John Nichols

As Maine Goes… a Bipartisan Call to Overturn 'Citizens United'

John Nichols on May 1, 2013 - 2:15 PM ET

An activist in New York City. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

When the Maine State House voted 111-33 this week to call for a constitutional amendment to overturn the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the support for this bold gesture was notably bipartisan. Twenty-five Republicans joined four independents and all eighty-two Democrats to back the call.

How Voter Backlash Against Voter Suppression Is Changing Our Politics

John Nichols on April 29, 2013 - 4:16 PM ET

Early voting in Ohio, November 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

As the 2012 election approached, Republican governors and legislators in battleground states across the country rushed to enact restrictive Voter ID laws, to eliminate election-day registration and to limit early voting. Those were just some of the initiatives that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People identified as “an onslaught of restrictive measures across the country designed to stem electoral strength among communities of color.”

CISPA Is 'Dead for Now,' Thanks to a Left-Right Coalition for Online Privacy

John Nichols on April 26, 2013 - 4:01 PM ET

A web surfer in silhouette. (AP Photo)

What brings the most seriously libertarian Republican in the US House, Michigan’s Justin Amash, together with Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota?

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Searching for the Praetorian Guard at the George W. Bush Museum

John Nichols on April 25, 2013 - 1:08 PM ET

Dick Cheney and other senior administration officials at a meeting in George W. Bush's Oval Office. (Reuters/Larry Downing)

George W. Bush’s presidency began on a note destined to inspire skepticism.

Exit of Wall Street–Friendly Max Baucus is No Loss for Democrats

John Nichols on April 23, 2013 - 1:41 PM ET

Max Baucus talks with reporters on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Montana Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat who frequently clashed with his party’s economic populists as the Wall Street–friendly chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, will step down at the end of his current term.

What 'The Boston Globe' Got Right and Why It Should Change How Papers Think

John Nichols on April 20, 2013 - 1:37 PM ET

The Boston Globe’s online homepage. (www.bostonglobe.com)

When editors at The Boston Globe recognized that their city had been bombed by suspected terrorists who were still at large, they immediately mustered a substantial and experienced newsgathering team to cover one of the most tragic, frightening and unsettling moments in the long history of a great American city.

Paul Ryan's Austerity Agenda Relies on Bad Math, Coding Errors and a 'Significant Mistake'

John Nichols on April 18, 2013 - 12:24 AM ET

Paul Ryan touts his 2012 federal budget plan. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Paul Ryan’s numbers are wrong.

A Robin Hood Response to the Austerity Lie: Tax Wall Street

John Nichols on April 17, 2013 - 10:59 AM ET

Congressman Keith Ellison. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

America is not broke, despite what advocates for austerity would have us believe.

Boston and a History Borne on the Night Wind of the Past

John Nichols on April 16, 2013 - 12:53 AM ET

Faneuil Hall, Boston. (Flickr/Tony Fischer)

It happened that I was scheduled to do a Boston radio show Monday afternoon. We were going to talk about national politics. But the deadly bombing at the Marathon changed everything, not just in Boston, but nationally.

Obama's Chained-CPI Social Security Cut Is Smart Politics... for the GOP

John Nichols on April 14, 2013 - 11:48 AM ET

Representative Greg Walden. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The most misread—perhaps the proper word is “miscovered”—story of the current budget wrangling in Washington is that of Republican Congressman Greg Walden’s savage condemnation of President Obama’s proposal of the “chained-CPI” Social Security cut.