Time to update the Hatch Act to prohibit IRS agents from playing politics?
The Hatch Act of 1939 (officially called An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities) was last amended in 2012. It might be time to amend it again.
As you might have heard, Bill Kristol is telling Sen. Marco Rubio to bail on the immigration bill. As Politico reported, “He should walk away from it,' Kristol said Tuesday on 'The Laura Ingraham Show.' 'He should say, I made a good faith effort, but you know what, this is not a piece of legislation.'"
The Hatch Act of 1939 (officially called An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities) was last amended in 2012. It might be time to amend it again.
A week ago, I noted that Republicans and Democrats seemed to be agreeing on a scandal narrative which says President Obama isn't evil, but instead, incompetent. (Or, as I wrote, "Obama isn’t a bad guy, he’s merely out of the loop...He is 'President Passerby,'as Dana Milbank calls him.")
This weekend, delegates to the Virginia Republican Party's convention nominated E.W. Jackson, an African American pastor, for Lt. governor. Almost immediately, he came under fire for past comments, including a line about how it's time for black voters, "to end the slavish devotion to the Democrat Party."
In the midst of scandal -- and yet again plagued by rain -- President Obama delivered a very good speech Sunday at Morehouse College. But few seem to have noticed or cared. After all, nobody ever accused him of not being a good speaker.
Having endured more than a week of scandal, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday, President Obama's approval ratings remained untouched at 53 percent.
A couple weeks ago, I made a conservative defense of government. As I wrote, "Conservatives rightly hate nanny-state government and big-spending bureaucracy. But too often, the word 'government' has become unfair shorthand for what is actually only bad or oppressive government."
Yesterday on Bloggingheads, Bill Scher, my liberal sparring partner, argued that pursuing "scandal politics" doesn't make sense for the Republicans. In a column at The Week today, he sounds a similar note, reminding us that Iran-Contra didn't keep George H.W. Bush from winning what amounted to Reagan's third term, and that it was Newt Gingrich -- not Bill Clinton -- who was forced out of office as a result of the Lewinsky scandal.
Perhaps you've heard all the doom and gloom about how immigration reform will guarantee Republicans can never win another future election?
As President Obama defensively declared the other week, reports of his political death are exaggerated. Republicans, I agree, should be careful to avoid premature triumphalism.
In a hard-hitting post at Catholic Online, Deal Hudson writes that his support of immigration reform, "was motivated, in part, by the ridiculous attacks on Sen. Rubio, such as that of the venerable National Review, which was once the flagship of the conservative movement."
There is a danger to having panache. Sure, it helps you become famous and land a cable TV gig. But being quotable is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, just blending in is the way to go.
Now that it seems obvious the Obama scandals won't merely fade away, the White House has segued from blame avoidance to blame shifting. Even accepting that horrible things happened -- Benghazi emails were revised, conservative groups were targeted, journalists were spied on -- motive is everything.
Now that Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty of murder, it's time to turn to the politicians who looked the other way and permitted these atrocities.
In recent days, the Obama Administration has been rocked by scandal. And in some ways, those scandals may overlap.
By now, you've probably heard that Jason Richwine, the co-author of the Heritage Foundation's immigration report, has resigned amid controversy.
Sen. Marco Rubio's Reclaim America PAC is taking to the air in New Hampshire to defend Sen. Kelly Ayotte from a barrage of negative attack ads launched by a group funded by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
It's that time of year again, when graduates who are about to enter a poor job market are first forced to endure boring graduation ceremony speakers.
A little over a year ago, I reported that, "It is likely that someone at the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked confidential donor information showing a contribution from Mitt Romney’s political action committee to the National Organization for Marriage, says the group."
This weekend, Gothamist, The Verge, Gawker -- and numerous other sites -- had a blast mocking a Newt Gingrich video, in which he solicits help finding a new name for our cellphones.