2006 Elections

Why Obama has to stay above 50 percent

Bill Greener — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:15:00 PDT

As his campaign manager has described it, John McCain is now looking at a "narrow-victory scenario." "The fact that we're in the race at all," added Steve Schmidt, "is a miracle. Because the environment is so bad and the head wind is so strong."

Dixie is gone with the wind

Thomas Schaller — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:58:00 PDT

Can economic populism return the white South to the Democratic Party?

More ways to call Hillary Clinton the C-Word

Katharine Mieszkowski — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:15:00 PST

The GOP's crowded closet

Joe Conason — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:02:00 PDT

"Is everybody gay?"

The Democratic freshmen on Iraq

Fri, 25 May 2007 10:18:00 PDT

Michael Arcuri, D-N.Y. -- Nay
Bruce Braley, D-Iowa -- Nay
Kathy Castor, D-Fla. -- Nay
Yvette Clark, D-N.Y. -- Nay
Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. -- Nay
Joe Courtney, D-Conn. -- Nay
Keith Ellison, D-Minn. -- Nay
John Hall, D-N.Y. -- Nay
Phil Hare, D-Ill. -- Nay
Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii -- Nay
Paul Hodes, D-N.H. -- Nay
Henry Johnson, D-Ga. -- Nay
Ron Klein, D-Fla. -- Nay
David Loebsack, D-Iowa -- Nay
Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. -- Nay
Christopher Murphy, D-Conn. -- Nay
Patrick Murphy, D-Pa. -- Nay
Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo. -- Nay
John Sarbanes, D-Md. -- Nay
Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H. -- Nay
Betty Sutton, D-Ohio -- Nay
Peter Welch, D-Vt. -- Nay
John Yarmuth, D-Ky. -- Nay
Jason Altmire, D-Pa. -- Aye
Nancy Boyda, D-Kan. -- Aye
Christopher Carney, D-Pa. -- Aye
Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. -- Aye
Brad Elsworth, D-Ind. -- Aye
Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. -- Aye
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. -- Aye
Baron Hill, D-Ind. -- Aye
Steve Kagen, D-Wis. -- Aye
Nicholas Lampson, D-Texas -- Aye
Tim Mahoney, D-Fla. -- Aye
Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz. -- Aye
Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas -- Aye
Heath Shuler, D-N.C. -- Aye
Zackary Space, D-Ohio -- Aye
Timothy Walz, D-Minn. -- Aye
Charles Wilson, D-Ohio -- Aye

The legend of Rahm

Edward McClelland — Tue, 08 May 2007 05:15:00 PDT

Election Night 2002 was a gloomy watch for Democrats. Their party, led by a pair of innocuous Midwestern Main Streeters, Richard Gephardt and Thomas Daschle, lost control of the Senate and lost seats in the House, sinking to its lowest ebb since the Roaring '20s. Smug right-wing pundits predicted the Democrats were on their way to joining the Whigs in the ashcan of American political parties.

What was Charlie Crist thinking?

Farhad Manjoo — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:42:00 PDT

During his campaign for the Florida governorship last fall, Charlie Crist frequently expressed deep moral opposition to the state's practice of permanently prohibiting convicted felons from exercising their right to vote. But Crist is a Republican, and his promise to fix Florida's notorious felon-voting ban sometimes sounded like nothing more than campaign puffery. Felon disenfranchisement has long given Republicans a considerable boost at the polls in Florida; if the state's ex-cons had been allowed to vote in 2000, George W. Bush would now be the commissioner of baseball. Was Charlie Crist really going to kill this political golden goose?

Bush's long history of politicizing justice

Alia Malek — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 04:45:00 PDT

The current U.S. attorneys scandal shows that the Bush administration was mistaken in its belief that it could politicize the nation's top federal law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, with impunity. The attorney general's chief of staff and the director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys have both had to leave their jobs, and Congress has begun grilling DOJ leadership. But having decimated another entire sector of the DOJ in plain sight for six years with little consequence, is it any wonder the Bush White House figured nobody would miss a few prosecutors?

MoveOn moves in with Pelosi

Farhad Manjoo — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:30:00 PDT

When Eli Pariser, the executive director of MoveOn.org, looks at the Iraq spending bill that Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders managed to pass in the House today, what he sees is a way to end the war. The bill, which won passage on a nearly strict party-line vote, commits $124 billion to fund operations in Iraq, but it calls for removal of American combat troops by the summer of 2008. The plan is not perfect, Pariser concedes. It does not require complete withdrawal. Still, this week, MoveOn signed on to Pelosi's supplemental funding bill, citing a poll of its members showing overwhelming support of the idea.

How U.S. attorneys were used to spread voter-fraud fears

Mark Follman, Alex Koppelman and Jonathan Vanian — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:30:00 PDT

Under intense criticism for firing eight United States attorneys, the Bush administration has spent the past few weeks casting about for an explanation for the dismissals that involves performance rather than politics. On March 13, White House spokesman Dan Bartlett tried to come up with one. "Over the course of several years, we have received complaints about U.S. attorneys," he insisted, "particularly when it comes to election fraud cases." On Tuesday, President Bush pressed home this claim with a similar statement during his defense of embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "We did hear complaints and concerns about U.S. attorneys," said Bush. "Some complained about the lack of vigorous prosecution of election fraud cases."

What Hillary won't say about Iraq

Tim Grieve — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:20:00 PST

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire over the past weekend, a voter asked Hillary Clinton if she could say -- "once and for all, without nuance" -- that her October 2002 vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq had been a "mistake."

For McAuliffe and Schumer, it's all about the money

Walter Shapiro — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 04:37:00 PST

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe is a brash and unabashed self-promoter, who has utilized those gifts to become the best fundraiser in the modern history of his party.

How to speak Republican

Katharine Mieszkowski — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:30:00 PST

Frank Luntz is a Republican word doctor who coaches conservatives to talk to Americans about "personalizing" Social Security instead of "privatizing" it. He urges them to promote "tax relief," not "tax cuts." He's counseled Republicans to spread doubt about the scientific consensus around global warming. Recently he recommended that "drilling for oil" be referred to as "exploring for energy," which goes down much more smoothly. Luntz is so reviled by environmentalists that one group has named an award after him for great achievements in doublespeak.

State of indifference

Sidney Blumenthal — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:00:00 PST

When the hopelessly prodigal son mounts the podium to deliver his sixth State of the Union address, seated behind him will be the parents he never had: the good mother, caring yet demanding responsibility, and the bad father, granting license for misadventure. As he evades and rebuffs Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President Bush clings to Vice President Dick Cheney as his permissive authority figure.

DLC to Ford: Don't drop dead

Ed Kilgore — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:25:00 PST

When you are a hammer, the saying goes, everything looks like a nail. So it is with Tom Schaller, whose current mission in life is to persuade Democrats to eschew and even attack the "reactionary" South. It's not surprising, then, that Schaller looks at Harold Ford, an African-American former congressman slated to become chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, and sees just another reactionary Southerner.

The GOP hides from Iraq

Michael Scherer — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 05:00:00 PST

Even the White House's chief spin doctor had to acknowledge the obvious. "I look around right now," said Tony Snow on Saturday morning. "A lot of people are dispirited."

Enough with the new bipartisanship

Joe Conason — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:20:00 PST

Nonpartisan politics sounds like a contradiction in terms. Bipartisan politics sounds like an old campaign bromide. And the even more irritating "post-partisan politics" sounds like nothing more than a buzzy slogan designed to please everyone all the time. But please don't tell that to the fervent enthusiasts who feel they have discovered a fresh, clean and totally cool way to save us from ourselves.

The party's over

Joan Walsh — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 05:48:00 PST

&Let Democrats enjoy the party. Let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family savor the assorted tributes to the nation's first female and first Italian-American House speaker. Let House Democrats get started on their "First 100 Hours" agenda, even if detractors say it's heavier on symbolism than substance. And then, sometime soon, let the new Democratic congressional majority show the nation its members have a smart, courageous strategy to fight the Bush administration's plans to escalate the war in Iraq and lay out a deliberate exit plan instead.

The Dems come marching in

Walter Shapiro — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 05:00:00 PST

At noon on Thursday, after four years of lockstep one-party government, the United States will witness the dramatic return from exile of that twosome so beloved by the framers of the Constitution -- the never-to-be-forgotten duo of Checks and Balances. Thursday will also be the day when a form of address is used for the first time in 218 years of congressional history: "Madam Speaker" to refer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ending an all-male line of succession dating back to the immortal Frederick Muhlenberg in 1789.

Salon Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth

Michael Scherer — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 04:18:00 PST

Sometimes, for just a moment, nothing makes sense. The senator who would be president stands on the dais. It is a bright summer day. The branches of trees, still green, sway gently in the breeze. Republican George Allen is feeling good, and the crowd likes him. Almost everyone thinks he will win reelection. Then he says something. "Let's give a welcome to macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." No one knows what has happened.