Scott Lemieux

MASS. ROMANTICS. The Massachusetts legislature has rejected the proposed constitutional amendment calling for the revocation of gay and lesbian marriage rights and the restoration of bigotry by a 151-45 vote. It should be noted that this is precisely the opposite of what was predicted by proponents of the countermobilization myth, people for whom it’s never […]

CLINTON’S INTRAGENDER GAP. Riffing off this poll and this piece by Dana, Matt asks why Clinton has such a huge majority among progressive women — enough to make her a solid primary favorite — which doesn’t carry over among more conservative women. This is an important question, because if Clinton can’t change this it could […]

MORE ON THE OBEY COMPROMISE. Lindsay Beyerstein has some follow-up reporting on the compromise that increased funding for “abstinence-only” recently discussed by Ann: Even opponents of abstinence-only education might concede that a few extra million for abstinence education is a small price to pay for easing the passage of a very important domestic spending bill […]

AGAINST AUTHENTICITY. I was busy Monday and forgot to mention Krugman‘s great column. Bob Somerby summarizes for the non-Select: “Authenticity” became the press corps’ favorite buzz-word in 1999, along with its silly handmaiden, “comfortable in his own skin.” And let’s state the obvious: When the press corps adopted such subjective markers as key standards of […]

JUSTICE DANGLED AND WITHDRAWN. Radley Balko noted yesterday that Genarlow Wilson — who was convicted to a ten-year prison sentence for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old when he was 17 — had his sentence reduced to less than time already served yesterday by Judge Robert H. Wilson (no relation). However, he unconscionably remains in […]

POLITICS OF RESENTMENT: EDWARDS CONSULTANT DIVISION. Several people have already commented about the self-immolation of Mudcat Saunders‘ poor-poor-pitiful-rural-Democrats shtick at Swampland. Obviously, substantive engagement with someone who declares that “I don’t care what the “Metropolitan Wing” of my party thinks. I don’t like them,” while in the same paragraph claiming that the Strawman Resentment Built […]

THE DEMOCRACY/SECURITY CONFLATION. Beyond the obvious, what’s puzzling about Ken Baer‘s attack on Ezra is this claim: “[s]ome even go so far as to excuse the Iranian regime, the better to deny the very existence of a threat.” Even leaving aside Baer’s hackish misrepresentation of Ezra’s position, he’s conflating two very different questions. First of […]

THE TRAP. As a follow-up to J.‘s post below, I actually have a certain grudging respect for the position expressed by Brownback. The rape and incest exemptions favored by many anti-choicers give away the show; they make it clear that what’s doing the work is not the moral status of the fetus but the moral […]

HARDLY WORKING. In addition to ignorance of basic facts about Iraq noted by Ezra below, in the most recent debate Mitt Romney defended his flip-flop on “don’t ask don’t tell,” arguing that, “It’s been the policy now in the military for what, 10, 15 years, and it seems to be working. And I agree with […]

HOW BAD PROVISIONS GET PASSED. Several bloggers (including TAPPED’s own Ann Friedman) have discussed the dismal fact that Congress is proposing an increase in funding for useless abstinence-only sex ed. programs. According to a (subscribers-only) Congressional Quarterly report, the increase in funding was part of a deal to obtain leverage to fund other domestic priorities […]