Sandy Levin, a veteran Democratic congressman from a heavily unionized district in suburban Detroit, has a problem. Crowded into his Capitol Hill office are a couple dozen union representatives who have come to talk to him about China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). It’s a testy, uncomfortable moment; the union reps are not […]
Joshua Marshall
Joshua Micah Marshall is the editor of Talking Points Memo and a senior correspondent for the Prospect.
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Buchanan’s Bite
Not so long ago, Democrats just loved the idea of third-party candidates who came along and shaved points off the margins of major party nominees. The offices at the Democratic National Committee echoed with schadenfreude last fall when Pat Buchanan jumped ship for the Reform Party. But now, with Ralph Nader making a strong showing […]
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Long Knives for the Naderites
November 2nd, 2000 — Long Knives for the Naderites If you think that liberals and lefties in Washington, DC are agonizing about Ralph Nader’s candidacy, you’re mistaken. In recent days the mood has turned almost entirely to thoughts of payback — though it’s not entirely clear what form of retribution the party’s liberal wing can […]
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Making the Case Against Ralph
August 21, 2000 — Who’d a Thunk it?: The AFL-CIO is probably not the first party interest group the Democratic Leadership Council’s Al From looks up when he wants tips on who should be next chairman of the DLC. But John Sweeney apparently isn’t waiting to be asked. Roll […]
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Party Crashers
As with most political battles, the set-to over Social Security reform has produced competing dramatic narratives. For the Democratic faithful, there’s Al Gore fighting the good fight against the right’s effort to privatize Social Security, the crown jewel of the New Deal. For Republicans there’s George W. Bush, courageously tackling the Social Security crisis while […]
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Payback Time
If you would strike at the king, said Machiavelli, kill him. The underlyinglogic here applies to democracies as well as monarchies. If you put your all intobringing down a presidential candidate and come up short, expect him to come atyou–hard. And that pretty much describes organized labor’s current predicamentwith George W. Bush. Though the percentage […]
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The Firewall Next Time
Harry Dent assures me that George W. Bush is going to win big in South Carolina on February 19. “He’s Mr. Handsome,” the South Carolinian recently told me, “got a gorgeous wife, good family. And he believes in Jesus Christ. That’s pretty strong down here.” Dent should know. A longtime adviser to the state’s nonagenarian […]
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Let’s (Not) Make a Deal
“I love a 50-50 tie,” Senator John Breaux of Louisiana told me recently. “This is the kind of thing you dream about being involved in. It’s a mandate for getting things done.” And, boy, does he want to get things done. Breaux has a reputation in the Senate as a consummate deal maker, a people […]
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How Congress Acts
America’s Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere, James Madison through New Gingrich, by David R. Mayhew. Yale University Press, 257 pages, $30.00 Why was the Clinton health care plan rejected by Congress in 1994? Was it because of big-money lobbying from the health insurance industry? Or was the plan doomed from the first because Americans–anti-statists […]