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The Senate confirmation hearings on the proposed appointment of John Ashcroft as attorney general offered little respite from a season of political bad news. First, it seems clear now that, barring some unforeseen last-minute development, Ashcroft will be confirmed. This alone would be bad enough — a conjoining of fearsome power with reactionary politics. The […]

One frequently cited reason for the Democrats’ uninspired response to George W. Bush’s $1.6 trillion tax cut plan is that they’re no longer privy to the White House’s staff of number crunchers. There once was a time, under President Clinton, when these tax wizards worked on behalf of Democrats. They’d run the numbers for the […]

So who will be in charge of the most powerful nation on Earth come January? Neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore. The new center of power in Washington will lie with the moderates in both parties–liberal-leaning Republicans and conservative-leaning Democrats who together will be the only ones capable of setting Washington’s agenda. A president […]

Last night, President Clinton gave his final State of the Union address. Clinton was expected to use the speech to burnish his record for the history books while pumping the campaigns of both his vice president, Al Gore, and his wife, Hillary Clinton. The American Prospect asked the experts to give us their take on […]

“George and Laura Bush also own two cats, Willie, who is coal black, and six-toed Ernie, an orange-and-white feline. Ernie is named for Ernest Hemingway, who also owned a six-toed cat.” — Austin American Statesman, September 2, 2000 E arlier this month, the Bush campaign revealed its latest slogan: “Real Plans for Real People.” […]

What is the matter with the Democrats? They are rolling over in a blissful haze of bipartisanship, while George W. Bush appoints a hard-right Cabinet and pursues a hard-line program. It’s like a country after a bloodless coup d’etat. Daily life goes on. The tame media makes soothing noises. Rituals of democracy endure. The out-party […]

The London Observer The consensus among political junkies and talking heads on this side of the Atlantic is that Al Gore’s pick of Joe Lieberman as his running mate saved Gore’s tush. But the new Gore-Lieberman brand has yet to be tested. And the first big test is whether it will fall into the trap […]

Tuesday, as their party sold its constituents down the river on the John Ashcroft nomination, Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton publicly recited the Edgar Allen Poe poem “The Raven” to their counterparts from Maryland. The New York senators had lost a bet over the Superbowl — in which the New York Giants […]

After prolonged coyness, George W. Bush has finally announced that he has tapped Richard B. Cheney, former George Bush defense secretary, to be on the Republican ticket. Bush had said he wanted a “forward-looking administration,” but then picked one of Daddy’s dinosaurs. Bush had once promised that his veep choice would be an “electrifying” one […]

Within a day or two, the U.S. Supreme Court may reverse last Friday’s decision by the Florida Supreme Court and thereby effectively end Al Gore’s chances of becoming president in January. It would be deeply hypocritical — and wrong, moreover — were Democrats to question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s decision, however objectionable it […]