Steve Benen

If it seems as if Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) frequently struggles with the basics, it’s because he does. Brown also took on President Barack Obama for proposing tax hikes on families who earn more than $250,000 per year, saying that would hurt “teachers, firefighters, policemen, folks who work two jobs.” Asked which public servants earn […]

It was 39 years ago yesterday that the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ruling, and not surprisingly, every Jan. 22 since has been an occasion for both sides to note the anniversary. In a White House statement, President Obama said, “[W]e must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s […]

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday and argued that President Obama’s policies “have actually made our economy worse.” Then he said it again. And again. All told, the House Republican repeated the claim five times in one interview (and in each instance, host Chris Wallace offered no pushback whatsoever). For […]

As of a couple of weeks ago, it looked as if House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was eager to avoid another fight over the payroll tax break. The issue had done considerable damage to his caucus in December, and Boehner reportedly didn’t see much of an upside to once again positioning Republicans as fighting for […]

We covered a fair amount of ground over the weekend. Here’s a quick overview of what you may have missed. On Sunday, we talked about: * Mitt Romney looks like he’s caving on tax returns, but there’s a catch: he’ll only disclose materials going back to 2010. * With the eyes of the political world […]

Watching Mitt Romney discuss his willingness to disclose his tax returns, it’s been hard not to marvel at the rapid evolution. It was only about a month ago when he was asked whether he’d release his tax returns, and Romney replied, “I doubt it.” About a week later, he said he’d “consider” disclosure. Then he […]

With the South Carolina primary having come and gone, leaving us with a surprisingly competitive nomination fight, the stakes in Florida’s Republican presidential primary have reached new heights. A Romney win in the Sunshine State would restore his frontrunner status; a Gingrich victory in Florida would set the stage for a wide-open fight heading into […]

The exit polls out of South Carolina were pretty fascinating. Exit poll results found that nearly two-thirds of Republican primary voters called the debates important to their vote, and they favored Gingrich over Romney by a vast 50-22 percent. More than half of voters also decided in just the last few days — more than […]

Earlier this week, the race for the Republican nomination had one thing going for it: simplicity. Mitt Romney had already won Iowa and New Hampshire — or so we thought at the time — and he was well positioned to cruise to an easy victory in South Carolina. On Tuesday, Nate Silver crunched the numbers […]

The voting in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary will wrap up in about a half-hour, so it’s time for another primary night open thread. I’ll update this post a little later tonight — I’m actually going to be away from my desk for much of the early evening — but in the meantime, let’s open […]