2010 Congressional

Please don't let it be Big Bob!Please don't let it be Big Bob!That fervent prayer by Harold of "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" as he desperately hopes that sound of the approaching footsteps don't belong to a sadistic guard named Big Bob comes to mind when reading a New York Times article by Michael Luo. In Luo's case he is hoping that the Republicans won't gain significant…

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit mocked the curious turn of phrase National Public Radio Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving used on his Watching Washington blog to defend a recent NPR survey showing dire straits for the Democrats in the fall. Beneath the surface, the NPR poll was all about the tyranny of constituency, the down and dirty of serving the folks back home. House districts (and states'…

Between the ongoing Gulf oil spill and the McChrystal row, this story is bound to get put on the back burner, but it still deserves attention by the broadcast and cable news media.Yesterday I wrote about the Washington Post burying its story on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer saying that congressional Democrats were not wedded to President Obama's 2008 campaign pledge to not raise taxes on…

In a recent interview, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the Bush tax cuts that affect the middle class should not be considered "totally sacrosanct." The number two Democrat in the House of Representatives "acknowledg[ed] that it would be difficult to reduce long-term deficits without breaking President Obama's pledge to protect families earning less than $250,000 a year,"…

Liberals in the media frequently paint conservatives and Tea Party activists as pushing the GOP too far to the right to be electable in general elections. But the same complaint isn't repeated on an endless loop when it comes to leftist activists challenging more centrist Democratic incumbents in primary contests. In fact, in some of those occasions, the media find a way to cast aspersions on…

The BP oil spill - millions of gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, coastal businesses from Houston to Tampa shuttered, the potential for higher energy costs across the country and untold ecological damage. But according to Mother Jones magazine's David Corn, there is a silver-lining in all of this - that is, if you're a Democrat.  MSNBC's June 21 "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"…

Usually when you see something on the Center for American Progress' Think Progress blog, you ignore it (or at best take it with a grain of salt) because you know its fundamental objective is to score some inane point against conservatives or the Republican Party. But a June 21 post by Tanya Somanader, categorized as "Radical Right-Wing Agenda" was too hard to let go. In her post, "Fact Checking…

At first blush, it seems as if this item might be one to file under "It Takes One to Know One." That would be wrong; the circumstances are too different. Carly Fiorina took what she thought was a private swipe (which might not even have been a swipe at all, as noted at the end of this post) at Barbara "Don't Call Me Ma'am" Boxer's hairdo as being "so yesterday." The comment was captured by a…

Howard Kurtz on Sunday said most mainstream media outlets "really blew it this week" in how they reported North Carolina Congressman Bob Etheridge's attack on students."Most treated it as intriguing footage or a good gossip item, but the guy went bonkers when approached by two young men with a video camera," Kurtz said near the end of CNN's "Reliable Sources."After playing the video of the…

Someone—please!!—buy the man another stock phrase . . . Teasing his upcoming interview with Joe Sestak on last evening's Hardball, Chris Matthews admitted that Democrats are worried that Dem PA senatorial candidate Joe Sestak isn't "ready for prime time."When Sestak later appeared, he demonstrated just why Dems are distraught.  The leaden, formulaic Sestak used the trite "at the end of the day"…

It is way beyond comprehension - the dislike, hatred for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a relative backbencher in terms of congressional clout, but a strong outspoken conservative leader. Fliers (posted below fold) have been surfacing around Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. advertising a "F--- Michele Bachmann 2010" tape party featuring the hip-hop artist G-Biz. And on Sean Hannity's June 17…

What do Tea Partiers, Truthers, birthers, Birchers, militias, Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Rand Paul, Alex Jones, Orly Taitz, and Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh all have in common? Approximately nothing, but don't tell Chris Matthews.The MSNBC "Hardball" host…

Americans learned something interesting about the priorities of the New York Times Tuesday: its editors believe a political candidate pushing an employee three years ago is more important than a candidate calling his campaign rival a Nazi last week.Such seems apparent from the Times' choice to report California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's alleged employee shoving incident in…

RELATED: From NB's Noel Sheppard -- "NYT Reports Whitman's 2007 'Shove', Ignores Brown Calling Her Nazi Last Week"If the folks at the New York Times had any sense of shame, they would feel foolish today. A review of the Times's June 15 print edition index and review of the related articles indicates that the paper's editors: Gave reporter Jeff Zeleny about 330 words on Page A21 to recycle a…