PARTY IN SEARCH OF A NOTION. Our fearless leader Mike Tomasky wrote the new cover story for the May print issue of the Prospect, a piece that offers a lengthy rumination on the lingering “philosophy gap” between the left and the right and a prescription for closing it. Mike delineates the two basic liberal traditions […]
Sam Rosenfeld
Sam Rosenfeld, a former web editor for the Prospect, is visiting assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University, beginning in September.
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Join the Fight Club
Complaining about how the rising tide of partisanship is ruining America has been Washington’s favorite lament for many decades now and, in a sense, Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin’s book Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives may be seen as little more than an old whine in a new bottle. […]
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MORE SHAKEUP! The…
MORE SHAKEUP! The hapless Scott McClellan resigned this morning as White House press secretary. The conventional rap on McClellan has long been that, in stark contrast to the near-sociopathic unflappability with which his predecessor Ari Fleischer could lie and stonewall on behalf of the president, he always showed the flop sweat and strain when doing […]
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On the Oregon Trail
Oregon’s statewide vote-by-mail system remains unique — for now. But with little fanfare, liberalized absentee balloting laws elsewhere have prompted a steady expansion of mail voting. In the process, popular support is growing, from the ground up. States are following the gradualist pattern of expansion first set in Oregon. Laws permitting at-will absentee registration in […]
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WHITE REPUBLICANS’ BLACK REPUBLICAN PROBLEM.
WHITE REPUBLICANS’ BLACK REPUBLICAN PROBLEM. Here’s an interesting preview of a forthcoming article by a Yale economist demonstrating that “white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black,” and that there is no noticeable boost in black voter turnout when […]
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OFF INTO THE…
OFF INTO THE SUNSET. Budget negotiations within the House GOP conference stalled last week over disputes between moderates, who wanted some boosts in spending, and the Republican Study Committee (RSC) folks, who were pushing for some of their usual litany of draconian caps and budget process changes. John Boehner and Dennis Hastert have pledged to […]
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DRAWING KNIVES? The…
DRAWING KNIVES? The Washington Post surveys veteran congressional handicappers and concludes that the Democrats’ chances of taking back the House in November remain very slim. I’ll let the Midterm Madness folks judge whether the piece is trustworthy or persuasive on the merits; needless to say, it remains the case that structural barriers still do render […]
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K STREET GIVETH……
K STREET GIVETH… Two amusing K Street-related notes regarding Tom DeLay‘s imminent retirement: First, see Jesse Lee for the latest on lobbyists getting a wee bit testy about DeLay converting the re-election campaign contributions they raised for him into funds for his legal expenses. �If I wanted to give to a legal fund, I would�ve […]
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THE BOMBTHROWERS’ LEARNING…
THE BOMBTHROWERS’ LEARNING CURVE. One more brief thing on Amy Sullivan‘s piece. On the question of Gingrich-style bomb-throwing and oppositional PR tactics, Amy emphasizes the degree to which Democrats have improved in the last year without getting much credit for it. While I’m on record calling out the Democrats for some residual lameness on the […]
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DEMOCRATIC “DISARRAY” –…
DEMOCRATIC “DISARRAY” — COMPARED TO WHAT? I’ll join with others in strongly recommending Amy Sullivan‘s bracingly counter-intuitive argument that the Democrats don’t actually suck. Amy is very right here. Much of her focus is on the mainstream media narratives that continue to portray Democrats as invariably weak, divided, and feckless. But MSM cluelessness is an […]
