It had to happen eventually. For the last six years, the congressional Republicans have filibustered and obstructed every economic policy the Obama administration has initiated. In spite of the opposition, these policies have helped to yank the nation out of the worst recession ...read more
In a nation where voting is the cornerstone of our form of government, how pathetic is it that the following cliche actually makes sense: America can put a man on the Moon, but we can't hold an election without prohibitively long lines and politically-motivated plots to ...read more
Those of you who've been following The Daily Banter and, in particular, the podcast I co-host with Chez Pazienza, are probably familiar with the name Dan Bidondi. He's the hairless, semi-literate stooge from the ranks of Alex Jones' InfoWars.com conspiracy theory empire whose ...read more
Election night was, as Chez Pazienza noted, a complete disaster for the Left. With GOP control of the Senate and further Democratic losses in the House, the next two years are going to be a virtual nightmare for the Obama administration and pretty much guarantees nothing will get ...read more
With victories in key U.S. Senate races in Iowa, West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, the Republicans seized control of the upper chamber of Congress for the first time since 2006. Republicans Joni Ernst in Iowa, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, and Tom Cotton in Arkansas ...read more
Republican Tom Cotton has defeated Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) with 56 percent of the vote. This is one of the big pickups for the GOP in the closely watched race to control the U.S. Senate. Elsewhere, Charlie Crist's fortunes rest with voters in Southern Florida where he could pick ...read more
One of the U.S. Senate races that everyone thought would be a nail-biter was called almost immediately by NBC News. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defeated challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes following a hotly contested race that culminated with a lawsuit by Grimes against ...read more
It's times like this when it's really difficult to not become even more cynical about the intellect of the American voter. In my nearly 30 years covering politics, I've seen very few elections that are quite this incomprehensible and, sadly, I don't think it'll be the last. Yes, ...read more
With only a few days to go in the 2014 midterm election cycle, Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic challenger facing Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has sued McConnell over an obviously misleading mailer allegedly originating from the Kentucky Republican Party and ...read more
Or maybe not. At the very least, the latest ad from the Republican National Committee is designed to scare the pants off nearsighted, mouth-breathing ignoramuses who are utterly clueless about what's happening in the world and whether President Obama is legitimately to blame for ...read more
Watching the polls over the past six months, I can't help but to wonder whether presidential terms should be limited to one six-year term. Frankly, in the internet age, I don't think voters have the patience or an attention span long enough to carry through two four-year terms. ...read more
If you're a Republican, you're probably over-confident in your party's chances in the forthcoming midterms. Of course you are. The common wisdom online and on cable news is that the Democrats are headed toward another 2010-style shellacking due to President Obama's responsibility ...read more
And we have a winner -- or loser, depending on how you look at it. A New Mexico Republican candidate for Senate, Allen Weh, released the following ad today, becoming the first video blast of the 2014 campaign to exploit last week's beheading of American journalist James Foley. ...read more
It finally happened. We're only a few months away from the 2014 midterms and I thought maybe we'd see a longer roster of infuriatingly misleading campaign ads from Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS outfit. But finally we have our first big winner. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) is running for ...read more
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) won a hotly contested primary run-off election Tuesday against tea party challenger State Sen. Chris McDaniel, and the conservative entertainment complex is pissed. Glenn Beck actually fired a rifle on his show to illustrate his disgust. Sarah Palin ...read more
While following the social media reaction to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's primary defeat Tuesday night, I couldn't help but wonder why anyone outside of the tea party was celebrating this bizarre turn of events. By any measure, David Brat's victory was really, really bad ...read more
As the polls close in Virginia, it appears tea party challenger David Brat has defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia's 7th District. Unlike other congressional A-listers who fell to an untimely defeat, Cantor will not be able to run as ...read more
It's actually quite easy to explain. The reason why 19 states have refused to expand Medicaid has nothing to do with the cost -- the federal government would cover the full cost of the expansion for the next two years, then 95 percent of the cost thereafter. It definitely ...read more
First, there was the Iowa candidate for U.S. Senate, Joni Ernst, who released an ad in which she describes her childhood work experience castrating pigs (sounds like an horrifying childhood). Then there was another Senate candidate in Iowa, Bob Quast, who threatened to "blow your ...read more
Anyone who tells you the GOP is a lock for holding onto the House of Representatives while taking back the Senate in the midterms doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. Why? Because it's April. The election isn't for another seven months. That's a huge block of time, ...read more
We've been following the bizarre political career of Twitter troll and paleoconservative tea party congressman Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) for sometime now, and ever since declaring his intention to run against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Republican senatorial primary, the ...read more
His name is Dick Black, he's a Republican and he's an elected member of the Virginia state Senate. Here are some fun facts about Dick Black (via Molly Redden): 1) He thinks the morning after pill is abortive, even though it doesn't prevent implantation and, instead, only prevents ...read more
You might recall how Twitter troll Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) is challenging Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in this year's Republican primary in Texas. You might also recall how Stockman is polling at just six percent against Cornyn, who Stockman refers to as "Liberal John Cornyn" when, ...read more
Talking Points Memo's Eric Lach got his hands on exclusive photos inside Rep. Steve Stockman's (R-TX) condemned Webster, Texas campaign office and, yeah, it looks like it's from a real-life Rob Zombie horror movie. As I scrolled through I half-expected the photo to show a ...read more
There's really not much of a chance that Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), the internet troll who wastes his taxpayer-funded congressional salary by spending all day tweeting far-right zingers, will ever defeat Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the forthcoming Texas senate primary. But dammit ...read more