
March 23, 2010
This Time, a Real Immigration Fix By Froma Harrop
What part of "immigration reform" don't you understand -- or, rather, don't want to understand? The send-'em-home crowd doesn't "get it" that a new enforcement regime must be paired with an amnesty for millions, even though they broke the law by working here illegally. And an alliance of cheap-labor types and ethnic activists don't want to understand that real reform means the government will actually stop employers from hiring undocumented workers.
March 23, 2010
ObamaCare Means: Don't Look Behind the Curtain By Debra J. Saunders
You've really got to hand it to President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Saddled with a majority of both houses and a hold on the White House, they somehow managed to pass the Senate health care bill in the House. It's practically a miracle.
March 22, 2010
Health Plan Means Bigger Deficits and Higher Taxes By Michael Barone
As this is written, the lobbying of House Democrats on the health care bill is going on apace, and every hour brings news of another no vote converted to yes, or a yes vote switching to no.
March 21, 2010
Crack Versus Powder Cocaine Should Not Be Black and White By Debra J. Saunders
Last week by voice vote, the Senate unanimously approved a measure to reduce the infamous 100-1 disparity in federal mandatory minimum prison sentences for possession of crack versus powder cocaine. The new, improved disparity would be 18-1.
March 19, 2010
What's Good for House Leaders Is Bad for Members By Michael Barone
The Democratic leadership's struggle to pass the Senate health care bill in the House looks like a great case study for political scientists. They have many examples of the leaders of a party majority trying to push controversial legislation through a balky chamber.
March 19, 2010
Conyers Is the Wrong Guy To Chair Judiciary Committee By Debra J. Saunders
Another funny thing happened in what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised would be "the most ethical Congress in history." Monica Conyers, the wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bribery that prompted her to resign from the Detroit City Council last year. This month, she was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
March 18, 2010
Right Wing Gone Wild By Joe Conason
Demagogues often prosper under the rules of democracy, intimidating the moderate and preying on the weak-minded. But in a healthy society, such figures cannot cross a final threshold of decency without jeopardizing their own status -- and today's right-wing nihilists seem to be on the verge of doing just that.
March 18, 2010
Governorships 2010: The Changing of the Guard By Larry J. Sabato
Back in 1980, the Washington Post ’s David S. Broder wrote a notable book, The Changing of the Guard , about the generational turnover of national and state leadership occurring at that time. It’s happening all over again. We’ll see dozens of congressional seats switching hands and sides in November, but the greatest transformation will be in the statehouses.
March 18, 2010
Is Dodd Ending Too Big to Fail? By Lawrence Kudlow
Surprise, surprise. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial-regulation proposal raises the possibility of substantial progress on the road to ending "too big to fail" and bailout nation for banks and other financial institutions.
