An epidemic is plaguing the Republican Party these days. For some reason, perhaps it's their consciences or perhaps it's the pressure of backstopping an incompetent nincompoop in the White House, who knows, it could be anything. Whatever the root cause, it appears as if the ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Jan 31, 2019
• Opinion

No other Republican has done more damage to the United States than Mitch McConnell. In 2010, before he became Senate Majority Leader, he famously said his party's "top political priority should be to deny President Obama a second term." Once he became Majority Leader, he rammed ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 14, 2018

One of my least favorite traits about Democrats is that we tend to get dissatisfied with our leaders pretty quickly. In the year following Obama’s inaugural, major news outlets were already writing articles saying Obama was disappointing them, despite the fact that he hadn’t ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Oct 24, 2018

Republicans insisted that Trump's $1.5 trillion tax aimed almost entirely at giant corporations and the ultra rich would not only pay for itself, but create a substantial windfall that would benefit all Americans.  In fact, the entire reason the GOP has stood behind Trump ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

A few weeks ago, Real Time host Bill Maher invited Steve Bannon onto his show, after he was disinvited from the New Yorker Festival. The interview was criticized by the left, just as Bannon's recent appearance in The Economist's festival and his documentary with Errol Morris, ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Dec 20, 2018

It looks increasingly likely that the severely hamstrung FBI investigation of Brett Kavanaugh has done the trick. With moderate Republicans signaling that they believe the FBI investigation was "thorough", Kavanaugh is likely to survive the vote in the Senate that will be ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Politico reports that while Trump's advisers are telling him everything is going just great as Rome burns, Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan not only smell the smoke, but they can see the flames already creeping up the side of the building: Among GOP leaders, ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

It's hard to put a positive spin on this given how destructive every sane economist believes the GOP's tax plan will be. Reported the New York Times on the plan that just passed in the Senate:  Republicans took a critical step toward notching their first significant legislative ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

While the left is still reeling from the abominable tax plan just passed by the Republican Party, NY Mag's Jonathan Chait points out that in the long term, this is about the best thing that could have ever happened to the Democrats. Why? Midterms, midterms, midterms. The policy ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Today, Donald Trump endorsed Republican Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore – religious fanatic, anti-gay marriage, Islamophobic, pedophiliac Roy Moore, the most dangerous Senate candidate since David Duke. For the past few weeks, the President has soft-pedaled around a firm ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

As we contemplate what has become of our political scene in 2017, with a President who used to be a reality TV host, dubious billionaires seeking to dip their toe in the water, and a superPAC supporting a 2020 candidacy from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, we can all breathe a ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Dec 20, 2018

It's finally over folks. Senate Republican leaders who have spent the past god knows how many years attempting to destroy Obamacare have officially pulled the plug on their latest ridiculous ACA replacement plan. They had planned a vote on the measure at the end of the month, ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

The New York Times broke a story today revealing the shocking extent of the bad blood between the president Trump and Majority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. If you are a Trump fan, the story makes for incredibly depressing reading given the precarious place the Trump ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

If you were wondering why the GOP's response to Donald Trump publicly defending Nazis has been so muted, prepare to be less than surprised: Congressional GOP leaders are hoping to recover from their failed effort to replace the Affordable Care Act and salvage their legislative ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Seven months ago, The Daily Banter's Chez Pazienza marveled at the astonishing hypocrisy of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: The unfathomable, breathtaking, staggering lack of even an ounce of shame you'd have to have to say, after Republicans had publicly looked for ways ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

We'll have more on this tomorrow, but great news for the millions of Americans who stood to lose their health care during the epic drama that unfolded in the Senate tonight. From CNN:  The Senate has dealt a devastating setback to the Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Let's rewind to 2009 when the Democrats were working on Obamacare. Despite having total control and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (for a few months, at least) the Democrats insisted trying to make the bill a bipartisan one. They let Republicans stuff dozens of ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Dec 20, 2018

You really don't need to know too much about the Senate Health Care Bill that has now been shelved until at least July 11th. Why? Because there really isn't too much to it, as Paul Krugman pointed out on Twitter today in a very simple yet brutal chart:  You can discount Trump ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

David France’s extraordinary documentary (and book) How to Survive a Plague chronicles the history of ACT UP, the group of HIV+/AIDS-infected gay men who fought to make drugs more affordable to those suffering from a condition the government laughed off as a “gay plague.” In ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

While pretty much every Republican currently in office is awful, there are seven that stand out from the rest of the crowd. They exemplify everything that's wrong with the modern right wing and deserve a round of applause for their extraordinary effort to destroy everything good ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

The Republicans don't want you to know what they're doing. "The Silent Treatment" seems to be the new strategy driving the congressional GOP as well as the Trump White House.  And their most loyal disciples don't care. But they should. We'll return to this presently. The strategy ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

I wish I could live to be 143 because I desperately want to read history's judgement on the human insult to democracy that is Mitch McConnell (R-Hades). I can only conclude he will be remembered as one of the most corrupt, anti-American senators to ever sully the halls of ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Paul Krugman, like all of us here at the Banter, cannot believe that the Republican Party that once impeached Richard Nixon is sitting on its hands while Trump engages in a sloppy and hamhanded cover up: For generations, Republicans have impugned their opponents’ patriotism. ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

I try not to let Republicans get too far under my skin (Trump being a notable exception) but it's becoming really hard not to hate Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with every fiber of my being. It's not because he's a Republican. Or that he's owned by Wall Street and the ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

American workers have been getting the shaft for years when it comes to retirement benefits. Defined benefit pensions (which provide a guaranteed amount regardless of market conditions) have largely gone the way of the dinosaurs, and many workers, especially those in low-paid ...read more

• By Wes Williams
  Nov 9, 2018

A quick refresher on Mitch McConnell: This is the man who once said that his main goal as the leader of the Republican Senate was to make sure Obama was a one-term president. Not fix the economy. Not work on immigration reform. Not increase our standing on the world stage. None ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Last night, Senate Republicans threw a temper tantrum and literally silenced Elizabeth Warren: Her offense: quoting a letter Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986 opposing Sessions’s nomination for a federal judgeship.When Warren first spoke against Sessions Tuesday night, Sen. Steve ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

It's still a few days before Trump takes the oath of office and immediately violates it but we're already seeing the first signs of outrage over Democrats not playing ball. In a eye-popping display of short-term memory, The Washington Post's Abby Phillip had this to say about ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Jan 15, 2017

Over the weekend, The Washington Post reported on the Republican plan to push through as many of Trump's Cabinet picks as they can as quickly as they can: A top ethics official has warned that plans to confirm Donald Trump’s top Cabinet choices before background examinations are ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

So yesterday, Senate Majority Leader and molting turtle Mitch McConnell struck out hard against Chuck Schumer's promise to fight any Donald Trump Supreme Court pick that's out of the mainstream. Schumer's vow is shockingly benign when you consider that, given that this is Trump ...read more

• By Chez Pazienza
  Nov 9, 2018

The time for debate is over. Donald Trump's "win" is not legitimate by any definition and every position he fills, law he signs or executive order he pens must be considered an illegal power grab by the Republican Party. Last night, The Washington Post dropped a bombshell: The ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Senators from both parties made a colossal mistake last week in overriding President Obama's veto of a bill titled, "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act" (JASTA). It was the first override of an Obama veto during his presidency, passing by a staggering 97-to-1 margin. Amid ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell informed President Obama of his intention to leave the Supreme Court vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia until there is a new president in 2017. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has given Democrats a clear message that as long as ...read more

• By Robert Covington, Jr.
  Nov 9, 2018

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

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

In the wake of the Republicans' midterm election sweep, there has been a predictable Beltway media push for bipartisan compromise, and an equally predictable push to dress up Republican ideas to screw Americans as reasonable proposals. Already, Democrats are weakening in the ...read more

• By Tommy Christopher
  Nov 9, 2018

In his mid-term post-mortem press conference, President Obama made reference to possibly getting together with soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and working out some ways to maybe, after all this time, finally work together, perhaps by holding a bourbon ...read more

• By Jamie Frevele
  Nov 9, 2018

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

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

Regardless of whether the Republicans win enough seats for a majority in the U.S. Senate, there's a very real possibility that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will be defeated by Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes. But if the traditional news media ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-Ky.) has reignited criticism by once again refusing to say whether she voted for President Obama in 2012, but the obvious answer is yes, and we've got the video to prove it. Grimes set the political media on fire last week ...read more

• By Tommy Christopher
  Nov 9, 2018

As time wears on, the following prediction will seem less like science fiction and more like science fact: The Republicans will eventually try to take credit for the Affordable Care Act. The fact that it's proving itself to be increasingly successful, along with the reality that ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

Campaign fundraising is a really complicated issue. Or at least, it appears to be very complicated. Somehow, what seems to be a very simple concept -- that money is the dirty part of politics and it probably should have the most oversight and regulation -- has gotten really ...read more

• By Bryce Rudow
  Feb 17, 2016

Maybe if the GOP wanted to convince women it is not waging a "war" on them, it would help to stop waging that war.  State legislatures have passed a crap load of bills aimed at stopping abortion but they have gone much further than that. In what universe does God want women to ...read more

• By Alyson Chadwick
  Nov 9, 2018