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John Murtha: The Old Soldier Who Said "Bring the Troops Home"
By John Nichols
Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, the old soldier who looked like and in so many ways was a member of the Democratic establishment of another time, broke with the leadership of his own party and the opposition Republicans at a critical point in 2005 to say it was time to bring the troops home from Iraq.
Murtha was a gruff warrior, with too many ties to defense-industry lobbyists and Pentagon insiders to number. He was the consummate insider, a Democrat who was more a part of the military-industrial complex -- for better and for worse -- than any Republican. For much of his career, he was a Democrat who was more liked by Republicans than by progressives in his own party.
Ultimately, that's what made his dissent so meaningful.
(73) CommentsFebruary 8, 2010
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Sarah Says It's "Absurd Not to Consider" A Palin Presidency
By John Nichols
Sarah Palin fed the Teapartisans in Nashville an appetizer of warmed over one-liners about taxes, spending and deficits that add up to "generational theft."
Then she gave the meat eaters what they paid for.
The star of the National Tea Party Convention demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder be bumped from his position.
(156) CommentsFebruary 7, 2010
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Meet Tea Partisan Tom Tancredo
By John Nichols
How politically credible are the leading figures in the Tea Party movement that is rallying this weekend at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville?
Don't ask a scared Democratic strategist.
Don't ask an embattled mainstream Republican.
(259) CommentsFebruary 5, 2010
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Donna Edwards' No Corporate Monopoly of Elections Amendment
By John Nichols
Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards turned to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis for guidance in framing the Constitutional amendment she proposed Tuesday as the right and necessary response to the decision by Chief Justice John Roberts and a high court majority to abandon law and precedent with the purpose of permitting corporations to dominate the political discourse.
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both," said Brandeis, the lion of law whose defenses of freedom of speech and the right to privacy renewed and extended the American experiment in the 20th century.
Brandeis knew that giving corporations monopoly power over our economic life or our politics would be deadly to democracy.
(207) CommentsFebruary 2, 2010
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Groundhog's Day Budgeting: Again, Obama Underfunds Job Growth
By John Nichols
The 2009 stimulus bill that was supposed to spur job creation at a sufficient rate to prevent double-digit unemployment might have done so if it had been approved at the level and with the focus intended by the serious players in the U.S. House who initially crafted a real response to the recession.
Unfortunately, under pressure from the Obama administration, which wanted to keep the price tag below $900 billion for reasons of spin, the better part of $100 billion in spending for jobs was squeezed out of the legislation. Then, in order to win the votes of three supposedly moderate Republican senators, the measure was rewritten in order to divert $326 billion from job creation to tax cuts.
As Oregon Democratic Congressman Pete DeFazio, the steadiest congressional advocate for infrastructure investment and tangible efforts to create and retain jobs, said when he cast a lonely vote against the final version of last year's stimulus bill:
(129) CommentsFebruary 1, 2010
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Calling Out "Not True" Alito
By John Nichols
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he said he would not bring a political agenda to the high court, became the unexpected "star" of State of the Union night by playing the part of the sullen teenager.
When President Obama expressed the concern of tens of millions of Americans that the court's 5-4 ruling in the case of Citizens United v. FEC had freed corporations to dominate our elections with unlimited special-interest spending, Alito grimaced and grumbled to himself. Then he clearly mouthed the words "not true."
The conservative judicial activist, who has used his position on the high court to advance precisely the sort of agenda he promised to avoid, got caught because the television cameras happened to focus on Alito at the moment when he was acting out.
(172) CommentsJanuary 30, 2010
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AFL-CIO Letter Details Role In, Position On Citizens United Case
By John Nichols
My January 24 column on the role of the AFL-CIO in the Citizens United v. FEC case highlighted the concerns of some unions regarding the federation's decision to file an amicus brief in support of Citizens United in its case against the Federal Elections Commission. The piece stirred a tremendous response and a great discussion about the Supreme Court's removal of limits on corporate campaign spending. In preparing the piece and since its publication, I've heard from heads of national unions that are affiliated with the AFL as well as leaders of state and regional labor federations and lots of individual union members. Today, I'll highlight a very critical response from a top lawyer for the AFL-CIO.
In my initial column, "Unions Can't Compete With Corporate Campaign Cash," I suggested that the AFL-CIO's decision to file a brief asking the court to invalidate the McCain-Feingold law's broadcast ban was unwise. I argued that unions would never be able to compete with corporate spending on the new political landscape opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling. And I highlighted the concerns of National Nurses United union executive director Rose Ann DeMoro, a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council who first contacted me about the issue and who declared that, "Equating what unions and working people could spend on campaigns would be like comparing a toy boat to an aircraft carrier."
Here's a link to the original piece.
(18) CommentsJanuary 29, 2010
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Obama's "Eager to See" Better Approach on Health Reform? O.K.
By John Nichols
President Obama renewed his call for health-care reform in his first State of the Union address but, as has been the case from the start of the current debate over how to get more medical care at less cost, he provided little in the way of leadership.
Rather, he suggested that, even at this late stage in the wrangling over reform, he is open to suggestions for how to achieve it.
Said Obama of what remains a vaguely-defined and ever evolving set of reform proposals:
(75) CommentsJanuary 28, 2010
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"I Never Suggested the Change Would Be Easy"
By John Nichols
Say what you will about Barack Obama.
But don't accuse the president of veering from the course he charted at a point when his term was new, his popularity ratings were high and Americans took seriously all that talk of "hope" and "change."
Despite the battering he has taken during his first year in the White House, despite suffering a serious drop in his personal approval ratings, despite the frustration and disenchantment that gave the Senate seat from the deep blue state of Massachusetts to the opposition Republicans, Obama used his initial State of the Union address to renew the call for the health care reform initiative that was the primary focus of his difficult first year in office.
(205) CommentsJanuary 27, 2010
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Obama's SOTU Test: Will He Be a Manager or a Leader?
By John Nichols
A new president gets a full year to prepare his initial State of the Union address.
That is a blessing and a curse.
An immediate address, given a week or two after the inaugural, would offer an opportunity to subtly blame everything on an inept, evil or crooked predecessor.
(132) CommentsJanuary 27, 2010
John Nichols
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