The Week: Most Recent Democratic Party

Hillary Clinton's 'coolness offensive': 4 highlights

The Week — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:17:00 -0400

How does Hillary Clinton top a popularity-solidifying month in which she responded good-naturedly to an internet meme and uncharacteristically partied down in South America, ingratiating herself with a gaga liberal press and young Dems? By "out-charming a charming actor," says Noreen Malone at New York. Jason Segel, star of The Five-Year Engagement, appeared on Jimmy Fallon's talk show last Thursday, and recounted Clinton's unexpected reaction to his joking suggestion that she co-star in his next film: She wrote him a witty rejection letter, the sort of move that's delighting progressives. Here...

The John Edwards trial: 4 key questions

The Week — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:00:00 -0400

Disgraced two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is finally getting his day in court. Edwards, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004, went on trial in North Carolina Monday for allegedly using nearly $1 million in unreported campaign contributions to cover up an affair with his one-time campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter. Edwards' lawyers say he didn't break campaign finance laws because he used the money to hide the affair to avoid humiliating his cancer-stricken wife, the late Elizabeth Edwards, not to further his 2008 bid for the presidency. If convicted, Edwards...

John Edwards in exile

The Week — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:39:00 -0400

LAST YEAR JOHN Edwards sat with a longtime friend in the 10,000-square-foot house that is the centerpiece of his 102-acre Chapel Hill, N.C., estate. The friend, a New Jersey lawyer named Glenn Bergenfield, who had attended law school with Edwards, was one of the select few members of a diminishing club: those whom the disgraced Edwards wanted to see, and those who wanted to see him.

Sometimes Bergenfield just listened. Edwards, under criminal indictment, always talked about his children and often of his late wife, Elizabeth, and, after a while, he usually got around to the matter of Rielle...

Newark's Cory Booker: America's most overachieving mayor?

The Week — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:36:00 -0400

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., takes feeling your pain to a whole new level. This week, he suffered smoke inhalation and second-degree burns after bravely storming into a burning house to save a woman's life. The former tight end on Stanford University's football team (and a Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law grad to boot) later said that the experience was "terrifying," but that he felt "blessed" that everyone in the house was alright. Booker's daring rescue is just the latest example of him going above and beyond the call of duty. Here, five reasons to think he's America's hardest-working civil...

Can Bob Kerrey help Democrats hold the Senate?

The Week — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:01:00 -0500

In a stunning reversal, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) has reportedly decided to jump into the race for the Nebraska Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ben Nelson, who decided to retire rather than face a tough re-election battle in conservative Nebraska. Kerrey, who said just three weeks ago that he wouldn't run, has yet to confirm his plans, although his former campaign manager says Kerrey is reconsidering. The filing deadline is Thursday. If the popular former governor and senator does run, he would almost certainly offer Democrats their best shot at holding onto Nelson's seat in November...

What's next for Gabrielle Giffords?

The Week — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:07:00 -0500

Amid tears and applause from her colleagues, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz) resigned from the House on Wednesday, a year after she was shot in the head during a Tucson shooting rampage that killed six people. After the House unanimously passed the last piece of legislation that she submitted before she was shot— a bill that would increase prison sentences for smugglers flying drugs in from Mexico on ultralight aircrafts — Giffords received an emotional standing ovation from her congressional colleagues. "It's cliché to say there wasn't a dry eye in the room," says...

Gabrielle Giffords' 'bittersweet' resignation video

The Week — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:29:00 -0500

The video: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) has announced in a moving YouTube video that she will resign her House seat this week so she can focus on recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head. Giffords was one of 19 people shot — six were killed — at a constituent meet-up in Tucson last January. "I don't remember much from that horrible day," Giffords says in a halting voice (watch the clip below), "but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice." The widely admired Arizonan, almost certain to win re-election in November had she chosen to run...

Tucson shootings: One year later, has America learned anything?

The Week — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:17:00 -0500

A year after suffering a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) led hundreds of people in the Pledge of Allegiance on Sunday in an emotional ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Tucson shootings. Many participants wept as two 10-year-olds talked about their friend, Christina-Taylor Green, who was one of the six people killed. Some cheered as Giffords' husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, said that the 13 people who survived their injuries proved that "alongside human frailty there is also strength." In the wake of the tragedy, politicians and citizens...

Ben Nelson's planned retirement: A big blow to Dems?

The Week — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:15:00 -0500

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have trouble hanging onto his majority title in the 113th Congress. On Tuesday, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) became the latest moderate Democrat (following Kent Conrad and Jim Webb, among others) to announce that he won't seek another term in the 2012 election. Nelson, who faced an uphill battle for a third term, is the sole Democrat in Nebraska's five-member congressional delegation, and many political analysts believe his red-state seat could now be a relatively easy Republican pickup. The GOP is working hard to wrest control of the Senate from the Dems in 2012...

The Left's wrongheaded anti-Semitism debate

The Week — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:49:00 -0500

A blogosphere spat is revealing an important fracture in the Democratic Party and liberal institutions.

The spat erupted nearly a week ago. The website Salon.com published a story reporting that Josh Block, a former spokesman for AIPAC, America's pro-Israel lobby, had collected a trove of provocative quotes from anti-Israel bloggers.

Here's Justin Elliott's breathless Salon lead:

The former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is shopping a 3,000-word trove of opposition research against bloggers critical of Israel to friendly neoconservative journalists.

I've...

Barney Frank's retirement: Proof Dems are scared of 2012?

The Week — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:20:00 -0500

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says Democrats are aiming to regain control of the House of Representatives in 2012, but their mission is getting a lot harder. On Monday, liberal hero Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announced that he won't run for re-election, ending a colorful, 16-term career. Frank isn't alone. So far, 17 House Democrats have decided to bow out next year. Eight are going for bigger political jobs, but nine, including Frank, are simply retiring. Seven House Republicans are opting not to seek re-election, but every one of them is running for higher office. Are Democrats...

Barney Frank's planned retirement: 'The end of an era'

The Week — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:18:00 -0500

The video: It's "the end of an era." Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announced on Monday that he won't run for re-election in 2012, ending a groundbreaking and colorful congressional career after 16 terms and three decades in office. (Watch Frank's speech below.) The 71-year-old Democrat first won his House seat in 1981, and was the country's first openly gay congressman. Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 until 2011, Frank was instrumental in the 2010 passage of a sweeping financial reform bill that represented "the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since...

In defense of Jon Corzine

The Week — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:47:00 -0500

Friendship has its claims; so does fairness. And in the wake of the bankruptcy of brokerage firm MF Global, the media's portrayal of Jon Corzine, MF's ex-CEO and a former Democratic senator and governor in New Jersey, strikes me as profoundly unfair — and not just because he's a friend.

Corzine, one of the most principled and capable people I met in 40 years in politics, is a genuine progressive who ran for office for all the right reasons. He did so many right things. And now he's been turned into a poster boy for all that's wrong with Wall Street. Jon Stewart called Corzine...

Gabby Giffords speaks: Her 'brave' first interview

The Week — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:45:00 -0500

The video: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) has given her first televised interview since being shot through the left side of her brain in January. Sitting alongside her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, Giffords talks to ABC's Diane Sawyer about her long recovery, lack of anger at alleged shooter Jared Loughner, hopes to become a mother, and vague plans to return to Congress when she is "better." (Watch a clip below.) In the interview, which first aired Monday night, the Democratic congresswoman speaks clearly but in halting sentences, using short phrases like "tough as nails," "living...

Tuesday's 'surprising' elections: 3 lessons

The Week — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:31:00 -0500

Off-year elections are often quickly forgotten in the build-up to a coming presidential contest. Still, despite the usual low turnout and lack of national contests, Tuesday's balloting provided important insights into the political parties' strengths and weaknesses heading into the 2012 campaign. What lessons should politicians take to heart?

1. Voters are angry about "Republican overreach"
Tuesday was a big night for Democrats, says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo. The GOP pushed its agenda hard after its landslide win in 2010, and voters on Tuesday decisively rejected "Republican overreach...

Election Day 2011: 4 key questions

The Week — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:53:00 -0500

Americans are casting ballots Tuesday in an off-year election that could provide a revealing glimpse of the public's mood as the 2012 electoral campaign kicks into high gear. Are voters in crucial swing states showing a preference for Democrats or Republicans? Which contests will shed light on President Obama's chances of beating the ultimate GOP nominee? Here, four key questions to consider:

1. Where is Ohio leaning?
On Tuesday, the Buckeye State will decide the fate of Republican Gov. John Kasich's controversial anti-public union bill. Polls suggest Democrats will score a big win on this referendum...