Happy Labor Day! I will return from my week-long hiatus from posting shortly. I’ve been exceptionally busy - I’m getting reacclimated to living in D.C., adjusting to a new apartment, and taking classes. I’ve also recently become a fellow at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. I couldn’t have joined at a better time - the [...]

Gov. Charlie Crist has bucked all wisdom and tapped George LeMieux to fill Florida’s open Senate seat. The LeMieux pick makes sense on paper - he’s the closest ally Crist has and is willing to act as a placeholder - but the decision in reality is both reckless and misguided.
LeMieux can expect to face many [...]

Ted Kennedy, the Senate’s “liberal lion” and a champion of progress, has passed away at age 77. His leadership and compassion will be missed.

The Miami Herald has posted George LeMieux’s Senate application form, and it answers a number of questions. First off, the Republican Party of Florida has in fact paid LeMieux $150,000 as a consultant for the past 13 months. The money has been paid to LeMieux’s consulting firm, MTC Strategies.
When I asked RPOF press secretary Katie [...]

Watching CNN’s video (via Steve Benen) of Sen. Tom Coburn’s absurd response to a woman’s desperate pleas for help for her ailing husband got me thinking.
Isn’t Coburn - a government bureacrat and practicing doctor - the epitome of everything we’re being told we should fear? How can he of all people claim the government shouldn’t [...]

Last week, Chris Christie thought it was unfair that Gov. Jon Corzine would attack him for failing to disclose a $46,000 loan he had given to a former colleague, because Corzine was previously dogged by a similar situation.
Yesterday, Christie issued a press release attacking Corzine’s tenure as CEO of Goldman Sachs, a part of his [...]

Markos looks at the findings of a Research 2000/Dailykos survey of Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper’s Tennessee district, with a focus on health care, and concludes that it’s time to “cue up a primary challenger.”
Cooper fired back: “Private polls are inherently inaccurate, and most people disregard them. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and [...]

Gov. Charlie Crist cannot seriously be considering the appointment of George LeMieux to the Senate seat vacated by Mel Martinez. Such a move would undoubtedly bring new scrutiny to LeMieux’s improper business dealings with the state that Crist, despite his supreme confidence in his own invincibility, cannot afford.
No one has profited off of the Crist [...]

Jim Towey, who once authored a commentary entitled “Why I’ll Miss President Bush,” writes in the WSJ that, under President Obama, the Department of Veterans Affairs has started advocating again an end-of-life planning document called “Your Life, Your Choices” which, to cut costs, tries to convince veterans that they don’t want to live anymore. Which [...]

Liberals are mad at Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) for crafting health care legislation in the Senate Finance Committee that does not include a public option. Liberals are also mad at Baucus for refusing to cut Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) out of the Gang of Six’s negotiations, even after Grassley called President Obama and House Speaker [...]