Archive for August, 2009

Senator Grassley who has been stringing the Democrats along for months in the health care debate has been spending his August recess doing everything he can to derail the entire process. First he tells his constituents that they should “be afraid” of the Democratic plan and that it would “pull the plug on grandma”.... »

The recent arrest of Harvard Professor Skip Gates has generated an intense debate among the media on the issue of race in this country. When the story first broke the instinctual reaction for some was that this arrest must have been about race. Why else would a black man be arrested in his own... »

It is hard to imagine that Sarah Palin has been in the national spotlight for less than one year. It seems that she has dominated the news cycle far more than any Governor of a small state or even a former vice presidential candidate could or should. To most of us on the left,... »

I have heard many in the news media refer to the Supreme Court hearings on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination as boring and having very little real news value. Chris Mathews and Peggy Noonen even complained that she was “over coached” and stiff. A boring and uneventful nomination hearing was exactly what the President wanted for... »

As I watched the Supreme Court hearings the last couple of days, I was surprised but not shocked that the Republican Senators were being so tough on Sonia Sotmayor. It seemed, at first, to be completely counterproductive for the Republicans to continually repeat the same attacks over and over again with no expectation of... »

The dictionary defines a politician as: “a person experienced in the art or science of government”(the most generous definition) and a statesman as: “a person who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of a government or in dealing with important public issues.” Sarah Palin by no stretch of the imagination can be thought of as... »

There has been much talk about Dick Cheney’s motives for continually speaking out about President Obama’s policies making us less safe. Yesterday and today, for example, Leon Panetta was quoted as saying “It is almost like he wants this country to be attacked”. Ed Shultz has taken it even farther and truly believes that... »

Pat Buchanan has resurfaced as a reliably conservative sound bite machine for MSNBC this week over Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee. Pat seems to be singularly focused on the one issue of the white firefighters who filed a discrimination suit against New Haven Ct. The case, and Sotomayor’s ethnicity has combined for him into a... »

The day just wouldn’t be complete without a quick note about Rush Limbaugh. Rush predictably chimed in with his unique vision of Sonia Sotomayor. Rush just couldn’t help himself and had to make it all about race. The very fact that Sotomayor is Hispanic became the sole reason Obama nominated her and in turn,... »

While the right wing pundits spent time beating their chests and spitting into the gale force winds that constitute the Sotomayor nomination, the left were so confident in ultimate victory in this battle that they could spend their time analyzing the right’s strategy and tactics. Chris Mathews Hardball made it quite clear that the... »