“GOP Traditionalists to Lead Panels”, WSJ: House Republican leaders cleared the way for two longtime traditionalist lawmakers to head powerful congressional committees over the objections of some tea-party and conservative activists. Rep. Hal Rogers (R., Ky.), who has sought earmarks throughout his career, is set to become chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which oversees all federal spending. Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), criticized by some conservatives for votes in support

Wacky ultra-right winger Michele Bachmann hates her the black peoples: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06) issued the following statement today regarding the Claims Settlement Act, expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives this week: “I urge my colleagues to consider what the Claims Settlement Act truly presents before voting on the bill this week. This legislation includes over a billion dollars to settle the Pigford II discrimination claims

Against: The Club for Growth today declared its opposition to the tax compromise proposal reached yesterday by President Obama and congressional Republicans. “This is bad policy, bad politics, and a bad deal for the American people,” said Club President Chris Chocola. “The plan would resurrect the Death Tax, grow government, blow a hole in the deficit with unpaid-for spending, and do so without providing the permanent relief and security our

Is it possible I underestimated the GOP? James Pethokoukis: Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy. This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill sources tell me, of 2011. That’s why the most intriguing

Question: When is “rape” and “molestation” rape and molestation? Answer: When it’s labeled as such by erstwhile willing partners schooled in leftist victim politics and contemporary feminist theory — and when the culture in which it happens has been institutionalized to believe that the meaning of an action belongs to the receiver alone. Live by the leftist worldview, die get arrested and held for gender crimes by the leftist worldview.

In response to my comment last evening that TEA Party types took it in the rear yesterday on the tax compromise, Stephanie writes: The TEA party has been advocating for lowered tax rates which they got in the form of continuation of the current tax rates (no increases on anyone), reductions on payroll taxes, reductions on business taxes, reductions on estate taxes (under current rules would have gone to 55%

Here’s the deal: Democrats want to raise taxes on “the rich”. They believe that not raising taxes on the “middle class” will spur the economy on, but that somehow — simultaneously — raising taxes on “the rich” won’t hurt the economy in any way. Does that follow? I mean, who do they think employs people>? Other than the government, I mean? They also believe that extending unemployment benefits is better

With a class action suit against Wal-Mart soon reach the Supreme Court, it is important to remember why the left truly hates Wal-Mart, and to recognize to what lengths they will go to invent excuses for killing industry that simply proves too profitable and efficient — all while pretending that they are doing so as a matter of standing for the little guy. Because the truth is, just as the

Jonah Goldberg: Fourteen months into his presidency, in March 2010, Obama succeeded in muscling through Congress a partial government takeover of the national health-care system. That legislative accomplishment followed Obama’s decision a year earlier, without congressional approval, to nationalize two of the country’s Big Three automobile companies. In the intervening months, he had also imposed specific wage ceilings on employees at banks that had taken federal bailout money—the first such

Peter Berkowitz, Policy Review: […] it was Obama’s decision — against the advice of several of his closest advisers — to seek comprehensive health care reform in the face of an historic economic crisis and to resolutely pursue it month after month despite vocal majority opposition instead of concentrating on reviving the economy and creating jobs that sent a loud and clear message that the president placed progressive political transformation