Paul Waldman

From CNN: Energy giant BP has hired a Washington-based, bipartisan political consulting firm to produce its new aggressive national advertising push, including a national TV spot released Thursday, CNN has learned. Sources familiar with the arrangement say that Purple Strategies, headed up by veteran political consultants Steve McMahon, a Democrat, and Alex Castellanos, a Republican, […]

Interesting announcement from The New York Times: The New York Times said Thursday that it would begin hosting the popular blog FiveThirtyEight and make its founder, Nate Silver, a regular contributor to the newspaper and the Sunday magazine. Mr. Silver, a statistical wizard, became a bonafide media star during the last presidential election season for […]

A while back, the Obama administration tried to convince Joe Sestak not to run in the Democratic primary against Sen. Arlen Specter, suggesting that it might give him some sort of position on an unpaid commission. Republicans have been torn by the question of whether this rather mundane bit of political deal-making was just worse […]

Jon Stewart has a riff about how some people think that adding “No disrespect” to something they say can make even the most offensive statements acceptable. “Your mother’s a whore — no disrespect.” That’s essentially the position Newt Gingrich is taking. On the one hand, he has a new book out, which is all about […]

The Sunlight Foundation just announced the winners of its Design for America contest, in which they asked designers to come up with innovative visualizations of government data, and things like redesigns of government websites. Not every one will change your life, but there are definitely some great ideas there. For instance, look at the proposal […]

When the House passed a defense authorization bill last week, the big news was that an amendment providing for the repeal of the ban on gays serving in the military was included. But there was something else notable about it too: the price tag. The bill came to $726 billion. In a break from the […]

The momentum continues: Congress has taken two big steps toward ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. In quick succession Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the full House approved measures to repeal the 1993 law that allows gay people to serve in the armed […]

We have a conceit in this country that the closer power gets to “the people,” the more virtuous it is. Your local town council members are fine upstanding folks, your state legislature is still close enough to be “in touch,” but those people up in Washington don’t know or care a darn bit about you, […]

As you may have heard, the Republican Party is enthusiastic about the fact that 32 African American Republicans, a record number, are running for Congress this year. But they may not be so enthusiastic about one of the people leading the recruiting efforts: Timothy Johnson, the vice chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. As […]