Joe Scott 3: The Body Politic

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  Fury and populism have been replaced by leading Congressional Republicans who, while they are far to the right of President Obama,… read full story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

House GOP Still Doesn’t Get It

04 December 2012 |permalink | email article

House Republicans late Monday afternoon made a counteroffer to President Obama on the fiscal cliff negotiations, proposing to cut $2.2 trillion with a combination of spending cuts, entitlements and $800 billion in new revenue. The leaders delivered the offer… read full story

How the GOP Lost the Silicon Valley

03 December 2012 |permalink | email article

Since George H. W. Bush won Napa County in 1988 Republicans have lost every county in the Silicon Valley by double-digit margins. As Nate Silver has pointed out the left tilt has left the GOP in a tech gap.… read full story

The New Yorker: Humor

02 December 2012 |permalink | email article

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A trio of Republican senators today blasted U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for misleading the American public, which, in the words of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R.S.C.), “has traditionally been our job.” “Ambassador Rice has been engaged in… read full story