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 . '/' . substr('9780316200806',-6,3) . '/' . '9780316200806' . '.jpg'; ?>)
Edited by Hunter Davies
$29.99
By Chris Hedges
$20
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The “Real Time” host marvels at Republican rage in the era of Obama: “The conservative base these days is absolutely apoplectic because ... well, nobody knows.”
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By David Sirota — Both parties are suddenly listening to “the people” instead of the Establishment. They know the political class, however offended, can no longer stop a voter backlash.
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By Joe Conason — At the apex of the tea party movement is FreedomWorks, headed by former Rep. Dick Armey. His past career should be instructive to any starry-eyed citizens who believe that they have at last found the true right-wing revolutionary path.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — By comparison with her recent predecessors, she’s a strong speaker of the House. She has far more control than the previous Democratic speaker had, despite having to contend with a more conservative GOP and an ideologically diverse pack of Democrats.
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By Eugene Robinson — I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if the Republican Party wants to get back into the game, it should start by paying more attention to its new chairman, the all-too-quotable Michael Steele.
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Flickr/Sam Ruaat
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Although the congressional GOP contingent wanted nothing to do with it, President Barack Obama’s $3.53 trillion budget package made the Senate cut on Thursday evening, passing with a 55-43 vote.
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Wikimedia Commons / John Regas
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Sen. Arlen Specter gave the proposed Employee Free Choice Act the shaft Tuesday, severely wounding legislation that would make forming unions significantly easier. Labor leaders were depending on support from moderates such as Specter, but, facing a primary challenge, the Pennsylvania Republican chickened out.
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By David Sirota — In the 21st century Gilded Age, the blue-collar shower-after-work crowd is given the tough, while the white-collar shower-before-work gang gets the love, and never before this week was that doctrine made so clear.
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By David Sirota — Republicans insist that “competition solves health care,” and tell us that government programs are worse than private health insurance. So, don’t they welcome a private-versus-public competition, believing that the former will trump the latter? Well ... uh ... no.
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a.abcnews.com
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Is Rush Limbaugh’s sudden elevation to the top tier of the Republican Party a naturally occurring phenomenon ... or a vast left-wing conspiracy? Some among the GOP’s ranks suspect that the latter is the answer.
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By Joe Conason — Once, conservatives liked to say that “ideas matter.” Although many of their theories later proved flimsy, they at least attempted to address real problems with fresh thinking. But ideas no longer matter—and in fact they’re dangerous, according to the maximum leader of the right.
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Rush Limbaugh staked his claim to primacy in the GOP recently. Jon Stewart is at the ready with a response. This includes a cultural reference to Russian nesting dolls. Sometimes absurdity is the best policy.
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What does the future hold for the Grand Old Party? For his part, President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel gave some credit, however credible, to Rush Limbaugh as an intellectual force to be reckoned with on the right. Here’s what Emanuel had to say on Sunday’s “Face the Nation.”
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Composite image: mediabistro.com / AP photo / Ron Edmonds
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¿Quién es más macho? And who’s the rightful leader of the GOP? Both Rush Limbaugh and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele are claiming the title in a curious kind of public arm-wrestling match that also pits entertainment against politics (as if the two weren’t already interconnected).
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c.berlet / publiceye.org
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The conservative wing of the Republican Party still has a lot of affection, oddly enough, for the former governor of the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts. For the third straight year, Mitt Romney beat out the likes of Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee in a poll of conservative activists.
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politicsandfunk.com
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If there was any question as to how Rush Limbaugh is positioning himself vis-à-vis the new administration, that was obliterated by his performance Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he once again made it clear that he’s not wishing President Obama well.
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nola.com
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If Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal could have one career do-over, he might opt to use it on the speech he gave Tuesday. Not only did his performance induce cringes on both sides of the aisle, but now, according to TPMMuckraker, it looks as if the part of his speech about Hurricane Katrina (to many the most baffling part) wasn’t exactly true.
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By David Sirota — Only months after the 2008 primaries, most Americans probably don’t remember Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul. But that doesn’t mean the conservative populism they championed during their campaigns is as fleeting as their dark-horse candidacies.
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blogs.wsj.com
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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal just might be going through the quickest rise to prominence, followed by the fastest plummet from the pedestal, in recent political history. Mere moments after he had given his big debut speech Tuesday night, the fallout began—and much of it came from within his own party.
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An effort to screen pregnant women for HIV in order to reduce the spread of the virus among babies didn’t get Colorado state Sen. Dave Schultheis’ vote. In the Republican’s own controversial words, that’s because “[t]his stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part, and I just can’t go there. ... We do things continually to remove the consequences of poor behavior, unacceptable behavior, quite frankly.”
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When civilizations collapse, mass hysteria ensues, often followed by cannibalism—a scenario familiar to the Republican Party, in which old friends are now turning on each other with reckless abandon.
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Flickr/dsb nola
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Perhaps keeping an eye on the 2012 election, Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has gone public with his critique of President Barack Obama’s proposed solutions to the country’s economic woes. ThreatDown!
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White House / Eric Draper
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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biographer has revealed that the California governor recently thought about leaving the Republican Party, but decided he wouldn’t gain much by doing so, politically. Camp Schwarzenegger has yet to respond, but the news fits, given the governor’s problems working with his own party.
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Flickr / geerlingguy
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While just about every state in the Union is starving for funds, a small band of Republican governors is debating whether or not to reject the stimulus bill’s cash infusion, citing concerns over future taxes. This California editor says good. Give their stimulus money to my state. It’s broke.
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By Joe Conason — Republicans congratulate themselves for remaining unified in defeat and whine about Obama’s refusal to capitulate—but in fact it is they who have failed in the initial episode of a confrontation that will certainly continue for four years.
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Chris Matthews dares GOP strategist Todd Harris to say something negative about Rush Limbaugh. He can’t, which leads the “Hardball” host to wonder whether anyone in the GOP is willing to risk Rush’s ire.
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White House / Paul Morse / Pete Souza
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By Robert Scheer — Congressional Republicans, with the exception of that embarrassingly shrunken contingent of three moderates, will rue their legacy of deep indifference at a time of true national emergency, one that makes George W. Bush’s far more costly war on terror now seem an absurdly irrelevant exercise.
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Flickr / Jeffrey Beall
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President Obama on Tuesday will sign the stimulus bill, which passed without the support of a single House Republican and with only three votes from the GOP in the Senate. With battle lines that stark, lawmakers have tied their fates to that of the bill.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — It took less than three weeks for the real Barack Obama to come into view. He turns out to be both a conciliator and a fighter. Update
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — President Obama’s outreach to Republicans is popular, but the coming week will test his resolve. Eventually, he’ll have to say “no” to the GOP, or lose what he’s fighting for.
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climatelawupdate.com
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Despite the lack of support for President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan among Republican Congress members last week, several GOP governors are supporting the package, although some, like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, are still putting up a fight.
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bet.com
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Could this be the Republican Party’s attempted answer to Barack Obama? Or is that too cynical a read on the new appointment of the GOP’s first African-American party chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele?
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By Eugene Robinson — Unbeknown to the House Republicans who voted unanimously against President Obama’s stimulus package, we are in the midst of a rare fundamental shift in American politics.
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By Joe Conason — How fortunate for Barack Obama that Rush Limbaugh, big radio personality and leader of the instinctual far right, has yet to retire to a sunny island with his bottles of pills.
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AP photo / Susan Walsh
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President Barack Obama visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to angle for support for his proposed stimulus plan ... from Republicans. Though he wasn’t likely to win them all over, Obama huddled with members of the House and Senate. He emerged in one piece and “optimistic” after the exchanges.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns to the task of getting it back.
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coleman.senate.gov
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While he’s enduring his umpteenth go-round with arch-rival Al Franken over Minnesota’s now-vacant Senate seat, Norm Coleman has found himself some gainful employment to keep him busy.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The substantive issues surrounding an economic stimulus are clearer than the politics of getting it passed fast. Here’s how Obama is trying to weave the politics and the substance together.
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By Joe Conason — As the government contemplates spending very large sums of money, it is reassuring to know that somebody still worries about waste. Or it would be reassuring, if only that somebody were not Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader.
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By Marie Cocco — I am supposed to be typing out words that articulate a highly audible and terribly alarmed tsk tsk. Instead, I am laughing with unrestrained amusement at the farce that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has engineered. Honestly, I haven’t had this much fun since New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s implosion.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — While Republicans are looking inward and focusing on appeals to the party’s activist base, Obama wants Democrats to concentrate their energies on recently acquired political terrain and the new converts who were central to his party’s sweep last year.
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By David Sirota — A month after Barack Obama’s triumphant victory, we are still celebrating America’s only authentic national religion, and it isn’t Christianity—it’s presidentialism.
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Flickr / Savannah Grandfather
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Saxby “Big Daddy” Chambliss has successfully defended his U.S. Senate seat against rival and fraternity brother Jim Martin. After a close contest in the general election, the two were forced into a runoff Tuesday, which Chambliss won handily.
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John McCain showed off his sense of humor during his first postelection interview, and a few of his scars. As McCain put it, “Our party has a lot of work to do. We just got back from the woodshed.”
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news.aol.com
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We’ll let the governor speak for herself: “If there is an open door in ‘12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.” Updated
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By David Sirota — Obama and the rest of the party should retire the Innocent Bystander Fable—the myth about being powerless onlookers.
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