How do you reach for something that doesn’t really exist? In Connecticut, the state Republican Party is trying to figure out a way to pull off the same con Massachusetts Republicans pulled off nearly four years ago: Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is the most popular governor in the land, a wonky Republican with a business […]
Martha Coakley
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Jones Act: Lessons from Alabama
I was wrong. I didn’t think Doug Jones had a chance in hell. I figured that at the end of the day, the Alabama electorate would give the guy with the (R) next to his name the benefit of the doubt, no matter how corrupt or craven. I figured that too many voters would be […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Is Doug Jones Doomed?
You may recall that in the aftermath of Bob Dylan’s controversial experimentation with gospel music, there was a brief period of time when some gospel acts enjoyed some success among “secular” audiences. One such act was a group known as the Clark Sisters, who had a fairly popular tune called “Expect Your Miracle”: I’m looking […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Moore’s the Pity: The Moral Horror of Alabama’s GOP Senate Nominee
C’mon. Despite the revelations of this past week, despite the polls showing his Democratic opponent ahead (remember those polls last November showing Hillary Clinton ahead of Donald Trump?), you might as well start calling him Senator Moore right now. It seemingly still has not dawned upon rational and logical Americans just how deep the rabbit […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Is the Right’s Lack of Empathy a Pre-Existing Condition?
You probably know somebody like this. You heard them complain in 2009 about “what Barack Obama’s doing to health care in this country.” They considered it an unconstitutional takeover of a critical part of the economy. They thought Sarah Palin nailed it when she talked about death panels. They agreed with Rush Limbaugh when he […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Southern Discomfort: The Enemies of Jon Ossoff
When it comes to special elections, this is usually the time right-wingers smell blood…and try to draw some, too. One month from today, the runoff election in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel will take place. Between now and June 20, Ossoff will become the right’s Public Enemy No. […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Pay Any Price: Jon Ossoff and the Georgia Resistance
Imagine the horror that will be felt by the right if it happens. They assume it can’t happen. They assume Jon Ossoff, the Georgia Democrat surging in the special election to fill the Sixth Congressional District seat vacated by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, will come up short, and a reliable Republican hack […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Mis-Education of America (or, How Trump Won the Big Game)
It is altogether fitting that the United States Senate rammed through Betsy DeVos’s confirmation as Secretary of Education at the same time thousands of fervent football fans were attending the New England Patriots victory parade in Boston. Perhaps if this country paid less attention to overpaid sports “heroes” and more attention to this country’s political […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
This is What You Call Getting It Terribly Wrong
Almost as bad as the mainstream media’s pre-debate obsession with normalizing Donald Trump is the Fourth Estate’s fixation on promoting the idea that there are still reasonable, moderate Republican politicians in this country, that the GOP hasn’t completely gone goofy, that the party isn’t consumed by cynicism. Case in point: the questionable coverage of a […]
