National Politics
On January 5, 1995, Newt Gingrich was elected Speaker of the House, the first Republican to do so in 40 years. Newt Gingrich took the Capital by storm today like many of the generals he has studied — before dawn, with a plan and with an eye on history. As he achieved his longtime dream…
One of my New Year’s resolutions is not to talk about the 2008 Presidential election until at least next June. But since the New Year hasn’t quite arrived, allow me a few observations… 1. If Barack Obama wants to run, it has to be now. If he waits, he will marginalize himself when he tries…
President Ford was interviewed by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, but embargoed the interview until after his death. The portion of the interview that is getting the most play is where President Ford differed with the Bush Administration on the Iraq War. Specifically, portions of the interview are being excerpted and rehashed as news articles…
With the passing of President Ford, most people have, by now, been disabused of the notion that he was a perpetual klutz and have learned that, in fact, he was a two-time All-American football player at Michigan. Nonetheless, the role that history has cast him is as the man who pardoned Nixon. Yet, believe it…
Apparently, the newly-elected Democrat controlled Congress is putting a kibosh on earmarks (via The Insider). So sayeth Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), soon-to-be-chairmen of the Senate and House appropriations committees: There will be no Congressional earmarks in the joint funding resolution that we will pass. We will place a moratorium on…
Jim Baron writes: …when I heard there was a [MoveOn.org] meeting scheduled at a home in Barrington last week, I thought I would sit in and see what it was all about. The meeting, replicated in living rooms all over the country on the same night — the national MoveOn organization claims 7,000 people at…
First, the New York Times focuses the soft-filter lense on the now dwindling ranks of GOP moderates in New England and : It was a species as endemic to New England as craggy seascapes and creamy clam chowder: the moderate Yankee Republican. Dignified in demeanor, independent in ideology and frequently blue in blood, they were…
Edward Achorn backs up what many have already concluded: the Democrat margins of victory were attributable to straight-party (mostly Harrah’s “inspired”) voters: On Nov. 7, the straight-party system worked its wonders for Rhode Island Democrats. Some 61,357 voters cast a straight-party ballot for the Democrats — a whopping increase of more than 23,000, or about…
Over on Autonomist, my friend Rocco DiPippo — to whom I am tremendously indebted for non-blog-related reasons — writes: …politically speaking it was idiotic for Republicans to showboat over the Foley matter. And incredibly, after the Foley revelations, Republican pundits lined up to publish a self-flagellating stream of articles saying how it might be “good”…
{N.B. Cross-posted at Spinning Clio–MAC} Historian Ralph Luker points to a new book by Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks called Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. According to this story: When it comes to helping the needy, Brooks writes: “For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous…
