The Republican Leadership Council Inspired by a drive to get back to the fundamentals of the Republican Party, Senator John Danforth, Lt. Governor Michael Steele, and Governor Christine Todd Whitman created the political organization the Republican Leadership Council, which advocates for the historic Republican principles of liberty, individual responsibility, and personal freedom. RLC-PAC’s vision is...

Four former Senate leaders. Howard Baker, R-Tenn.; George Mitchell, D-Maine; Bob Dole, R-Kan.; and Tom Daschle, D-S.D. have formed the The Bipartisan Policy Center aimed at putting aside partisan politics and offering solutions to the nation’s biggest issues. “We’ve all been leaders and you know how difficult it is,” said Dole, who served as both majority and minority leader between 1985...

When King Solomon was faced with two women claiming the same baby, he offered to cut the baby in half so that each claimant could have part of the child. The real mother, of course, was willing to give up the baby rather than see it die. What if there had been a thousand claimants, and none of them had been willing to preserve the baby over their own interests? Obviously, that motherless baby would have died...

File this in your Here We Go Again Department file: Fresh off their battle for the hearts of black Americans, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are about to go head to head for Jewish votes. The leaders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 plan dueling receptions Monday when an influential pro-Israeli lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, holds its major Washington policy conference. The...

That’s George W. Bush’s job approval rating according to Zogby International. While overall, 30% gave Bush positive marks for his leadership of the nation, 69% gave him negative ratings. Sixty-one percent of Republicans gave Bush positive marks, compared with just 7% of Democrats and 20% of self-described independents. In December, 60% of Republicans gave Bush positive ratings, compared with 9%...

The Times reports that a war of words has broken out between Taiwan and China yesterday “when Beijing criticised the President of Taiwan for making strident calls for independence.” For those who don’t know, Tainwan’s president Chen Shui-bian said: “Taiwan should be independent. Taiwan is a country whose sovereignty lies outside the People’s Republic of China.” Also: The...

Commentator Ann Coulter was reportedly going to appear on CNN last night but cancelled the appearance and instead appeared on….you guessed it…Fox News’ Hannity And Colmes. Think Progress has the video here. But yours truly did see the interview where when Alan Colmes read an email from a viewer Coulter immediately said it was a typical liberal reaction…and Colmes pointed out that the...

Question: did he quit — or was he shoved? The Justice Department official who told seven United States attorneys in December that they were being dismissed said Monday that he was resigning. There seems to be a lot of that going around in the Bush administration and the military these days. MORE: Michael A. Battle, director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, said in a statement that his...

From Fox News: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is meeting with pollsters and consultants to assess his chances at winning the White House as an independent candidate. Political adviser Kevin Sheekey told Newsweek: “There is no Bloomberg campaign. But we have certainly reached out.” Sheekey adds that whether he runs “depends on who the nominees are for the two major parties, and how much cash...

“Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?” –Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1930). Is this truly the time to ask: “Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Ann Coulter getting carte blanche to be viewed as a symbol of conservatism?” It looks that way after a virtual firestorm of condemnation following her own supposedly botched joke — using the politically taboo (for anyone...

As the political world watches the (for now) political descent of once GOP front-runner Arizona Senator John McCain, polls continue to show that the person now rising on the political see-saw is a certain former mayor of NYC who isn’t a conservative’s dream candidate — but may be the dream candidate of more pragmatic GOPers. Newsweek reports: Maybe it is Giuliani time, after all. Former New...

Yesterday we ran THIS long post and roundup on the controversy surrounding commentator Ann Coulter’s latest verbal bombshell from the septic tank of thought. A few readers emailed us saying we were unfair — that we should have posted the You Tube directly and let readers decide how she was received for themselves. Fair enough… So — by popular request — 4 U:

Hasn’t it come time to finally say it? Commentator Ann Coulter has gone way beyond being a provocative speaker and writer and has evolved into someone who is no longer just a verbal bomb thrower but someone who demeans those who invite her to speak. What more can you conclude from her latest explosive device– something marking yet another new chapter in the ongoing vulgarization and cheapening of...

Regarding our “Facing the Music” project, we wanted readers to know that — through a combination of tactics — we have made at least one contact with the campaigns of each of the following. This list is focused on the contenders who have issued a “Statement of Candidacy,” according to the WaPo’s tracking list, which seems to be generally up to date. For the Democrats:...

Over at The Reaction, co-blogger J. Kingston Pierce has posted what I think is one of the very best obituaries of the late historian and Kennedy advisor I’ve come across. It includes a great overview of Schlesinger’s life and many admirable accomplishments. In the end: “Schlesinger, understandably inspired to his future by his father, showed an obvious curiosity about what had been and what...

In the New York Times today three adjacent articles caught my attention. The House passed legislation to help Unions organize by allowing them to replace secret ballots with non secret ballots. It is asserted that businesses can intimidate union organizers and influence the secret ballot union vote. What is proposed is that Union organizers can approach each employee and ask them to sign a card endorsing the...

GOP Hunts the House for One-Term Wonders in 2008 As the Crystal Ball gazes into the future of Congress’s lower chamber beyond 2008, what should it consider? Should we read anything into the moderate success of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s early leadership? No, the elections are too far away for it to really matter. Forgive us as we turn our attention to popular music for a moment. With apologies to fans...

The Washington Post today has a commentary about The Myth of the Middle The writers observe that there is a wide disparity of opinion on controverisal issues between liberal, conservative and even independent voters and that their representatives are merely reflecting this divide. Centrism and bi-partisanship is a myth. This is a recurring topic because it is a comparison of apples and oranges: Policy and process....

So now the big non-drama is finally over: Arizona Senator John McCain has declared his candidacy for Presidency on David Letterman. But if you look at recent polls, it seems that many voters would have thought his announcement would have been more suitable on Trading Places. In six years McCain has gone from being perceived as a fiercely-independent Senator with lion-like political bravery to someone accused...

Mick LaSalle has published the ninth chapter of The Event. It’s a great chapter. The press is falling all over Wade and Priscilla. Within a couple of days Wade is fired. Priscilla starts being asked by major networks to appear on shows and to comment on what happened. She’s becoming a symbol for those who oppose president East… East, meanwhile, isn’t about to let anybody stop him. He’s...

More bad news for Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain — the media’s and talking heads’ perceived front-runners for their respective parties’ 2008 Presidential nomination. It’s called EROSION: The opening stages of the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination have produced a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters, who little more...

Maybe you ought to think again.