Oops
Once upon a time, there was a belief that Republican governors like Rick Perry and Bob McDonnell, Chris Christie and Scott Walker, represented a bright future and a new direction for the GOP.
Not to be outdone, Perry went ahead and abused his power as governor, finally getting back in the spotlight with a couple felony indictments. Phew, that was close.
There was a time when these four governors were celebrated for charting a new vision and speaking with conviction.
These days, the closest thing they have to a new vision is Rick Perry's hipster glasses. And the closest thing they have to conviction is...well, conviction. But not the good kind.
Being a Corbett "ghost employee" is nice no-work, if you can get it
Make one call a day, send five emails a year, pass "Go," and collect $140,000. That's the Monopoly-esque carte blanche…
Scott Brown: "Open" and "Unfettered" (VIDEO)
Scott Brown says a lot of things that he thinks people want to hear. Like, "I'm from New Hampshire," for example. But unfortunately for Scott Brown, reality matters. Recently, Brown has been touting the openness and unfettered-ness of his open and unfettered town halls. The only problem, as BuzzFeed recently reported, is the actual town halls seem to be a bit more closed and fettered than the former Massachusetts senator let on.
VIDEO: Mike Coffman Forgets What Birth Control Is (Literally)
Oh boy. In today's CO-6 congressional debate, Republican Mike Coffman had quite the Rick Perry moment when he made an…
Bruce Rauner: Refusing To Take Responsibility (VIDEO)
Bruce Rauner touts his experience as the CEO of a business as evidence he deserves to be governor. And yet when a subsidiary of said business is embroiled in scandal, Rauner takes precisely zero responsibility for their actions. Executives at ConvergEx, owned by Rauner's former firm, GTCR, have been indicted for defrauding stock investors and have already agreed to pay over $150 million in restitution. Rauner has tried to write off the executives at ConvergEx as a couple of "rogue employees" and absolve himself of any connection.
Happy Birthday!
Seventy-nine years ago today President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, marking a new page in our nation's history that attempted to rid the widespread problem of Americans spending their golden years trapped in poverty. Fast forward forty five years later. David Koch runs for Vice President on a Libertarian ticket that calls Social Security - already at that time a wildly successful program that has helped millions - "the most serious threat to the future stability of our society next to the threat of nuclear war." Today? The Republican Party, fully embracing a hard right, extreme Tea Party, Koch-fueled agenda, runs a docket of Senate candidates who would make cuts to or have otherwise attacked Social Security. While Americans old and young continue to cherish the promise of retiring with some stability, Republican Senate candidates have made their priorities clear -- and protecting their Koch cash-flow comes long before protecting your retirement. These GOPers are coming at it from every angle. Some, like Tom Cotton and Cory Gardner, have voted to raise the eligibility age from 65 to 70, because what's five more years of work when you're sitting pretty in your taxpayer-funded job? Some candidates, like David Perdue, Mike McFadden and Monica Wehby, have offered nebulous support for cuts, because plans and details are hard (and voters clearly might not like to hear what they really think). Terri Lynn Land and Joni Ernst haven't spent time in Congress yet, but they sure are keen on privatizing the program. Mainstream? Not hardly.
Meet Glenn Grothman And The *New* GOP
After an embarrassing cycle for the GOP in 2012 -- from a clown show of a presidential primary season that…
Putting the "Fib" in NFIB
The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) presents itself as a do-good nonpartisan group that fights for the best interests of small businesses and stays out of politics. It isn't. Dig a litter deeper and you'll quickly learn that NFIB is another group with Koch-funding working to push their anti-working family agenda and elect politicians who embody it. They purport to lobby for small business, but fight tooth and nail for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans -- tax cuts that help people like the Kochs and not people like the local hardware store owner.
How Dare Dairy Queen (Pay Its Workers A Living Wage)
Texas Congressman Blake Farenthold has always been ahead of the curve. First, it was the duckie pajamas. Then, last summer, it was talk of impeaching the president. Now, at a town hall this week in Corpus Christie, Rep. Farenthold has gone even further than just doubling down on his opposition to raising the minimum wage: he has actively mocked a local Texas business (in this case, Dairy Queen) for paying its workers $18/hour. Right on, Congressman. How dare Dairy Queen pay its workers a living wage?
Oh Look, Rick Scott Is An Environmentalist Now! (VIDEO)
Rick Scott is traversing the state this week, attempting to convince Floridians that his sudden interest in environmental protection is something more than election-year pandering. It won't work. As rising sea levels associated with climate change pose greater and greater threat to the Florida coastline, Rick Scott has only doubled and tripled down on his "I'm not a scientist" buffoonery. But you don't have to be a scientist to listen to scientific consensus. And you certainly don't need a science-believing governor to suffer from increased flooding in your hometown.