If the 2012 elections proved anything, it's that words matter. Unfortunate comments about rape by Rep. Todd Akin (R) in Missouri and Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) in Indiana likely cost the Republican Party two Senate seats they otherwise would have won.
And Mitt Romney's infamous "47 percent" remarks may have cost Republicans the White House as well.
It was so bad that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) even urged his party last month to "stop being the stupid party."
With that in mind, here's a round up of the 10 most controversial comments — some inflammatory, some just plain crazy — made by Republican politicians in the first month of ... More»
February 3, 2013, at 2:40 PM
February 5, 2013, at 2:55 PM
In the few days since John Kerry resigned to become Secretary of State, five prominent Republicans have passed on the chance to run for his seat in a June 25 special election.
On the Democratic side, two well-known lawmakers, Rep. Ed Markey (D) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D), have launched their bids, setting up an April 30 primary.
Why the cold feet among Republicans?
One reason is timing. The candidate who wins in June will have to quickly gear up to run again in 17 months, when Kerry would have been up for re-election.
Another reason is the strong and heavily financed Democratic field of potential candidates who could run either this year or next.
But Massachusetts voters famously bucked their Democratic tradition a few years ago and elected Scott Brown (R) to fill the vacancy left by the death of legendary Sen.... More»
February 6, 2013, at 12:45 PM
After a disastrous election cycle for his super PAC, Karl Rove announced he's forming a new group — the Conservative Victory Project — with the sole purpose of ensuring that "electable candidates" emerge from the Republican primaries.
Rove pointed to candidates last year in Missouri and Indiana as justification for his new group. Rep. Todd Akin (R) and Richard Mourdock (R) both made extreme comments on rape and abortion that Rove and his allies believe caused the GOP to lose winnable races. The comments also hurt the Republican brand more broadly.... More»
February 10, 2013, at 2:30 PM
When hackers broke into former President George W. Bush's email last week, they found photographs of unfinished self portraits of the former president in the shower and the bath tub.
Bush apparently sent the photos to his sister, and though they were never intended for public view, the art critics have already weighed in. Bush was not a president known for self-introspection, and the find has many looking for clues into what the once most powerful man in the world thinks about himself and his record.
The Huffington Post says most formal art critics "were perplexed by the images."
Here are a few reviews:
New York Times: "The two paintings could be said to depict the introverted self-absorption for which Mr. Bush is known. Perhaps, he is trying to cleanse himself in a more metaphorical way, seeking a kind of redemption from his less fortuitous decisions ... More»
February 11, 2013, at 4:00 PM
With Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) giving the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address, many are asking if he's the answer to his party's electoral woes.
Time magazine even put him on the cover and asked if he's the Republican savior.
But there are three big reasons why it's unlikely the Florida senator is on a fast track to the presidency in 2016.
1. Republicans almost always pick the next guy in line.
Ever since the untested Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) lost in a historic landslide in 1964, the Republican Party has nearly always picked a nominee who has previously run for national office.... More»
February 14, 2013, at 12:15 PM
GOP strategist Mike Murphy argues in TIME magazine that President Obama is making a "titanic mistake" by governing as if his re-election campaign never ended.
He says that White House aides "are fundamentally misreading the political landscape if they think a barrage of fiery stump speeches and campaign-style advocacy will achieve anything in Washington. In reality, the it-is-always-a-campaign thinking will subvert any chance for a meaningful Obama success in his second term."
Murphy adds: "Showing the hubris of all things Obama, the White House has forgotten that while he won re-election fair and square with about 66 million votes, 61 million other ... More»
February 16, 2013, at 10:15 AM
Congress justified its absurdly low approval rating this week as Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary.
Hagel, who is perfectly qualified for the post, made the unforgivable mistake of disagreeing with his former colleagues while he was still in the Senate.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) candidly told Fox News that Hagel had committed the sin of saying President Bush was "the worst president since Herbert Hoover" and that the escalation in Iraq "was the worst blunder since the Vietnam War."
But Hagel's biggest mistake was that he was very "anti his own party, and people don't forget that.... More»
February 16, 2013, at 11:21 AM
During the heat of last year's presidential race, Mitt Romney declared, "I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite."
The statement sums up the Republican Party's strategy in dealing with President Obama. Without regard to the substance of the policy, the best politics is usually to just oppose the president.
During President Obama's first term, Democrats were genuinely mystified at how they ended up supporting a health care reform package which was once largely developed and championed by Republicans and yet got absolutely no Republican support.... More»
February 17, 2013, at 9:10 PM
Two-term presidents historically suffer from voters' six-year itch, when the president’s party loses a substantial number of House and Senate seats after a half dozen years in office.
But Democrats think it might be different in 2014.
National Journal obtained a confidential memo from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) which argues that his party is in a much stronger political position to start the 2014 campaign than in either of the last two cycles.
Israel directly rebuts the conventional wisdom that House Republicans have a near-lock on their majority at least until the next redistricting of congressional ... More»
February 19, 2013, at 3:00 PM
Republican voters must be steaming mad.
But they don't seem to show it despite the political malpractice of their party leaders over the last several years.
Republicans bet everything to defeat President Obama's health care reform plan — without ever offering a real alternative or working with Democrats to find common ground. Then they doubled-down on hopes the Supreme Court would overturn the law. They doubled-down again believing that voters would deny President Obama re-election and they could repeal the law. They lost every time. Now, the country will live under a health care law — for probably a generation or more — that could ... More»
February 21, 2013, at 9:55 AM
I've argued before that President Obama is not overreaching on his ambitious second-term agenda because a severely divided Republican Party gives the president more flexibility that his re-election vote margin might otherwise allow.
And now, two new polls suggest it's the Republicans who are overreaching.
A USA Today/Pew Research poll finds President Obama "starts his second term with a clear upper hand over GOP leaders on issues from guns to immigration that are likely to dominate the year. On the legislation rated most urgent — cutting the budget deficit — even a majority of Republican voters endorse Obama's approach of seeking tax hikes as well as spending cuts."
Greg Sargent points out that on every one of the major issues facing Congress — with the exception of the proposed assault weapons ban — the GOP position is ... More»
February 21, 2013, at 2:55 PM
Despite the rhetoric about how damaging the automatic spending cuts mandated to take effect on March 1 will be, the debate on Capitol Hill isn't really about spending cuts at all.
In fact, President Obama has already proposed more spending cuts that the sequester would guarantee — including to Social Security and Medicare programs — if the Republicans would just agree to close certain "tax loopholes."
Why wouldn't Republicans want greater spending cuts in return for additional revenue?
It's because the sequester fight is about protecting current low tax rates on capital gains and dividends and keeping open the carried interest loophole that hedge fund and private equity managers use to reduce their own tax burden.
In other words, President Obama would agree to greater spending cuts if only Republicans agree to raise revenue by spreading ... More»
Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political websites. He also runs Wonk Wire and the Political Dictionary. Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and COO of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. senator and governor. Goddard is also co-author of You Won — Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including The Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor. Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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