Oh, waa-aah. Cry me a goddam river, you obstructionist piece of dog poo. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is very upset at President Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Although the Senate is not in recess, President Obama, in an unprecedented move, has arrogantly circumvented the American people by ‘recess’ appointing Richard Cordray […]

This is a public service announcement from the Eclectablog Online Media Group (OMG): A week ago tomorrow, while everyone was getting ready for the holidays and not paying that much attention, THE REPUBLICANS TOTALLY CAVED IN TO THE DEMOCRATS! Image courtesy of Daily Kos I just wanted to be sure we don’t forget that because it seems to me that […]

I traveled to Europe in the waning days of the 2008 election and, in fact, wrote a piece for Huffington Post about my experience including watching the last presidential debate between at 3:00 a.m in a little hotel in Gemona, Italy. My [business] trip started in Brussels, Belgium. My first clue that American politics reach firmly across the Atlantic ocean […]

Keeping a tax break for the majority of Americans in place just like Republicans fought for on behalf of skabillionaires last year was, of course, “the right thing to do”. A clear no-brainer, barely worth the breath it takes to discuss it. One would have thought all those House Republicans that signed the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise taxes […]

Oh, my. Who could ever have thought that Republican members of Congress would turn out to be hypocrites about earmarks? At the beginning of the 112th Congress, a wave of Republicans swept into control of the U.S. House of Representatives, pledging fiscal restraint. One of the first policy changes instituted by the new Republican majority was to institute a moratorium […]

Ezra Klein makes a truly interesting point this morning with regards to the failure of the Deficit Commission “Super Committee”. Their failure to come to an agreement and the trigger pulled by that outcome is a dream situation for progressives. Imagine if the Democrats offered Republicans a deficit deal that had more than $3 in tax increases for every $1 […]

Turns out the Republicans’ retaliatory efforts to recall Democrats in Michigan was just an effort to collect contact information. Yesterday, Michigan Republican Party ended its recall drives against Democrats. Michigan Republicans have halted their efforts to recall state Democratic lawmakers, a spokesman said today. Stu Sandler, a consultant to the Michigan GOP who was organizing more than a dozen recall […]

Apparently Michigan Governor Rick Snyder didn’t get the memo. From a Mackinac Center-sponsored event a couple of weeks ago, here is the Governor speaking about keynote speaker Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels during his introduction: But when people were talking about people that should run for president, Gov. Daniels … really would have been an outstanding candidate. Again, I’ll be blunt, […]

We all knew it, right? But it’s especially painful to hear it put so bluntly. Rep. Loretta Sanchez from California: Interviewer: Harry Reid said yesterday, and frankly we’ve heard this from a lot of Democrats, the Republicans oppose the jobs bill for political reasons, that it helps them if the economy stays in bad shape. But, is that fair? Sanchez: […]

Senate Republicans today blocked a vote on yet another one of the components of President Obama’s jobs plan today. This one would have invested $60 billon in building and repairing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and was fully paid for by a 0.7% (!!!) surcharge on income over $1 million. A bridge too far for Republicans, apparently. Republicans in the Senate […]

I’m begining to come to the sad realization that our Republican-led US Congress is completely hopeless. They haven’t introduced a single jobs-creation bill but have time for all sorts of frivolities like honoring cheap, crappy fast food. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) on Tuesday honored White Castle with a congressional tribute to the “tasty little burgers” and the company that serves […]