A plain blog about politics

I don't really have anything to say about this , other than to say that it's not the first time. Or the second time. In fact, the ev...

After Mandela died last week, Dave Weigel wrote an item telling people to " Go Ahead, Politicize Mandela "in response to some twit...

Kevin Drum is absolutely right in his response to Lori Montgomery's WaPo story today about budget negotiations : There's nothing w...

My TAP column this week was a caution flag to the press to stop burying presidential candidates too soon; my editor over there took a fairl...

Jonathan Chait argued something yesterday that I think is wrong: [L]et me reveal a couple professional secrets here. Intellectual consist...

I did an item today about today's calls for Obama to start firing people willy-nilly that was probably not nearly harsh enough. But the...

Last week I took someone to task for placing too much weight on Gallup's reports of Latino voters supposedly disproportionate turn away...

Happy Birthday to Ming-Na Wen , 50. Good stuff: 1. Sean Trende is right about ACA and the future of liberalism . 2. Adam Serwer on clo...

Oy, Kraushaar. Oy, Galston. Oy, half the damn press corps. It's ugly out there, folks. The two that set me off in particular today are...

I missed this for some reason earlier in the week, but Brendan Nyhan had a point I agree with completely  with regard to this week's su...

Here's one for Jaime Fuller, who tells us about " The Inside the Beltway Center for Presidents Who Can't Lead Good ." It...

Earlier this week, Glenn Kessler wrote one of the puzzling fact-check columns I've seen in a while . It was over a claim by Democratic c...

This is what happens when the two parties ruling Washington lose touch with America and pander to their crazy-extreme bases: President Obam...

Happy Birthday to Mike Napoli , 32. Better than Vernon Wells! Better than Frank Francisco! And congrats to the Red Sox...I'll miss havin...

Great post from Dan Hopkins about how a belief that "messaging" works gets politicians into trouble . What I've become inter...

The death last week of long-time Member of the House C.W. Bill Young last week means we're going to get something that this Congress has...

I want to say something about the Second Battle of the World War II Memorial , which was the subject of much fuss over the weekend. What...

Just when you think he's hit bottom, he keeps going . First bit: Fournier believes that Republican demands (about ACA) are unreasonabl...

I read a fair amount of ACA news, but I really have no idea the answer to one question: To what extent should the various mostly minor delay...

I really like Ezra Klein's analysis of the Cruz, Paul, Sanders, and Wendy Davis filibusters/extended speeches, trying to answer the ques...