National Democrats
Capital Potty-Break Putsch?
Are Washington Republicans learning from Wake County Republicans? Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a leading opponent of the health-care reform bill, said Sunday: “What the American people should pray is that somebody can’t make the vote.” Democrats protested that Coburn was wishing misfortune on a Senator. Maybe Coburn was just hoping that…
Read MorePresidential Honesty
President Obama did something remarkable for a President in his speech to America about Afghanistan and in his Nobel Peace Prize speech. He told the truth about war. Bush misled us into Iraq. Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon misled and lied us into Vietnam. Even the sainted FDR misled Americans before WWII. (“Your boys…
Read MorePolitics – Montana Style
I figured brazenly appointing your wife to a top-paying government job (or swapping a political appointment for a deal on a beach front lot) was a temptation our local Democrats couldn’t resist because after two decades in power they’d lost their humility. But, yesterday, I read Montana’s Democratic Senator has succumbed to temptation too…
Read MoreThe Scarlet Pimpernel
Once I asked a friend what he thought of a prominent South Carolina politician and he laughed and said, Well, you know what they say about LeRoy – he hasn’t met a principle since high school. Back when she was running for Governor, Beverly Perdue promised liberals and environmentalists there was never, ever, ever…
Read MoreSharp DSCC Elbows
This isn’t how Cal Cunningham wanted to reenter the Senate race. Joe (the Sledgehammer) Sinsheimer weighed in on Facebook: “While I think Cunningham is an attractive candidate, I really don’t like the idea of folks in Washington choosing our next Senator.” Nor does Elaine Marshall’s campaign. The Hill says: “This has left Marshall‘s…
Read MoreTime’s a’wastin’
Next year may be a Republican year, but politics is funny. Polls show Richard Burr getting little more than 40 percent of the vote against a generic Democratic opponent. One problem: No Democratic candidate has yet convinced the party he or she can beat Burr. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is making another run…
Read MoreWanted: Competence
Ideologues – left and right – see elections as referendums on philosophy. But voters – often as not – are looking for simple competence. Somebody to run government well: protect us from enemies foreign and domestic, encourage job growth, educate our kids, spend tax money wisely and sparingly, etc. Republicans lost in 2006 and…
Read MorePopulism Run Amok
I’m all for having regular guys and gals in high office. But this is too much. The New York Times reported this anecdote in a story about Federal Research Chair Ben Bernanke lobbying against bills aimed at the Fed: “At one recent meeting, Senator Sherrod Brown challenged Mr. Bernanke’s bona fides as a…
Read MoreThe Clinton Prescription
The Big Dog’s got the scent. Democrats should pay attention. For all his faults, Bill Clinton has one of the best noses in politics. And this week he gave Senate Democrats exactly the right strategy for passing health-care reform: It’s the economy, stupid. That is, reform will help the economy by slowing…
Read MoreHow to Survive in 2010
My old friend and North Carolina native Harrison Hickman, a Washington pollster, has written “a 2010 survival guide for Democrats” He writes that, “Survival is possible even in the worst of climates, as many Democrats in 1984 and 1994, and many Republicans in 1986 and 2008 have shown.” Here’s his first prescription: …
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