During a debate on the House floor today over designating 21 miles of the Molalla River as "wild and scenic," Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who opposes the legislation, tried to claim a progressive environmental record for her party. "Actually, the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this country," said Foxx. She didn't say what those … Read More
Teabaggers Turn On GOP
Oh, my. Look what they have created. In Florida and Missouri and elsewhere, the tea baggers are attacking Republicans candidates for being "DC insiders". Put another way, they are splitting the Republican party. What does this mean for Democrats? Well, the Democratic Party was never going to be the choice of teabaggers. But the further the GOP moves to the … Read More
How Many Republicans Are Out There?
The answer may surprise you. There's a lot of meat to this Washington Post-ABC News poll. The Washington Post leads with the most relevant to today's political debate: health care. Specifically, people are warming up to the public option: On the issue that has been perhaps the most pronounced flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now … Read More
The New GOP Website Launch
It's buggy and ugly. It crashes. But Marc Ambinder compiles the other things wrong with the launch: Top Ten Reasons Why The GOP Website Relaunch Is Fizzlin' 10. In a section devoted to "future leaders," there were none. 9. In the subsequent rush to get up a "future leaders" page, they choose "you." 8. The last GOP accomplishment cited on … Read More
Quote Of The Day
On Saturday, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) discussed the direction of the GOP in an address to the Republican Northeast Conference in Newport, RI. McCotter, who serves as the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the House, chided conservative “ideologues” for controlling the party. McCotter explained that these individuals want to “purge” opponents “all the time…because they’re nuts.” He then … Read More
Nate Silver vs. Strategic Vision
In a series of blog posts, statistician Nate Silver has made a compelling case that Strategic Vision, LLC is a public realtions/polling firm which, put bluntly, makes up data. In this post, Silver looks at a recent poll conducted by SV, which made some news. The upshot of the poll, commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, is that Oklahoma … Read More
Accusing Someone Of Politicization Is Itself Politicization
Conservatives Warn of Wellstone Effect: Key conservative voices have begun to charge in the day after Sen. Ted Kennedy’s death that Democrats are inappropriately politicizing the senator’s death, his memorial and his legacy. Kennedy was that ultimate political creature, a “lion of the Senate,” and the last son of the archetypal American political family — his passing is inevitably political. … Read More
Making The Rounds
I've seen varients of this before. Apparently, it is making a resurgance: Thoughts From A Conservative Idiot This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility. After that, I … Read More
Conservative Reponse To Palin’s “Death Panel” Comment
Mostly, they think she's crazy. On "Meet the Press" this morning, David Brooks called Palin's attack "crazy," adding that "the crazies are attacking the plan because it will cut off granny. That is simply not true, that simply is not going to happen." Similarly, Rep. Jack Kingston (R) of Georgia, who no one has ever considered a moderate, told Bill … Read More
DNC Strikes Back Against The GOP’s Mob Tactics
Actually, I thought this ad could have been more forceful…. … but it is nice to see some pushback.
Blue America
An analysis of Gallup Poll Daily tracking data from the first six months of 2009 was released to day, on the subject of political party affiliation. The accompanying map shows each state's relative party strength in the first half of 2009, which primarily covers the time since Barack Obama took office as president. States in which one of the parties … Read More
Dionne’s Advice To The GOP LIkely To Be Ignored
Noting that only 28% of Americans have a favorable image of the Republican Party, E.J. Dionne Jr. has a good column today. The GOP would be in better shape, he writes, if it wasn't "defined by extremist voices who have faced little push-back from its leaders." After recognizing the "birthers," the right-wing race-baiting, the insistence that health care reform will lead … Read More
Yet Another Republican “Family Values” Hypocrite
TPM reports: Meet Tennessee state senator Paul Stanley. He's a solid conservative Republican and married father of two, who according to his website is "a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school." (Check out the religious imagery on the site — the sun poking through clouds, … Read More
Fox News Poll Finds Repubican Support At Its Worse In The Poll’s History
The GOP's favorability rating has slid noticeably from the spring, from 41 percent in early April to just 36 percent. At the same time, the party's unfavorable rating increased from 50 percent to 53 percent. Both of the current numbers represent new lows for the Republican Party in Fox News polling. At the same time, the Fox News survey finds … Read More
The Birther Headache
The Politico discusses the "birther" problem I've discussed a few times here on this blog. What's the problem? With Congress out of session in August, legislators will be going home to their constituents. And Republican legislators will be inundated with questions from citizens who insist that Obama is a ferner and therefore can't be preznit of these here united states. … Read More