Joe Scott 3: The Body Politic

Why Republicans Are Salivating

09 April 2013 |permalink | email article

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of the Nation magazine, has got it right. On the very day that a bleak jobs report showed just how feeble the recovery is, the White House revealed that the president will… read full story

A Fine Line in Congress

08 April 2013 |permalink | email article

Obama’s three major priorities are shaping up as test cases for how he and Republicans will work together—or not—in his second term. While he is said to be actively involved in the immigration talks behind the scenes because of… read full story

Obama’s Plan: A Very Tough Sell

06 April 2013 |permalink | email article

Already criticized by friends and foes alike President Obama admits his soon to be released plan on Wednesday is “not ideal” but offers “tough reforms” and scuttles some tax breaks for the wealthy. It’s a mix, he contends, that… read full story

Obama’s Worst Week

05 April 2013 |permalink | email article

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza reprised Corey Flood in the classic 1980s film “Say Anything.”“Be a man. Don’t be a guy.“The President forgot that life lesson during a speech at a fundraiser in the San Francisco suburbs. He sang… read full story

Gun Lobbyists Who Pack Guns

03 April 2013 |permalink | email article

Once upon a time The National Rifle Association supported background checks for gun owners. No more. As The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank pointed out the organization’s security guards were back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday when the NRA rolled… read full story

Rubio’s Immigration Fear

02 April 2013 |permalink | email article

The Florida senator’s little intervention into the immigration bill basically was designed to achieve two obvious goals: to block Sen. Chuck Schumer from public framing of the issue, and to tell the Beltway Crowd that he’s the one driving… read full story

Right-Wing Conservativism in California

01 April 2013 |permalink | email article

What was once the a moderate party of Dwight Eisenhower was transformed into a radical right-wing organization we see today, was largely born in California. Paul Krugman, the liberal columnist, has pointed out that the Golden State, even more… read full story

A Partnership to Rebuild America

30 March 2013 |permalink | email article

When FDR became president in 1933 one of his first tasks was to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work. He announced the creation of a Civil Works Administration under Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins. CWA took $400 million… read full story

Questions on Enforcing DOMA

28 March 2013 |permalink | email article

The Supreme Court’s conservative bloc is aggressively asking a question: why is the Obama administration not defending the Defense of Marriage Act, even as they continue to enforce it? The Wall Street Journal reports that Chief Justice John Roberts… read full story

Supreme Court, Obama, Syria

27 March 2013 |permalink | email article

A new ABC News-Washington Post poll indicates fifty-five percent of Americans overall hold a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, which this week is hearing arguments on gay marriage, a major civil rights issue. That’s despite some less-than-poplar recent… read full story

Supreme Court: Rightward Shift?

26 March 2013 |permalink | email article

A new Pew Research Center poll shows conservatives think the Supreme Court is a bunch of liberals, while liberals think the court is a bunch of conservatives. The Washington Post raises the question about who is right, and looks… read full story

Guns Showdown: Bloomberg vs. LaPierre

25 March 2013 |permalink | email article

The chief executive of the National Rifle Association said Sunday that his organization would lead a national campaign against efforts by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York to persuade Congress to adopt tougher gun restrictions. The mayor and… read full story

How Bush’s Foreign Policy Revived The Democrats

24 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat pointed out Barack Obama didn’t just benefit from the zeal that entered the Democrat Party through the antiwar movement; he also benefited from the domestic policy vacuum left by Bush’s Iraq-ruined second… read full story

Shame on Harry Reid

22 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson slammed the Democratic majority leader for killing any prospect of any assault weapons ban. Even though President Obama spoke in his State of the Union address last month with fiery eloquence about the cost… read full story

Assault Weapons Ban; Iraq War

20 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who 35 years ago discovered the bullet-riddled memory of gay activist Harvey Milk has a long memory. So it was no surprise that she reacted with anger on Tuesday that gun control legislation… read full story

NFL and Pro Football in L.A.

19 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Reluctant billionaire Phillip Anschutz now says he’s willing to talk with the NFL about a stadium in downtown Los Angeles. The NFL says it’s ready to talk to Anschutz. “I think it’s a positive that Phil Anschutz is reengaging,”… read full story

Assessing GOP’s Terminal Illness

18 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Republican National Chairman Reince Preibus dislikes the word but that’s what he labeled his four-month examination of his party’s 2012 defeat. It turns out he believes in truth in labeling. As Salon’s Joan Walsh reports, Priebus’s investigation leaves the… read full story

Sarah Palin’s Newest Puppet

17 March 2013 |permalink | email article

The former Alaska governor and losing Republican vice presidential candidate made a sweeping pep talk at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Saturday, blasting President Obama and Beltway Republican candidates that are promoting traditional candidates over insurgents… read full story

Francis: A Shift Away From Rome

14 March 2013 |permalink | email article

The new pope is the 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church, the first from Latin America, and the first member of the Jesuit order to lead the church. “My brother cardinals have chosen one who is from away, but… read full story

New Dawn in Roman Catholicism

13 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Frank Bruni, the New York Times reporter who has been covering the cardinals to the Sistine Chapel in search of the next pope raised this question: Will the next pope chart a course of truly significant change for the… read full story

Ryan’s Make-Believe Budget

12 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Four months after Republicans suffered convincing defeat in the presidential election, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s vice party-s vice presidential nominee, unveiled a spending-and-tax plan that relies on the same lightening rod proposals of his 2012… read full story

Keystone Oil Pipeline Plan

11 March 2013 |permalink | email article

President Obama is under increasing pressure to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline even though the State Department’s latest environmental assessment makes no recommendation. Eager Republicans, joined by some Democrats in some western states, are pushing hard but… read full story

Murdock and the L.A. Times

10 March 2013 |permalink | email article

News Corporation’s new publishing company’s will receive a $2.6 billion infusion of cash and have no debt when it separates this summer from the company’s higher growth cable channels and Hollywood studio. On Friday a filing with the Securities… read full story

CPAC: No Longer Relevant?

08 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Attendees at the annual conservative confab known as CPAC won’t get to hear from New Jersey Gov. Christ Christie or Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell because neither one was invited. One person they will see is Donald Trump. His appearance… read full story

Cheney Fights The Old Wars Again

07 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Just as rational people were beginning to consider him a relic of the past the former vice president is reemerging from the shadows. Columnist Maureen Dowd nailed it by suggesting that Dick Cheney gives certainty a black eye. In… read full story

Roger Mahony in Rome

06 March 2013 |permalink | email article

The Los Angeles Cardinal, in the Vatican for talks ahead of a conclave to elect a new pope to succeed Pope Benedict, has defended his record on sexual abuse in the church. But he has refused interviews in recent… read full story

Rick Perry Under Fire

05 March 2013 |permalink | email article

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is under intense pressure from hundreds of uninsured Texans today to switch his stance on expanding Medicare, a major provision of President Obama’s health care overhaul. It’s a comedown from his position last July when… read full story

How Obama Missed The Boat

04 March 2013 |permalink | email article

It’s hard to imagine but it took a daredevil HBO executive to figure out a way to get his country into North Korea. Michael Lombardo, a partner in the Brooklyn media firm, planned a trip to the secretive kingdom… read full story

Why Hagel Wiil Be Confirmed

15 February 2013 |permalink | email article

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a vote to confirm Sen. Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, arguing that Democrats were trying to rush a choice that they think needed more time to consider. In a 58-to-40 vote that broke… read full story

Obama vs. Rubio: New Tea Party Star

13 February 2013 |permalink | email article

Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night vowed to lift the economy for the middle class, calling on Congress to seek a higher minimum wage and aggressive action on immigrants, climate and guns. Speaking to a divided Congress,… read full story

Rubio’s First Big Test

12 February 2013 |permalink | email article

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz told reporters in a Monday conference call that Republicans—Marco Rubio specifically, and the majority of both Senate and House Republicans—that we should turn Medicare into a voucher program—that Medicare is not a program that’s… read full story

Tea Party: ‘Suicide Conservatives’

11 February 2013 |permalink | email article

Charles M. Blow, the New York Times columnist, said there used to be a political truism: Democrats fall in love, while Republicans fall in line.” It’s no longer true. Democrats have learned to fall in love and fall in… read full story

Rubio Gets The Call

08 February 2013 |permalink | email article

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, will deliver the Republican response to the president’s State of the Union address on Feb. 12. It’s now clear that the nation is in the midst of a Rubio moment, raising intense speculation about a… read full story

India, China and Egypt

07 February 2013 |permalink | email article

In New Delhi, Thomas L. Friedman is comparing India without someone asking you to compare it to China. This visit is no exception, but I think it is more revealing to widen the aperture and compare India, China and… read full story

A Filibuster That Failed

06 February 2013 |permalink | email article

The filibuster against the nomination of Chuck Hagel has blown up despite the frantic one-man effort by Sen. Lindsay Graham to convince President Obama that he is wrong for the job as secretary of defense. Notably, Graham’s buddy, Sen.… read full story

Too Far Right To Win?

05 February 2013 |permalink | email article

The biggest donors in the Republican Party are speaking out and recruiting a new group of seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders fret could complicate the party’s effort to… read full story

Hagel Confirmation

04 February 2013 |permalink | email article

Amy Davidson, writing in The New Yorker, asked Sen. Joe Manchin (D. West Virginia) to describe how Chuck Hagel ended up in Vietnam after joining the infantry in 1967. He was assigned to a select and secret team that… read full story

Destroying Chuck Hagel

01 February 2013 |permalink | email article

President Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense came under bizarre attack from conservative Republicans at his Senate confirmation, notably from his old friend, Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is still smoldering about their break over the Iraq… read full story

“Yes You Can” and “Yes You Must”

31 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Thomas L. Friedman, perhaps the most prescient writer about the annals of American politics today, wrote in the New York Times on Wednesday that he hopes in his second term President Obama will be able to devote more attention… read full story

Hillary: Leaving The Door Open

30 January 2013 |permalink | email article

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Hillary Rodham Clinton said she is “not inclined” to run for president in 2016 but left the door open for what is widely considered her likely return to politics after she steps down… read full story

Why 44 Picked Hagel

29 January 2013 |permalink | email article

In the first months of the Obama presidency in 2009, Chuck Hagel, who had just finished two terms as a U.S. senator, visited the White House to visit the friend he had made during the four years they overlapped… read full story

Nieman Journalism Lab

28 January 2013 |permalink | email article

With The Tribune now out of bankruptcy the question is whether the newspapers will now be sold as a group or separately? Combining print/digital operations, though, as the Sun-Times could do in Chicago or several buyers could do in… read full story

Hillary In 2016?

25 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Steve Kornacki writes about politics for Salon, and his piece about Hillary Clinton’s hours of testimony before both Senate and House committees about how she masterfully handled it. One wonders, after four years as Secretary of State, just the… read full story

Congressional Battle Over Gun Rights Nears

24 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Wayne LaPierre, the executive director of the National Rifle Association, accused President Obama on Tuesday of demonizing law-abiding gun owners and suggesting that he wants to put “every private personal firearms transaction under the thumb of the federal government.”… read full story

Harsh Criticism From Far Right

23 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Americans for a Strong Defense, a group devoted to crushing former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination as the next Secretary of Defense, has announced multi-state television advertising. The ad notes the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, as… read full story

Climate Change: 44’s Second-Term Priority

22 January 2013 |permalink | email article

President Obama made addressing climate change the most prominent policy vow of his second inaugural address on Monday, setting in motion what Democrats say will be a deliberately paced but aggressive campaign built around the use of his executive… read full story

One Helluva Time

21 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Four years ago, on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, The New York Times Magazine devoted nearly an entire issue to a photo essay, “Obama’s People”. The photographs, 52 of them, depicted a team arriving on a wave of… read full story

Biden’s Political Capital

18 January 2013 |permalink | email article

IN an interview The New York Times Magazine published Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden reflected on his feelings about the vice pr4esidency when he presided over the troop withdrawal in Iraq. It’s not a particularly great job, but I… read full story

Guns, Kids And The NRA

17 January 2013 |permalink | email article

The National Rifle Association has launched a pre-emptive strike, personal attack on President Obama, calling him an “elitist hypocrite” who, the group claims, is putting American children at risk, ABC’ Devin Dwyer noticed in a 35-second video posted on… read full story

Schumer Moves Toward Hagel Nomination

16 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Robert B.Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration and now Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, has weighed in on the battle between the neocons vs. Chuck Hagel. It is the Republican neocons who brought us the… read full story

Rebutting The ‘Deadbeat Nation’ Slur

15 January 2013 |permalink | email article

WHEN President Obama said at the last news conference yesterday in his first term was “we are not a deadbeat nation” it caught a lot of people’s ears. Many may not know that he was referring to freshman Republican… read full story

The Rage of ‘Patriot’ Groups

14 January 2013 |permalink | email article

A Collection of far-right conservative groups have declared Jan. 19, during the week-end celebration of President Obama’s inauguration and Martin Luther King’s birthday, as Gun Appreciation Day. The event chairman, Larry Ward, sounded the battle cry: “The Obama administration… read full story

Climate Change Is Real

12 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Economist Joseph Stiglitz recently opined that he believes climate change is the most important issue facing the U.S, economy today. The Huffington Post cited several facts which prove Stiglitz is right about the subject. By 2020 it is projected… read full story

Obama Takes On NRA

11 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Vice President Biden said on Thursday he sees an emerging consensus around “universal background checks” for all gun owners and a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines as he completes the Obama administration’s broad study of ways to curb the… read full story

Chuck Hagel, Under Attack Again

10 January 2013 |permalink | email article

Chuck Hagel, a Republican former senator from Nebraska whom President Obama has nominated for secretary of defense, faces another battle—as a maverick who was once a foot soldier in the conservative Congressional ranks. Myra MacPherson, a journalist, is the… read full story

Remembering Richard Ben Cramer

09 January 2013 |permalink | email article

The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter was the author of “What It Takes,” a stirring account of the 1988 presidential campaign that has been widely hailed as among the finest books about American politics, died Monday night in Baltimore. He was… read full story

Obama Picks Hagel, Divisive Choice, For Defense

08 January 2013 |permalink | email article

JOHN McCAIN’s stunning hypocrisy in view of President Obama’s nomination of former Republican Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense suggests anew that decency is a dying art in American politics. No example is clearer than McCain’s past… read full story

White House Plan: Defeat NRA With Quick Victory

07 January 2013 |permalink | email article

The White House and gun control supporters are gearing up for a whirlwind month, with plans to pass reform legislation before the Sandy Hook massacre has a chance to fade. Talking Points Memo reported that Vice President Joe Biden… read full story

Ryan’s Take Defending Fiscal Cliff Vote

04 January 2013 |permalink | email article

THE Wisconsin Republican joined a minority of his fellow House Republicans this week in voting for the fiscal cliff deal that allowed tax rates to rise on the op one percent of taxpayers. For the next two days he… read full story

Boehner vs. Reid, and More

04 January 2013 |permalink | email article

HOUSE Speaker John Boehner’s four-letter-word blast at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is the latest nasty back-and-forth between warring Washington pols and confirms the decline of Capitol Hill civility. Both men are constitutional officers of the United States so… read full story

New Year: 2013

31 December 2012 |permalink | email article

And now let us believe in the long year that is given to us, new and untouched, full of things that have never been.—The poet Rainer Maria Rilke (d. 1926), inviting us in 2013 to new and unimaginable possibilities—fighting… read full story

Over The Brink?

29 December 2012 |permalink | email article

“WE just can’t afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy,” President Obama said Saturday in his weekly address. “The housing market is healing, but that could stall if folks are seeing smaller paychecks. The unemployment rate is the… read full story

Neocons, Dems Muster To Take Hagel Out

28 December 2012 |permalink | email article

Connie Bruck, the brilliant New Yorker writer, has written a number of lengthy pieces touching on California politics in recent years. Currently, she has another provocative piece, Chuck Hagel and His Enemies, in the magazine. In his latest battle,… read full story

Giving Hagel A Chance

27 December 2012 |permalink | email article

PRESIDENT Obama is considering appointing Chuck Hagel, a former United States senator from Nebraska and a Purple Heart winner, as the next secretary of defense—a possibility that has unreleased a minifirefight among Hagel critics and supporters. Thomas L. Friedman,… read full story

Tea Party Turns To Fringe Issues

26 December 2012 |permalink | email article

HAS the Tea Party, a once-surging movement which nearly captured control of the Republican Party, become a distraction?  Fury and populism have been replaced by leading Congressional Republicans who, while they are far to the right of President Obama,… read full story

Romney’s Latest Excuse: “No Desire” To Run?

25 December 2012 |permalink | email article

The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart got a real scoop, noting that Tagg Romney, the eldest son of Mitt Romney, who wanted to take a swing at President Obama after the second debate, made an unbelievable revelation in an interview… read full story

NRA: Dismissive Of Obama, Congress

24 December 2012 |permalink | email article

“THE ONLY THING that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,“ said a defiant Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s vice president who, after a weeklong silence following the Connecticut school shootings, in calling… read full story

Humor

22 December 2012 |permalink | email article

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In an extraordinary gesture of recognition for a losing Presidential candidate, Time magazine today named former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Man of the Year 1912.

In a press release explaining its decision, Times editorial board… read full story

Scott Brown: The Comeback Kid?

21 December 2012 |permalink | email article

SEN. SCOTT BROWN (R-MA), lost his seat following his November defeat by Democrat Elizabeth Warren but a poll released Thursday indicates that the moderate Republican may be well-positioned for a shot at political redemption. Conducted by MassNC Polling Group… read full story

Christie Too Tough; Booker Opts For Senate

20 December 2012 |permalink | email article

Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) has decided not to challenge Gov. Chris Christie (R) in 2013, choosing instead to seek Democrat Frank Lautenberg’s Senate seat in 2014. Sources said Booker decided not to challenge Christie whose reputation went sky… read full story

Obama Hits Social Security In Fiscal Cliff Offer To Wealthy

19 December 2012 |permalink | email article

The first Washington Post-ABC poll since President Obama’s reelection six weeks ago indicates 54 percent of all Americans say they approve of how he is handling his job—his highest mark in nearly two years, other than a momentary high… read full story

Push for New Gun Laws Grows

18 December 2012 |permalink | email article

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is already drafting anti-assault weapon legislation while some Congressional Democrats, in the wake of the Newtown killings, showed signs on Monday of a more aggressive push on gun control, while Republicans and gun rights advocates remained… read full story

Obama: Tragedies Must End

17 December 2012 |permalink | email article

THE DAY before the massacre of 20 school children by a gunman at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. lawmakers in Michigan—despite the objections of the state’s school board—allowed people to carry concealed weapons in schools. If that was… read full story

Tragedy and Evil

16 December 2012 |permalink | email article

ON FRIDAY, a 20-year-old gunman identified as Adam Lanza, killed 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10. He also killed his mother, a kindergarten teacher at the school, and committed suicide.  President Obama, visibly… read full story

Rice Drops Bid for Secretary of State

14 December 2012 |permalink | email article

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton on Thursday. In her letter to President Obama she said “I am convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly. The tradeoff is… read full story

Kerry Instead of Rice?

13 December 2012 |permalink | email article

Lloyd Grove reports in The Daily Beast the working assumption among some well respected members of Washington’s foreign policy community is that, .in the end, Obama will nominate John Kerry, the easily confirmable chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations… read full story

Right to Work: Michigan Follows GOP Path

12 December 2012 |permalink | email article

WHILE Republicans finally succeeded in getting novice Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to sign a bill limiting the power of labor unions President Obama denounced the idea. “You know these so-called right-to-work laws, they don’t have much to do with… read full story

Susan Rice and African Despots

11 December 2012 |permalink | email article

ON Sept. 2, Susan Rice, the United States’ representative to the United Nations, and said to be President Obama’s choice to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, delivered a eulogy for a man she called “a true friend… read full story

Supreme Court: Scalia vs. Kennedy

10 December 2012 |permalink | email article

THE defining battles within the Supreme Court for more than two decades over social and moral controversies have been fought between two devout Catholics appointed by President Reagan. Justice Antonin Scalia believes the law can and should enforce moral… read full story

Clinton, Rubio Lead in 2016

07 December 2012 |permalink | email article

HILLARY is the dominate 2016 primary favorite if she decides to mount a president campaign in 2016, while Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) leads the GOP field, according to a new survey from Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling, The Hill reports.… read full story

2016 Stars Rubio and Ryan Surface

06 December 2012 |permalink | email article

THIS week two emerging Republican stars, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis), laid out visions for the Republican Party as it focuses on upward mobility. Both spoke at the Jack Kemp Foundation’s Leadership Award Dinner, The… read full story

Democratic Group, Tax Plan, Big Payoff

05 December 2012 |permalink | email article

Democratic luminaries with ties to the Obama and Clinton administrations, including two former Treasury secretaries and two former White House chiefs of staff, centered the tax debate on Tuesday, with an overhaul plan that would raise an additional $1.8… read full story