Your one stop pundit shop.
E.J. Dionne defends Michael Steele ... or at least, defends his right to be Michael Steele:
But the issue here is less about Afghanistan than about dissent in time of war. Even if Steele was just popping off, he had a right to offer his opinion without being accused of undermining our troops or "rooting for failure."
Some of our greatest leaders, from Abraham Lincoln to Robert F. Kennedy, courageously stood up against wars in their day. Steele is no Lincoln and he is no Kennedy, but as an American, he enjoys the same rights they had. "It is not enough to allow dissent," RFK said. "We must demand it." If members of Kennedy's party don't remember this, who will?
David Broder (surprise!) sobs about bipartisanship gone bad. Today's subject -- the budget.
Matt Miller on jobs versus the deficit:
I come before you, in other words, a deficit hawk to the core. But it is the height of economic folly -- and socially dangerous, in my view -- to elevate deficit reduction as a goal today over boosting jobs and growth. Especially when there are ways to goose the economy while at the same time legislating changes that move us toward fiscal sanity once we're past this stagnation.
Joan Vennochi on her home state Senator, Scott Brown:
During a recent meeting with Governor Deval Patrick and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Brown reportedly made a personal pitch for slot machines at the Plainville track owned by his friend, Gary Piontkowski ...
In Massachusetts, Brown has come under increasing pressure for continuing to block unemployment benefit extensions and other federal aid. In response, he introduced legislation that would use federal stimulus funding to pay for the unemployment assistance, as well as fund summer jobs and provide additional Medicaid funding. His math may be fuzzy, but his purpose is clear: to quell the hometown criticism — basically from Democrats — that he is overlooking the interests of Massachusetts residents in order to placate conservatives at the national level.
With slots, he is backing the interests of one very specific Bay State resident in a very direct way.
Joshua Green on the end of NASA's Shuttle program and more.
Ted Nugent continues to write moronic op-ed pieces for The Washington TImes, basing today's edition on a discredited screed by J. Christian Adama about voter intimidation, the New Black Panthers and the Department of Justice. Nugent asks:
Are there racist flames here? That's for you to decide.
Yes, there are ... Ted.
Joy-Ann Reid says that Jeff Greene is making inroads in Kendrick Meek's backyard:
Last week, Eric Thompson and local politico Roy Hardemon, veterans of the effort to reelect and re-reelect indicted District 5 Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, went rogue and endorsed Greene. Their Liberty City Democratic Network has no party charter and couldn't endorse in a primary if it did. Still, they plastered Liberty Square's Helping Hands Youth Center with Jeff Greene signs and brought out roughly 30 volunteers, some of whom struggled to explain why, in the heart of Meek's district, they were for Greene.
... even as he tries to make his case statewide, Meek has to answer for, and to, Liberty City -- for the failure of development 30 years after the riots, for the false promises and outright lies of the Dennis Stackhouses of the world.
That may be unfair, since the lack of progress in Liberty City (and Overtown) is as much, or even more, an indictment of local leaders as federal ones.
But some folks back home are running out of patience. Then along comes this billionaire. . .