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Amidst Obama Scandals, Republicans Prepare a New Debt Ceiling Hostage
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2013 CommentI hate to interrupt fulminations about President Obama's three incredible shrinking scandals with something as prosaic as concern about the GOP's threatening to sabotage the economy, but a couple of bits of real news emerged yesterday regarding the debt ceiling (yes that, again).
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The Real Scandal Behind the Benghazi Emails and Attacks
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2013 CommentThe surest sign that there is indeed no there there regarding the Benghazi "scandal"? The fact that anonymous GOP staff feeding information to reporters apparently felt the need to edit the White House emails they were onpassing. It's a bad sign for scandal-mongerers if they feel the need to punch up their supposed evidence.
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Not All Gun Owners Are 2nd Amendment Fanatics
Tweet Share on Facebook May 14, 2013 CommentI focused my column last week on the National Rifle Association reaching an influence tipping point because of the uncompromising, unhinged views held by its leadership regarding sensible gun control proposals like the Manchin-Toomey universal background check legislation. Not surprisingly, it spurred a larger-than-usual volume of reader email, with some of comments ranging from the silly ("A. Hitler and Josef Goebbels would be proud of this o'bamaspeak [sic] 'Big Lie'") to the weirdly abstract (no message but a subject line saying, "i bet you drive a prius").
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Obama Is Right on Holding the IRS Accountable for Tea Party Scandal
Tweet Share on Facebook May 13, 2013 CommentI don't have very much to add to what has already been said, including by Peter Roff and Susan Milligan at this blog and by President Obama in his press conference at the White House today, about the scandal unfolding regarding the IRS targeting conservative political groups. Obama today called it "outrageous" and "contrary to our traditions," said that he would not tolerate it and added that people should be held accountable. He's right.
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Obama, Gridlock and the Make Believe Leadership 'Crisis'
Tweet Share on Facebook May 10, 2013 CommentPunditry is divided into two classes these days: those blaming President Obama and his perceived failure to "lead" for the gridlock that has consumed our government and those who believe that since the president has to deal with a coequal branch of government, blame should spread beyond that end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Biden Is Right About Washington, D.C. Voting Rights
Tweet Share on Facebook May 3, 2013 CommentVice President Joe Biden is right: There should be two senators from the District of Columbia, not to mention at least one voting member of the U.S. House. Americans living in the U.S. capital, in other words, should have the basic rights of citizenship that they are currently denied.
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On Gun Control, Alabama State Senate Treads Crazy Nullification Path
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2013 CommentI don't have a lot to add to Steve Benen's report that Alabama's state senate Tuesday passed legislation that would nullify federal gun control laws. Steve uncharacteristically understates: "Measures like these continue to make me uncomfortable, largely because they're premised on a discredited legal theory decided by the Civil War."
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Poll: Bad News for Obama on Guns, Immigration, Deficit
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2013 CommentThe new New York Times/CBS News poll is rife with bad news for President Obama and the Democrats, not simply for what it says about Obama's standing with voters but also for what it says about the voters themselves.
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The Ted Cruz for President 2016 Fantasy
Tweet Share on Facebook May 1, 2013 CommentOne of the worst kept "secrets" in Washington was that Ted Cruz wants to run for president in 2016. But it is a secret no more. National Review Online's Robert Costa officially put Cruz's name into the mix of Republican wannabes with an article announcing that the freshman Texas senator is eyeing the race. I would say that as a liberal Democrat I'm rooting for him, but a Cruz-anyone ticket just seems too implausible to hope for.
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Spending and the Budget Deficit Are Under Control
Tweet Share on Facebook April 23, 2013 CommentIt hasn't been a good month for the austerity scare-mongers. First came word last week that one of their favorite pieces of "evidence" regarding the need to keep cutting and cutting and cutting spending was the product of an Excel error. This week brings two more reports indicating that no, the budget deficit isn't nearly as out of control as austerions (to borrow Jared Bernstein's coinage) and their congressional allies would have people believe.
