Steve Benen

Paul Krugman, in his column today, highlights a series of blatant lies from Mitt Romney, and notes that the Republican presidential candidate “seems confident that he will pay no price for making stuff up.” It’s what happens when we enter an era of “post-truth politics.” Why does Mr. Romney think he can get away with […]

It hasn’t been a good month for the GOP and election fraud. Two weeks ago, a Maryland jury convicted a Republican official who oversaw illegal voter-suppression tactics in the 2010 election. This week, a state judge found that Indiana’s Secretary of State, Republican Charlie White, not only committed voter fraud in 2010, but wasn’t even […]

Brent Bozell, head of a right-wing outfit called the Media Research Center, appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” last night, and chatted with guest host Mark Steyn about various media figures they don’t like. It led to a noteworthy exchange. The far-right personalities were complaining about MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who complained on the air that Newt […]

Well, he wanted to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. And with leading status comes scrutiny. First it was the racist newsletters. Now it’s the direct mail advertising them. In a signed appeal to potential subscribers in 1993, Ron Paul urged people to read his publications in order to prepare for a “race war,” […]

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that won’t necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Former President George H. W. Bush informally threw his support to Mitt Romney yesterday, saying the former governor is “not a bomb-thrower,” and is “the best choice” for Republicans. * Newt […]

Congress sure can move quickly when it wants to. Late yesterday, House Republicans caved to Democratic demands and agreed to accept a slightly-tweaked bipartisan compromise from the Senate. This morning, just to move the process along, the Senate preemptively approved the tweaked version by unanimous consent. Less than an hour later, the House took up […]

Mitt Romney seems to think his strongest issue in a general-election race against President Obama is jobs. I’d argue he has that backwards. In an interview with TIME Magazine’s Mark Halperin, Romney said, “I know that the Democrats will try and make this a campaign about Bain Capital…. 25 million people are out of work […]

PolitiFact made a credibility-killing mistake this week, choosing a claim for its Lie of the Year that, upon further reflection, happens to be true. I didn’t intend to return to the subject, but PolitiFact Editor Bill Adair, clearly aware of the criticism, published a follow-up defense yesterday. I won’t go through Adair’s piece in detail […]

In Minnesota, the state Senate Majority Leader, Republican Amy Koch, recently resigned from her post after getting caught in the middle of a sex scandal. It appears Koch, who is married, engaged in an “inappropriate relationship” with a subordinate staffer. Yesterday, Koch received a stinging “apology” from Minnesota’s LGBT community. (thanks to reader J.W.) The […]

This week was Round One of a larger fight, and for Democrats, it was a win on points. For the next two months, Dems got the middle-class tax cuts they wanted and the clean extension of unemployment benefits they wanted. It’s not a bad way to wrap up the year. The next question to consider, […]