Almost as odd as an American President endorsing the right of same-sex couples to marry today, was the sight of a Republican member of Congress holding a press conference to announce legislation to guarantee funding of Planned Parenthood. But that happened today as well. Rep. Robert Dold, who represents the liberal suburbs of Chicago, on [...]

Here’s some of Richard Lugar’s striking, if a bit petulant, statement after badly losing the Indiana primary for Senate to State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who challenged him from the right: If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator. But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing [...]

Controversy has broken out because one progressive group dared to call out the House Democratic Leader on a dangerous tactical game she has been playing for the last several months. The story goes like this: Republicans have habitually bashed President Obama for not backing the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan in a formal recommendation to Congress. [...]

We’re finally seeing a response to all that money pouring in on the conservative side into SuperPACs and electoral-focused independent expenditure groups. George Soros and other finders have opened their pocketbooks, but they will orient their spending a bit differently: After months on the sidelines, major liberal donors including the financier George Soros are preparing [...]

The Senate failed to advance a bill today that would have kept the interest rate on Stafford federal student loans from doubling to 6.8% by this June. Republicans and Democrats now profess to support averting the change, but they differ on how to pay for the extension. Republicans want to take the money from the [...]

Like me, Congress was out of town last week. I guess the main difference is that they get 20 or so of these a year and I get one, but no matter. Today, at least, we start from the same position. And so what do they have planned for the next few days? Well, in [...]

Mitch McConnell has often differed from the House GOP’s hardline stance on the federal budget. He was the one who came up with the Rube Goldberg-like “resolution of disapproval” process on the debt limit deal which broke the united Republican front. Now, McConnell has added a largely symbolic but crucial action today on the escalating [...]

This really ups the ante on a fight that has been simmering ever since the House GOP made the decision to renege on the debt limit deal: In a major escalation of a slowly building fight over funding the government, the White House has warned House Republicans, in no uncertain terms, that the government will [...]

The White House is on a veto spree today. They threatened to veto the House’s new 90-day surface transportation extension because it includes a quick approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Without an explicit veto threat, they “oppose” any version of a cybersecurity bill that violates user privacy (more on that later). And they threatened [...]

The House will “deem” their FY2013 budget passed today, a tactic that didn’t work when they tried it last year. The “deeming resolution” won’t even come up in the context of a budget bill, but a separate measure on gun rights. The House leadership claims that this is necessary because of the failure of the [...]

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Senate Republicans blocked consideration of the Buffett rule last night with a filibuster. The bill would have set a millionaire’s minimum effective tax rate at 30%, with a phase-in between $1 million and $2 million and an exemption for charitable donations. But Senate Republicans wouldn’t let it get [...]