Politics
Money Well Spent
The Pathetic Party
Barely a week into George W. Bush's presidency, his tax cut seems almost inevitable. The Democrats appear set to repeat their sordid performance of 20 years ago--when, instead of resisting Ronald Reagan's tax cut, they larded it with special-interest subsidies of their own. The size of the tax cut acceptable to Democrats edges up almost daily, from $500 billion to (as we go to press) $850 billion. Republicans, meanwhile, have begun predicting that the eventual tax cut might end up even larger than Bush's bloated proposal. READ MORE >>
I Hope They Didn't Actually Plan That Pose With the Halo for Obama
Still, I've long understood that in extremis I am a "tax and spend" Democrat--unhappily so, but still so. But I would not have cut NASA or the C-17 air transport, Joint Strike Fight components or the Army Corps of Engineers. READ MORE >>
I Was 'Round When Charlie Crist Had His Moment Of Doubt And Pain
The Dem Base And Health Reform
Advertorial Malfunction
God, I miss the good old days of the Super Bowl, when the hottest controversy was the post-game hand-wringing over how to spank CBS for subjecting America to Janet Jackson’s right boob. READ MORE >>
Brittle Activists
WASHINGTON -- The nation owes a substantial debt to Justice Samuel Alito for his display of unhappiness over President Obama's criticisms of the Supreme Court's recent legislation -- excuse me, decision -- opening our electoral system to a new torrent of corporate money. READ MORE >>
Indispensability
The Quiet Revolution
These days, liberals don’t know whether to feel betrayed by or merely disappointed with Barack Obama. They have gone from decrying his willingness to remove the public option from his health care plan to worrying that, in the wake of Democrat Martha Coakley’s defeat in Massachusetts, he won’t get any plan through Congress. On other subjects, too, from Afghanistan to Wall Street, Obama has thoroughly let down his party’s left flank. READ MORE >>
Proxy War
When President Obama launched a massive humanitarian-aid response to Haiti's earthquake last month, not everyone took his magnanimity at face value. Hugo Chavez, for example, accused him of "occupying Haiti undercover" and then upped the ante by saying the earthquake had been caused by an American "tectonic weapon." A minister from France, Haiti's former colonial ruler, complained that the U.S. response should be "about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti." READ MORE >>
