Congress

Last week I noted how the media had been silent on a package sent to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) that contained an anti-Semitic rant and a bloody pig's foot. The Associated Press broke the story on Monday, April 4. In a new development, Politico's Jennifer Epstein reported this afternoon that a Muslim woman from Georgia has claimed responsibility and Capitol police are investigating the claim:

President Obama is "Mr. Prudent," a grown-up heralding "deficit sanity" in a Washington gone mad with "delusional" Republican plans for draconian budget cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy. That's the predictable leftist talking point-laden take that Time magazine's Joe Klein had after listening to President Obama's hectoring lecture yesterday at George Washington University (emphasis mine):

"Obama aims for the middle on taxes and spending." That's the headline the San Francisco Chronicle gave Washington bureau staffer Carolyn Lochhead's write-up this afternoon following President Obama's "belated embrace of his commission's recommendation to cut $4 trillion in deficits over the next 12 years." "Even as he reached back to his 2008 campaign lodestar with a reference to Abraham…

On last Friday and on this past Tuesday night, CNN's Anderson Cooper ran fact-checks against the claims of two anti-abortion members of Congress against Planned Parenthood – but did not bother to conduct similar fact checks on the claims of Planned Parenthood and its Democratic supporters. During his Tuesday segment of "Keeping Them Honest," Cooper countered the claims of conservative Rep.…

The great American engine of democracy is beginning to build up a head of steam, and it remains the finest device created by man to organize collective human action. Two months ago, the conventional wisdom held that Washington would do nothing of consequence to start dealing with our fiscal crisis. Certainly, that was the political baseline for the president's Feb. 14 budget proposal for 2012…

Interviewing Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer pushed for tax increases in the 2012 budget: "...the President's expected to call for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans – some estimates say that could raise some $700 billion, why couldn't that money be used to pay down the debt?" Moments later, Lauer added: "...like Congressman Ryan…

Doing it's level best to push the meme that Planned Parenthood is a crucial provider of basic medical services for poor women -- and hence deserving of federal taxpayer support -- today's Washington Post devoted one-eighth of page A5 in today's print edition to a photo entitled "Relying on Planned Parenthood." Depicted is a 24-year-old woman, one Minah Khan, having blood drawn "during a…

There's an old saw that every time a senator looks in the mirror, he sees a president.  Could the same be true of MSNBC hosts?   Twice tonight on his TV show, Cenk Uygur fantasized himself as president.  The muy macho MSNBCer naturally imagined he'd be much tougher with Republicans than President Obama. View video after the jump.

In a business that is supposed to treat record achievements, dubious or otherwise, as news, it's more than a little curious to note that the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger, along with Reuters and AFP, all "somehow" forgot to tell readers that March's reported federal outlays, as seen in the Monthly Treasury Statement released today, came in at an all-time record of $339.047 billion, and…

The Republicans did not win this budget fight, but the cuts they were able to extract illustrate, ironically, that Democrats are finally on the defensive. Scorekeeping aside, we must build on this non-victory because it was also a Democratic retreat. Last week, I argued that the GOP should not cave on the budget negotiations for many reasons, including that today is not 1995-96. Things are so…

In a discussion with Tom Brokaw on Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Meredith Vieira turned to the ongoing budget fight, asking in part: "Republicans are calling for the privatization of Medicare. Could they overstepping here?" The headline on screen throughout the segment read: "Debt Diet; Do White House & GOP Spending Cuts Go Too Far?" In response to Vieira, Brokaw actually acknowledged the…

During the panel discussion on Sunday's Meet the Press on NBC, host David Gregory gushed over President Obama's Friday night address to the nation on the budget deal: "The message was clear. Here he was to save the day, that it was President Obama – and he went to the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday – that he was able to rise above the fray. That's the image they want Americans to see." The…

I sure hope that the Associated Press's Jim Kuhnhenn has been working out, especially in his upper body. The volume of water he's having to carry for the Obama administration as a dutiful member of the state-compliant establishment press has to be getting very heavy. This evening, Kuhnhenn and his wire service are expecting the AP's readers -- and ultimately its subscribing media outlets'…

NPR's Cokie Roberts hinted congressional Republicans were going to resort to extreme tactics regarding the debt ceiling on Monday's Morning Edition. Roberts noted the "rough votes" on the horizon in Congress, specifying the "debt ceiling that has to be increased, where Republicans have promised Armageddon." Host Renee Montagne brought on the journalist to talk mainly about the recent…