"Hyper-partisan, painfully ignorant, pathologically dishonest, chronically unethical, intellectually unconscious, and jaw-droppingly stupid." Yes, once in a while these words apply uncannily to the radical liberals over at Daily Kos, but today, they're proof of why the blog commands so much influence in the political sphere despite their occasional flubs. Blogger "Angry Mouse" has given Palin what reads as one of the most ringing, brutally honest endorsements for her 2012 presidential campaign to come out so far. (more...)

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Poor John McCain - not even his imaginary friend Joe the Plumber likes him anymore. Joe, who you'll remember is neither named Joe (real name Samuel Wurzelbacher) nor is a plumber, may have thought he could slip some harsh words against the 2008 Republican presidential ticket by the mainstream media, commenting to Pennsylvania Public Radio's Scott Detrow, but the fifteen minutes of fame the McCain campaign gave him seem to be lasting longer than the excitement over a Levi Johnston Playgirl shoot. (more...)

video A lot of people have been screaming for transparency on a number of issues of late and today both the GOP and President Obama complied...did they ever (UPDATE: Apparently it was televised at Obama's insistence). The President met with Congressional Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore to lead what the New York Times described as "a rare, sustained and unscripted exchange over the best way to address the nation’s ills." Without question it makes for riveting watching. So much so a slew of people on Twitter called for it to be a regular feature (just as many were asking where they could watch a rerun...answer: below!) (more...)

video There is no question why all three cable news channels carried the recent discussion between Obama and House Republicans - it was remarkably entertaining television. One cable news channel chose to break early from the coverage however, and, judged by ratings, it just so happens to be the most influential. Fox News interrupted the live feed to claim that the President was "combative", and that Obama "acknowledged a couple of mistakes." Maybe bipartisanship isn't good for cable news? (more...)

video Dramatic and compelling video alert! The president just wrapped up a meeting with House Republicans in which they discussed many of their differences. Critics will predictably claim that Obama was both lecturing and professorial - but the truth is that he was taking tough questions and offering a fair analysis of the toxic political environment in which he finds himself. (more...)

The special election today in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat has taken on epic proportions over the last week or so. And not just because the headlines have become increasingly dirty. The election is being viewed by many as a one year referendum on the Obama administration (he was inaugurated a year ago tomorrow) but most importantly if Martha Coakley loses today it will shift the balance in the Senate and ostensibly put health care reform in jeopardy. Or kill it altogether, depending. Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, thinks a Coakley loss (of which he is certain) portends to bigger and darker things. (more...)

"The right is on the wrong side of history. The demographics of the country are rapidly changing, young people are becoming increasingly liberal on social issues, and rigid, dogmatic religious stricture is loosening its grip on the throat of our culture. The right has seen the enemy, and he is the future."

video On last night's show Rachel Maddow, looking back at 2009, called the attempted reinvention of the Republican party after the last year's election the "the greatest show in American politics over the past year." So what will that reinvention produce? Maddow taps the Tea Partiers as a the strongest sign of what's to come. (more...)

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On last night's Hardball, Chris Matthews wanted to know: why did Parker Griffith switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party? "Are there rats leaving the ship? Is the ship sinking?" he asked. Matthews dropped the hint that he had heard that more Democrats would be switching parties soon. Then, as if to make sense of both of his statements, he supplied an answer: the GOP was becoming the "party of the Confederacy." (more...)

video It was a defining moment of the 2006 mid-term election, and arguably the strongest nail in the Republican Congressional majority's coffin. Rising GOP star George Allen tossed off an obscure North African racial slur at one of his opponent's campaign workers, solidifying for many the party's status as "them" in the "us vs. them" equation. Three years later, Allen is trying to make a comeback, and that humble videographer, S.R. Sidarth, has popped up as a contestant on "Jeopardy!" Sidarth's claim to fame didn't come up during the show, but blogger Dan Smith's wife picked him out anyway (Hat tip to Roanoke super-fan Jill Elswick for pointing this out). Here's the patented Jeopardy! contestant-banter segment, in which Alex Trebek mangles the name of a New Jersey town, and quizzes Sidarth about his Himalayan pilgrimage.
In case you missed it the first time around, here's Sidarth's camera capturing the end of Allen's national political career.

The GOP has had a bumpy ride as it's tried to expand into social media. Exhibit A: RNC Chairman Michael Steele's much-ridiculed GOP.com blog, formerly titled "What Up?" Exhibit B: User-submitted racist photos staying on the GOP.com Facebook page for more than a week. Can the new Blackberry app "WhipCast," courtesy of the Office of the Republican Whip, help reverse the curse? (more...)

The new concerted effort by the Republican party to move online and skew younger keeps backfiring. First, the launch of GOP.com was met with intense mockery and meme-making, then the Republican National Committee's Facebook page left racist and hateful images -- including photos of President Obama eating fried chicken along with a bigoted caption and others mocking John Kerry and Mother Theresa -- in the fan photos section for nearly a week without moderation. (more...)

video Joe Scarborough claimed earlier this week that Conservative Radio Host Rush Limbaugh isn't helping the Republican party by expressing joy over Chicago's Olympics failure. Well Limbaugh hit back claiming that Scarborough was doing his "best impression of a neutered chickified moderate" when he spoke out again him. (more...)

video Host of CNN's American Morning John Roberts asked Republican pollster and Fox News Analyst Frank Luntz "When you used charged language like that are you contributing to the anger?" This was but one of many highlights in a spirited interview between Roberts and the author of the new book What Americans Really Want...Really. Was this John Roberts' moment? (more...)

slideshow What a difference a year makes. A year ago Thursday, five days after being tapped by John McCain to be his VP running mate, Sarah Palin made her honest-to-goodness public debut giving the keynote speech on day three of the GOP convention in St. Paul. It was, by any measure, a good speech, and a great debut. It also marked the world's first introduction to Bristol, Trig, "first dude" Todd, Levi, and the rest of the family von Palin. Oh those happy, hazy, days. (more...)

Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock, 28, is the youngest member of Congress and a product of the GOP's Young Guns program, which works to get young Republican talent into office. Serving in Abraham Lincoln's district, he's an honest hard-worker who began his IRA at age 14. And, if you ask NPR, he also "has the best abs." But NPR is not the first and certainly won't be the last to cover Schock, or prominently feature his abdominals. The unusual and ongoing media attention began when Huffington Post readers voted Schock the "Hottest Freshman" in the 111th Congress, to which he said, "I appreciate this honor, but my real goal is to have a 'hot' legislative record on behalf of the people I serve." (more...)

Two high-profile stories about the intersection of racism and the Republican Party are exploding all over the internet. The flap over comments at Free Republic and the Young Republicans' election of a new president make for a sour cocktail this weekend. (more...)