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The Most Conservative and Most Liberal Members of Congress
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (8)Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
While not exactly on par with FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, the venerable National Journal's list of the top 10 conservatives and liberals in Congress is something all Washington waits to see. For some, the object is to be on one or the other of the two lists--which is compiled based on an analysis of congressional votes--while for others the challenge is to miss the list entirely.
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Why a Republican War of Ideas Is a Good Thing
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (20)Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
In 1994, under the leadership of Newt Gingrich, the GOP presented a list of reforms called the Contract with America. A signed pledge committing the party to a series of specific actions, the contract was the leading wedge of an effort to bring the party to power in Congress for the first time in 40 years.
It was successful beyond the wildest dreams of its creators, bringing the GOP to national parity with the Democrats for the first time in the lives of most of the Republicans on the ballot that year.
Today, the GOP is more intellectually fractured, with old guard Republicans, Gingrich-era limited government conservatives, Tea Party activists, libertarians aligned with Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and others engaged in a competition to see which ideas will form the basis for what increasingly looks like a new Republican congressional majority.
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Health Reform Summit Illustrates Differences Between Obama, Republicans
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (25)By Linda Killian, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
There were no surprises at the Blair House health summit Thursday which served primarily to highlight the real differences between Republicans and Democrats--not just on healthcare but on their general political philosophy.
It's pretty simple--Democrats believe government is the answer to big problems and should take care of people, and Republicans believe the private sector is always the best way to go and people should take care of themselves.
This is a political chasm too big to bridge no matter how hard President Barack Obama tries or how reasonable he sounds.
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What To Call Tea Party People?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (60)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I need a journalistic wise man, or woman, to help me with a question of reportorial ethics. To wit: my use of the term "tea baggers."
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Republicans Performed Beautifully at Health Reform Summit
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (37)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Here in Washington, we're getting high winds, but unlike New York and Philadelphia, no snow, so life went on as usual yesterday. I had PTA meetings and carpools to drive, a meeting on fundraising for Children's Hospital; like most people, I wasn't able to sit and watch the entire seven hours of coverage of the healthcare summit. But I did listen to it on the radio and have seen video clips, which is probably about average for most of us. People I've talked to seem to be engaged and paying attention to this right now.
In my last column, my advice to Republicans was to come "loaded for bear," and marshal their best arguments about what the GOP stands for and why Republicans are not just the mindless obstructionists that Democrats portray them to be. They did that beautifully. Having Sen. Lamar Alexander speak was a great choice. And here's a clip from the star of the day, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan. It's worth watching (only about six minutes long). Jack Kemp and Bill Buckley would have been proud.
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Why Democrats Cannot Give up on Health Reform Now
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (27)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
If the Democrats on Capital Hill could caucus, and agree on a quick, magical, cost-free path to add about 5 million new jobs in the next six months, they would do so.
But they can't. The effects of the recession need to work themselves out. Aside from the capture of Osama bin Laden, there is no quick crowd-pleaser out there for President Obama and his troops in Congress.
Instead, they must pass their healthcare bill. Having gotten it this far, to surrender would be an invitation for political slaughter.
As usual, it's the Speaker of the House who recognizes this reality. Speakers know their members, and members know their constituencies.
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Sea World Orca Attack on Trainer Demonstrates Human Cruelty
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (91)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
An article on BBC online today reads:
The recent attack by a captive orca on its trainer at a SeaWorld facility in Orlando, Florida, has again raised questions about our relationship with these top marine predators.
But really, the "killer" whale's deadly attack in Florida this week raises a much larger question: What in the heck are humans doing keeping undomesticated and "killer" animals in captivity to begin with?
At least there is little or no talk, that I've heard of, of "euthanizing" (which really means slaughtering) this poor whale, who was only doing what instinct tells him to do.
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Detroit Mayor’s Surrender Shows the Failure of Liberalism
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (20)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Back before he was president, Ronald Reagan used to joke that the Johnson administration had declared war on poverty and that "poverty won." Indeed, the American landscape is riddled with examples of how the liberal welfare state has continually failed to achieve the improvements in living standards and quality of life its political sponsors promised it would bring.
In certain places, the overreach of the welfare state and the way it has suppressed entrepreneurial initiative has led to the near collapse of governing institutions, the latest example being the long-oppressed city of Detroit, where Mayor Dave Bing has announced a plan to "shrink" the city.
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Beck’s Bad History: Roosevelt Was No Socialist
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (22)By John A. Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
One could make a career correcting the daffy ravings of Glenn Beck, but life on the planet is short. And besides, why would a liberaltarian like myself want to stop Beck and his tea baggers from drumming some of the Republican Party's greatest presidents--Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt--out of the conservative movement, on the charge of insufficient purity?
My old pal Grover Norquist once gave me a lesson on the importance of heroes and symbols to a movement--he's been trying to get Reagan's visage on a coin for years. Now the tea bag Cerberi want to disown the two Republicans who made it to Mt. Rushmore, and Beck has announced that Reagan wasn't really a conservative after all.
Confusion to our enemies, says I, and God bless all here.
Nevertheless, Beck's reading of history is so wrong-headed and perverse that we who labor in the archives and the stacks are obligated to correct the record.
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Health Reform Advice Obama Might Get From Clinton
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (7)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Dear Barack,
Healthcare reform is a big deal even if the era of big government ended nearly 15 years ago. And I’ve been where you are, man, and I feel for what you’re going through. If you can get it all done in a day, wrap up the deal with those masters of no, Senate Republicans, then you don’t need advice from me. But just in case you do, here goes.
First of all, the summer playbook was all wrong. You flattered and cajoled Sen. Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman, the same way Hillary and I tried to win over Sen. Moynihan, then the chairman of the same committee. Baucus courted Sen. Snowe all summer, but the Republican dashed Democratic hopes when she voted against the bill when it came to the floor. Ditto with Moynihan, who for weeks and months talked himself into believing he could cut a bipartisan deal with Dole, when all Dole was doing was playing for time. Time was not on our side, nor is it on yours. That’s why I like the look of the stakes today. Did you know High Noon is my favorite movie? But I digress.
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