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Category Archives: Columns
Georgia Is Celebrating Confederate Heritage and History Month? Really? – The Daily Beast
I thought it was an April Fools’ joke. There in my inbox on the morning of April 1 was an email from something called Ray McBerry Enterprises announcing the official start of “Confederate Heritage and History Month” in Georgia. Apparently, … Continue reading
Baseball is Back, Thank God – CNN.com
Forget Punxsutawney Phil’s predictions. The words “Play ball!” are the most dependable sign that spring has arrived in America. Finally, baseball season is here. Maybe because it is an outdoor game, with a schedule stretching across three seasons. Maybe because … Continue reading
Palin’s SarahPAC Embarrassment: Consultants Are Cashing In – The Daily Beast
Sarah Palin attempted to relaunch her political career and her political action committee, SarahPAC, on Thursday with a Web video called “Loaded for Bear,” which presented the former Alaska governor as the new kingmaker for conservative populists in the GOP. … Continue reading
How Gay Rights Went Mainstream – CNN.com
Some days start out historic. The gay civil rights movement has reached the Supreme Court — a milestone by any measure. We won’t know what the justices will decide until June, but it is not too early to reflect on … Continue reading
CNN Podcast: Big Three – Supreme Court and Same Sex Marriage
CNN Radio’s Big Three: John Avlon, Margaret Hoover and Dean Obeidallah.
Exclusive: Congressional Ethics Probe Adds to Michele Bachmann’s Political Woes – The Daily Beast
The Hindenburg. The Titanic. Michele Bachmann. Eighteen months ago, the Minnesota House member was considered an unlikely but undeniable Republican rising star, winning the Iowa straw poll that unofficially begins the primary season. Today, she is embroiled in a litany … Continue reading
More Sarah Palin Than Ronald Reagan: CPAC’s Paranoid Style – The Daily Beast
There’s no place where the paranoid style in American politics mixes with presidential aspirants quite like CPAC. At this year’s conservative conclave, held at the Gaylord Hotel in Maryland, there is a mood of grim resignation after their rejection in … Continue reading
The Elephant in the Room: Chris Christie’s CPAC Dig – The Daiy Beast
With the “Star Wars bar” of the Conservative Political Action Conference (in other words, a bunch of aliens) kicking off Thursday morning, it was no coincidence that among the first speakers were Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Texas Congressman … Continue reading
Who’s to blame for debt gridlock? – CBS Early Show
With Speaker Boehner walking out on President Obama over a solution to the nation’s debt crisis, Russ Mitchell gathers a panel of independent voters with Senior political analyst for Newsweek, John Avlon , and Republican commentator, Margaret Hoover, to find … Continue reading
Is Jeb Bush Right About Campaign ‘Crack Addicts’? – CNN.com
“You guys are crack addicts.” That was Jeb Bush on “Meet the Press,” addressing journalists about their obsession with the 2016 presidential campaign, more than three years away. The former Florida governor was joking and it’s a fool’s errand for … Continue reading
Rand Paul Kicks It Old School in Filibuster Marathon Over Drones – The Daily Beast
Give Rand Paul credit—he decided to kick it old school on the Senate floor and filibuster in person rather than simply filing a procedural motion. The result was the kind of spectacle we only see in Frank Capra films and … Continue reading
Can Jeb Bush Save the GOP and End Its Emerging Civil War? – The Daily Beast
Moon Reagan and Don Nixon never got this kind of reception. But Jeb Bush, the brother and son of presidents, is already getting the full-court press to run for the White House in 2016. The Drudge Report went breathless with … Continue reading
Hostage to His Caucus, John Boehner Can’t Keep His Message Straight – The Daily Beast
It’s official. Washington has no idea how to get out of the mess it created with the sequester. That’s the message Speaker John Boehner sent with his Meet the Press interview that aired Sunday. “I don’t think anyone quite understands … Continue reading
In North Korea, Dennis Rodman Fouls Out – CNN.com
Never fear. While North Korea is a closed communist state, a rogue nuclear power that regularly threatens war and starves its own people in prison camps, Dennis Rodman has just returned from some one-on-one diplomacy with its “dear leader” Kim … Continue reading
The Pro Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay-Marriage Brief – The Daily Beast
One hundred thirty-one Republicans signed an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court on Thursday arguing that marriage is a fundamental right that should not be denied to gay and lesbian Americans. That is nearly double the number of Republicans … Continue reading
How to Cure U.S. Electoral Dysfunction
Donald Trump isn’t entirely wrong about a rigged election system. It’s just not in the direction he thinks. That’s why America needs election reform now. In the closing weeks of this insane campaign, Donald Trump has railed against a rigged … Continue reading
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Oscar Likes His Political Flicks Real – CNN.com
With a crop of political movies in the Oscar running, this weekend Hollywood is looking more like Poliwood. Best Picture contenders such as “Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Lincoln” have managed to pay off at the box office even as … Continue reading
Tea party’s anti-Rove ‘Nazi ad’ – CNN.com
You would click on the link, and there you’d find the Tea Party Patriots’ mailer, calling for liberty and asking for money, decrying “big-government Republicans” and “leftist Obama Democrats” alike. But the real target of this particular pitch was none … Continue reading
Joe Biden’s Shotgun Approach to Politics Good for Obama Administration – The Daily Beast
In the pop-culture presidency of the Obama administration, Joe Biden plays an outsize role. He’s the goofy white uncle, loose-lipped and earnest to a fault, who recently became the subject of an Onion biography that imagines the teetotaler as a … Continue reading
The PowerPoint That Proves It’s Not Obama’s Sequester After All – The Daily Beast
With deep sequestration cuts just days away, Congress is on vacation. But they’ve still got plenty of time to play the blame game. The latest semantic spin is to call the looming $1.2 trillion in cuts, which could throw the … Continue reading