Mark Kleiman

I really, really hate it when the argumentum ad hominem gets paraded in clinical dress. For example, “Opponents of gun control are compensating for feelings of sexual inadequacy” or “Opponents of gun laws are all drug abusers.” I’m even uncomfortable for “homophobia” as a parallel label to “racism” or “sexism” or “anti-Semitism,” because it converts […]

Maybe it’s all kabuki, but when Judd Gregg, who knows the breed, says out loud that the House Republicans won’t see reason on the debt ceiling until the Social Security checks stop going out, it’s time to look around for bolt-holes. Have you heard about the trillion-dollar platinum coin? It’s a completely imaginary solution, which […]

When Casey Anthony was acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, the verdict was widely denounced by law-’n’-order types. Having not paid any attention to the trial, I didn’t venture an opinion; at a glace, my best guess is that she probably did it in fact but that the jury didn’t see enough evidence to convict […]

Mitch McConnell, who passes, these days, for a sane Republican politician: The reason default is no better an idea today than when Newt Gingrich tried it in 1995 is that it destroys your brand. It would give the president an opportunity to blame Republicans for a bad economy. Please note: a bad idea not because […]

Richard Nixon’s message to Congress usually cited as the beginning of the “War on Drugs” does not in fact include the phrase “war on drugs” or “drug war.” It does mention “an effective war against heroin addiction.” It does use lots of military metaphor. It does embrace the supremely silly idea of replacing all opiate […]

Unless I see a transcript, I refuse to believe that Barack Obama said that to Eric Cantor. Not because it sounds testy; I think we’re going to see a lot of Obama’s testy side between now and what I expect to be a Republican capitulation that will both leave the GOP formed in a circular […]

The Chicken Little impressions now being done by the liberal commentariat – typified by JZ’s “Is Obama a Repubican or a moron?” post – reminds me of early September, 2008, when the post-Palin boom briefly carried McCain into the lead in the polls and everyone and his uncle suddenly became an expert on what the […]

Ever wonder how Republicans can justify to themselves rejecting one proposed debt-ceiling compromise after another, even when the proposals are grossly skewed toward their priorities of further enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor and the middle class? Steve Benen explains it: to a hostage-taker, returning the hostage alive is his part of the bargain; […]

The Republican Party continues its descent into madness. A group run by Huckabee’s Iowa state chair in 2008 has come up with a “Marriage Vow” – a loyalty oath to the most extreme wingnuttery – that it’s going to ask all Presidential contenders to sign. They have to promise unending hostility not only to gay […]

What makes Mormon beliefs fair game for mockery in the minds of some journalists?A local Fox News reporter decides to ask random voters whether they’d vote for a candidate “who believes that if he’s a good person in his religion he will receive his own planet” (in the afterlife). He follows up with a question […]