National Republicans
GOP Mysteries
Back when ex-Sen. Lauch Faircloth was a Democrat, he’d joke: “There are two things I’ve never understood: electricity and Republicans.” Evidently, he figured out Republicans, because he became one. But some of us still struggle. Three cases in point: First: Republicans fought Obamacare because they said millions of Americans would lose their health insurance.…
Read MoreShameful
A loyal TAPster outraged by Thom (No Clean Hands) Tillis contributes today’s blog: Just when we thought it couldn’t get any colder last week, Senator Thom Tillis embarrassed North Carolina again, voting against Loretta Lynch’s nomination as US attorney general. Lynch is the daughter of a Baptist minister from Greensboro who opened his church to protesters…
Read MorePolitics Gone Wild
A snow-day deep-dive into current political commentary finds three things. One, Republicans are becoming more and more deranged. Two, Democrats are falling deeper and deeper into despair. And, three, it’s all about President Obama. Politics has come unhinged since Election Day 2008 and the election of a black President. It just gets worse as…
Read MoreFor It Before They Were Against It
Uncovering hypocrisy by politicians is as easy as finding sand at the beach. But the turnabout by Republicans on redistricting reform is noteworthy for its cynicism. Here’s what four key GOP Senators say now and did then. “God bless ’em, I can’t wait to get it over here. It’s dead. It’s not going anywhere.”…
Read MoreTurning the Presidential Race Upside Down
Bush’s steady and Hilary’s experienced and it all looks familiar but deep within the earth hidden rivers are flowing that may turn the Presidential race upside down. No one had seen a caliph or caliphate for a millennium. Then, suddenly, in Yemen, Nigeria, North Africa, Syria and Iraq we have caliphates – and women…
Read MoreClinton-Bush, the Sequel
One score and four years after Bubba beat Poppy, another presidential election could be a showdown between the Republican First Family and Democratic First Family. We shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the money, stupid. Since the 1970s (or earlier), George H.W. Bush has built a vast network of fundraisers and donors. He did it…
Read MoreAnswering Obama
It was a rare feat: Frank Luntz somehow found the twenty maddest-at-Obama people in the country and put them in a ‘focus group’ on Fox News after the President’s State of the Union speech – and they didn’t have one kind word to say. But you have to give the devil his due: Barack…
Read MoreElizabeth Warren
Most of us older white conservatives just naturally see a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts who taught at Harvard and figure – barring a miracle – she’s got to be a liberal so it came as a shock the other night when a young conservative posted a link to one of Elizabeth Warren’s speeches with one…
Read MoreJust a Matter of Time?
Awhile back Ted Cruz got some unusual praise from two odd places. “I think he’s the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years,” James Carville said in an interview on ABC. Then, on his TV program, Dick Morris compared Cruz to Ronald Reagan. When Jeb Bush and…
Read MoreThe Comeback Kid
President Obama’s speech last night showed he has a knack for coming back after a setback – and a knack for the comeback quip. Three things about the night: (1) How Obama framed the debate (2) the partisan debate over bipartisanship and (3) the split-screen social media experience of watching political events like what…
Read More