National Politics

And Let’s Not Move Too Quickly Past the (Previously) Absurd Proposition that the Race for Ted Kennedy’s Seat Should Even be Competitive

By Monique Chartier | January 17, 2010 |

Mark Steyn didn’t make that mistake in his column yesterday. … If you were at the Hopeychange inaugural ball on Jan. 20, 2009, when Barney Frank dived into the mosh pit, and you chanced to be underneath when he landed, and you’ve spent the last year in a coma until suddenly coming to in time…

Another Learning Lesson from Brown – This One for Democrats –

By Monique Chartier | January 17, 2010 |

may be developing out of the Mass senatorial race. [Marc’s “lesson” pertained to Republicans.] If Coakley defies certain polls and pulls out a win this Tuesday, the margin will almost certainly not be the thirty point gap she started with two months ago. At that point, a proportionality exercise will, inexorably, flash into the minds…

Political Spin on a Used Car Salesman Scale

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2010 |

Anybody who watches politics must be prepared for spin to the border of falsehood, but in Brian Riedl’s telling, it’s difficult not to conclude that the Obama administration has stepped well into the range of what would more accurately be called scams and con jobs: Last spring, President Obama proposed $11.3 billion worth of discretionary…

Learning Lessons from Brown

By Marc Comtois | January 15, 2010 |

Win or Lose, the Scott Brown candidacy in Massachusetts has shown that there is a motivated bunch of people looking to upset establishment apple carts, mostly those being pushed around by the in-power Democrats. Brown has struck a chord with these folks based on his common-sense, man-of-the-people approach. Yet, as both Erick Erickson and David…

But for a Government Gone Too Far

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2010 |

Kevin Williamson notes an unfamiliar state of affairs: It’s a world gone mad: The Euro-welfarized ‘Nucks are hard at work, their wages up 2.3 percent year over year, while the Aussies, who have a 45 percent top rate for personal income taxes plus a 5 percent payroll tax, are booming. But the rugged individualists toiling…

Massachusetts Senatorial Race: The Taliban May or May not Still Be in Afghanistan

By Monique Chartier | January 13, 2010 |

… according to the Democrat candidate, but they clearly have a presence on her campaign. On a slightly more serious note, is the mood in Coakley’s campaign so pessimistic that they feel they must resort to stonewalling very reasonable questions and physical intimidation?

Electing Somebody Other than Ted Kennedy

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2010 |

Jeff Jacoby takes the unique tack of emphasizing policy differences between the candidates in Massachusetts’s special election: Coakley supports ObamaCare, opposes the war in Afghanistan, and favors higher taxes on the wealthy. Brown is against the health care legislation, backs the president’s surge in Afghanistan, and wants across-the-board tax cuts a la JFK. Coakley is…

Intellectuals

By Donald B. Hawthorne | January 7, 2010 |

Thomas Sowell: …It may seem strange that so many people of great intellect have said and done so many things whose consequences ranged from counterproductive to catastrophic. Yet it is not so surprising when we consider whether anybody has ever had the range of knowledge required to make the sweeping kinds of decisions that so…

Mr. Sweetheart Mortgage Will not Seek Reelection

By Monique Chartier | January 6, 2010 |

From the Wall Street Journal today. The departure of [Senator Chris] Dodd, first elected to the Senate in 1980, carried the most symbolic value because of his seniority and his close association with the financial system bailout and other economic policies. He has drawn criticism for backing a measure that allowed the embattled insurance giant…

Whitehouse Gets Things Backwards

By Justin Katz | January 6, 2010 |

Of all the letters that have appeared decrying or endorsing Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s recent screed against those who oppose Obamacare, one by Pamela Burdon, of Warwick, was especially poignant: The Nazis took my parents from their families when they were teenagers. My parents miraculously survived under impossible conditions. They then fled communism, coming here to…