State of Change

RNC Chair Dismisses His GOP Critics As "Mice"

By John Nichols

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele says he has a secret two-stage plan to reform and transform the party that has been battered by the voters in the last two election cycles.

He's not revealing any details.

But perhaps we can speculate.

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March 11, 2009

The Real Leaders of the Right

By Ari Berman

Now we know who the leaders of the Republican Party are: Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, Joe the Plumber and a 14-year-old from Atlanta.

In case you missed it, Jonathan Krohn, Bill Bennett devotee and budding author of "Define Conservatism," was a big hit at CPAC over the weekend and made the front page of the New York Times style section on Sunday.

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March 11, 2009

Just 5 Percent of Illinois Democrats Would Vote for Burris

By John Nichols

The man who was "elected" to the US Senate with one vote -- that of impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich -- would win 5 percent of the vote if his name were on the ballot for the seat he holds.

That's right. According to a new Zogby International poll of Illinois voters, Roland Burris could not count on the support of 95 percent of his fellow Democrats in a primary for the seat.

Does Burris just have a problem with members of his own party?

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March 10, 2009

Restoring Science to Its Proper Place

By John Nichols

President Obama got a lot of applause for declaring in his inaugural address that he would "restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost."

That was uplifting rhetoric, worthy of embrace and encouragement.

But the louder applause should come now, as the president follows through on his promise.

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March 9, 2009

Talking About Health Reform, But Not About A Cure

By John Nichols

Health care reform is a vital and engaging concern for America - and for Americans.

But you would not know it from Thursday's White House Forum on Health Reform, which was so narrowly focused and uninspiring that it almost made Hillary Clinton's bumbling efforts of the 1990s look good.

President Obama sounded some of the right notes:

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March 5, 2009

Axed

By Tom Engelhardt

Back in December, I wrote about the layoffs -- what a polite word for a terrible act -- then coursing through book publishing, my own business of more than 30 years. "When you get the word," I commented, "the call, the notice that you're a goner, or when your little world shudders, that's something else again. Even if the call's not for you, but for a friend, an acquaintance, someone close enough so you can feel the ripples, that can do the trick."

I had, by then, felt those ripples when Colin Robinson, an editor I admire, a Brit working for a large New York house, was axed. At the time, I wrote about his firing without using his name, but he's since written his own account of how he was tossed out (and what's happening to publishing) in the London Review of Books. "I'd hardly settled behind my desk," he begins, "when one of my bosses asked if I would join her in the corner office. 'Please close the door,' she said as I entered the room. Seldom a good sign. 'Why don't you take the comfortable chair?' Oh dear.")

Oh dear, indeed. He was gone the next day -- and what was his boss's last comment to him about book publishing? "She said that two words sprung to mind: General Motors." Indeed again. In fact, too much of American life has a GM look to it these days. Take journalism. Newspapers? Get your money out while you can. Last week, the Rocky Mountain News, almost a century and a half old, died ignominiously, as in the near future may the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the San Francisco Chronicle and other endangered species of papers. Last week as well, the Philadelphia Inquirer went into bankruptcy, just one of 33 U.S. daily newspapers whose parent companies have recently filed for it; and that's without even mentioning the rest of our papers radically cutting costs and staffs, hocking assets, or sinking into debt. If you needed one more hint about the way the wind was blowing, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reported that, "on Friday, the American Society of Newspaper Editors canceled its convention, saying too many members planned to stay home."

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March 5, 2009

Limbaugh Demands To Debate Obama

By John Nichols

Poor Michael Steele.

The Republican National Committee chairman picked a fight with Rush Limbaugh, lost and then apologized in a manner that confirmed the chairman's utter inconsequence and his dismal prospects for renewing a party that it is now clear he does not lead.

Limbaugh won't even be bothered to keep picking on him.

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March 4, 2009

GOP Chair to Rush: "You're The Boss!"

By John Nichols

Here's the latest from the not-exactly-sure-whether-it-wants-to-be-loyal opposition:

Rush Limbaugh, the nation's most verbose Republican, delivered a chest-thumping, eyes-popping denunciation of President Obama's efforts to renew the economy on Saturday:

"What possibly is in this that any of us want to succeed?" the radio ranter told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, leaving no doubt about where his patriotism begins and ends.

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March 3, 2009

Please Don't Squeeze the Old-Growth Forests

By Leslie Savan

Of all Charmin's wiping-challenged bear ads, this one stands out. It's less the stray pieces of wet tissue that have somehow become stuck across two-feet of bear butt than the strategically placed football--did Charmin's superwholesome parent company Procter & Gamble really animate a poop?

For several post-Mr. Whipple years now, Charmin ads have been demonstrating ever more detailed aspects of swabbing one's privates. Does paper migrate from the anus? They have the spot above or this slightly less graphic one for you. Are you torn between your desire for an extra strong or an extra soft tissue? They offer this ad (coming out before the election, it not so subtly suggests that red-staters crave strong and blue-staters, well, you know, they're soft on everything).

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March 2, 2009

Shouldn't MoveOn Oppose Obama on Afghanistan?

By John Nichols

MoveOn.org became a meaningful force in American politics when it emerged as a muscular network of activists that was willing to challenge not just Republicans but Democrats when they were wrong about foreign policy.

Democratic leaders in Congress might have been willing to compromise with the Bush administration on Iraq back in 2002. But MoveOn said "no."

And MoveOn was right.

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February 27, 2009