We covered a fair amount of ground over the three-day weekend. Here’s a quick overview of what you may have missed.
On Monday, we talked about:
* Today’s conservative activists see themselves as the direct ideological descendents of the Founding Fathers. To put it mildly, their historical perspective is deeply flawed.
* Some Senate Republicans want the participants in the debt-reduction talks to present their plans publicly. That’s actually not a bad idea.
* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is convinced that in the debt-reduction talks, “[T]he American people … don’t want compromise.” McCain has no idea what he’s talking about.
* Sens. John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham dominated the Sunday shows. It was, in other words, a typical Sunday.
On Sunday, we talked about:
* Mitch McConnell says Senate Republicans are united in opposition to no new revenues. That’s not quite true.
* Mitt Romney thinks the closing of the Allentown Metal Works plant in Allentown helps bolster his economic case. He actually has it backwards.
* The public’s confusion about the basics of American history — when the Declaration of Independence was signed, which country we rebelled against — is discouraging.
* Herman Cain says he’s not “going down this color road” when it comes to attacking President Obama. Apparently, though, Cain just can’t help himself.
* Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) understands Grover Norquist’s agenda, and the GOP failures of the last 10 years, very well.
And on Saturday, we talked about:
* As president, Reagan supported raising the debt ceiling without preconditions and lowering the deficit with tax increases. Today’s Republican Party has, in other words, turned its back on the Reagan legacy.
* When a political party is against the ideas they’re for, bipartisanship is literally impossible.
* There are a handful of GOP elder statesmen, who are no longer in Congress, who don’t seem impressed by their party’s current trajectory.
* Let’s not forget, we tried the Republican approach to governance. It failed spectacularly. Why has the political world forgotten?
* In “This Week in God,” we covered, among other things, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) struggling to explain why he believes liberals, by their nature, “hate God.”
* A new administration report helps underscore an unpopular truth: economic growth is slow, but it wouldn’t exist at all were it not for the 2009 stimulus.
