Over the weekend, soon-to-be-former-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) made news by the disclosure that her attorney had send letters to a number of media organizations (including Huffington Post) threatening them with defamation lawsuits if they continue to publish speculation that Palin was being investigated by the feds for political corruption...

Despite the hold that the Republican Party's rabid right-wing has on its party, there have remained a few notable clear-eyed realists who did their best to keep the GOP from continuing its migration into the political hinterlands. Most prominent among them were Republican governors Charlie Crist (FL), Jon Huntsman (UT)...

For many of us, the single greatest accomplishment that took place as a result of the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president last year was that the door finally closed (at least for now) on the distasteful era of a national Democratic Party run by good...

I've talked quite a bit lately about the biggest problem that Republicans face as they look at the 2010 and 2012 elections: it's ability to win over independent voters.

If you look at the current Pollster.com trend, 38 percent of voters self-identify as Independents, 37 percent as Democrats,...

For all the attention that the Bush administration torture memos have been receiving over past month, those documents pale in comparison to the revelations documented in the leaked 40-page report issued by the International Committee for the Red Cross following two rounds of private interviews it held with...

Today, former Gov. Tom Ridge (R-PA) announced that he will not run for the Senate next year. The decision dramatically increases the chances that Democrats will hold that newly-acquired seat since no other potential GOP candidate was anywhere close to Ridge's stature.

Said Ridge:

I am enormously...

Like most Democrats, I was pretty tickled to watch Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) defect from the Republican Party and join our team last week. Aside from that sometimes important 60-seat thingee, it was again a brutal reminder of the spiral death trap that has consumed the GOP since the 2004...

A couple of very interesting developments in the ongoing saga of the most vulnerable Senate incumbent in 2010 -- Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY).

As you probably know, with all independent polling showing Bunning getting routed in next year's general election, Republican leaders -- led by Senate Minority Leader...

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is no one -- neither the media nor the Democrats -- pushing back on Dick Cheney's latest rant that torture produced intelligence that saved American lives, simply pointing out that America's moral and legal code never embraces an "ends justify the means" approach?...

During my years in politics, I've learned that there are three main types of politicos.

First, there are those who are well-ahead of public on the issues and advocate for them even if not popular (i.e., the visionary type). Al Gore is an excellent example, as he...

Beyond the effort to incite some of the most extreme elements of its party, maybe the most noteworthy development by the Republican Party over the past year has been what appears to be a concerted new election strategy in any close contest -- starting with the Minnesota Senate recount and...

Have you ever wondered what the marketplace is asking for a signed, hardcover copy of books by our leading political figures? Well, last night I browsed the collectible versions of a number of such books over at Amazon.com and the results are interesting and occasionally unexpected.

Turns out that no...

Having spent more than four years in Kentucky politics, I can say quite definitively that it's a fascinatingly complicated state when it comes to politics.

From one perspective, the state looks as red as they get. Its senior senator is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and they gave John...

Remember the story about the loony freshman House Republican -- Bill Posey -- who last month introduced a bill that would require presidential candidates to present a birth certificate establishing their U.S. citizenship before running for office?

Well, according to the official congressional website that tracks legislation --

I was flipping through Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's one-on-one network interviews from yesterday and ran across something that I found disturbing.

Below is an exchange between Clinton and CNN's Jill Dougherty, one of its top foreign affairs reporters concerning the Obama Administration's decision to offer an...

Leave it to Comedy Central -- this time Stephen Colbert -- to do the traditional media's job in exposing the fanatical charlatans like Glenn Beck, just as Jon Stewart masterfully dismantled CNBC last month:

Have...

While most of us know that China and Japan are the two nations that hold the greatest portion of America's national debt, last night I took the time to find out how much debt is held by other nations.

Here are the most current figures as released by Treasury...

Imagine the GOP reaction if MSNBC's Keith Olbermann agreed to host a DCCC fundraiser.

Now consider this:

Conservative CNBC host Larry Kudlow, rumored to be mulling a bid against Chris Dodd next year, is headlining a March 24th fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee at DC's Building Museum,...

According to the AP:

The Republican National Committee will report raising $5.1 million during February, Michael Steele's rocky first month as the GOP's party chairman.

That's according to figures obtained by The Associated Press.

While the RNC took in $13.2 million in January, I...

Anyone else wondering, as I am, whether some of those scary fanatical conservatives, who had such a serious problem with America electing a black president, will see an opportunity for a consolation prize, of sorts, by taking down Michael Steele as RNC chairman?

I suspect those folks' hatred for Obama...