PostPartisan

PostScript: Krauthammer and deliberately bad customer service

Rachel Manteuffel — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:42:37 GMT

Even if the President is not directly implicated in the IRS scandal, Charles Krauthammer writes today, it doesn’t mean he’s blameless. Krauthammer says Obama’s dismissive and combative attitude toward the conservative media and advocacy groups might have fostered an atmosphere … Continue reading →

Post-policy House Republicans double their priority agenda!

Jonathan Bernstein — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:31:28 GMT

A month ago, I noted an oddity about House Republicans. The House majority party has a tradition of reserving the first 10 numbered bills for the party agenda, and they have done so this year — but nine of the … Continue reading →

1 pic of p-Op culture

Jonathan Capehart — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:21:00 GMT

The horror of Oklahoma unfolded on live television Monday afternoon. For nearly an hour, a 1.3-mile-wide tornado raked across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and left the suburb of Moore littered in a destructive confetti of wood, bricks, glass and … Continue reading →

The Boy Scouts vote for gay inclusion — up to a point

Jonathan Capehart — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:02:10 GMT

The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) took a step into the 21st century by approving a resolution that reads: “No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual … Continue reading →

PostScript: McConnell and free speech

Rachel Manteuffel — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:01:51 GMT

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appears with an opinion piece on our page today. He argues that the IRS and AP scandals are part of a pattern with the Obama administration’s push for the disclosure of political donors. Once the … Continue reading →

Take Anthony Weiner seriously

Jonathan Capehart — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:43:45 GMT

Laugh all you want about Anthony Weiner. He of the crotch shot seen ’round the world that forced him to resign his New York City congressional seat two years ago next month. The brash Big Apple native is now running … Continue reading →

“Nuclear” skirmishes continue

Jonathan Bernstein — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:53:16 GMT

The current prelude to a showdown over filibusters between Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid can be understood as a game in which Democrats prefer Republican retreat from obstruction to eliminating the filibuster altogether, which means that McConnell’s goal is to … Continue reading →

Immigration reform is a front in the fight for LGBT rights

Jonathan Capehart — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:17:09 GMT

With 11 million undocumented immigrants eager to come out of the shadows, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) was right to pull a provision of the massive immigration bill that would have allowed American gay men and lesbians to sponsor their … Continue reading →

Anthony Weiner and the Frenchification of America

Richard Cohen — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:33:51 GMT

Say what you will about Anthony Weiner — and I have — he is a stereotype buster. Until he announced this week that he would run for New York City mayor, it was still possible for anyone, particularly the French, … Continue reading →

The biggest need for Senate reform? Executive branch nominations

Jonathan Bernstein — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:09:48 GMT

If the Democrats are really going to move toward majority-imposed reform in the Senate, it makes sense that they seem to be focused on executive-branch nominations — and, in fact, that’s where action is most justified. The filibuster was a major factor … Continue reading →

PostScript: Milbank and sympathy for the devil

Rachel Manteuffel — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:52:24 GMT

Dana Milbank explains today that you might not be sympathetic toward the journalist the FBI has named in an affidavit as a possible co-conspirator in national security leaks. In fact, nobody might be sympathetic, because almost everyone either has a natural antipathy … Continue reading →

The Insiders: A special prosecutor in the IRS matter is inevitable

Ed Rogers — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:56:57 GMT

This administration’s management of the Obama Internal Revenue Service scandal so far consists of a slow-walking, rolling disclosure of facts; equal parts equivocation, amnesia and indignation from IRS witnesses; deer-in-the-headlights non-responses by the White House press secretary; parsed, lawyerly statements … Continue reading →

Obama’s gay inclusion at Morehouse

Jonathan Capehart — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:26:36 GMT

President Obama’s commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta certainly has gotten a lot of attention. Quite a few Africans Americans don’t like how he talks to predominantly black audiences. As The Post’s Vanessa Williams reported yesterday, “The personal-responsibility finger-wagging … Continue reading →

PostScript: Robinson and spying on the press

Rachel Manteuffel — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:36:18 GMT

Eugene Robinson writes in his column today that it is a big problem when the Obama administration can snoop into reporters’ telephone and email records whenever it suspects someone is leaking to reporters classified information relating to national security. Because … Continue reading →

Obama can’t win with some black critics

Jonathan Capehart — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:07:29 GMT

Here we go again. President Obama’s critics in the African American community are hammering him for doing nothing for black people. Drawing my attention this time is “How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America” by Ta-Nehisi Coates of the … Continue reading →

Look beyond the 1990s for a full picture of presidential approval

Jonathan Bernstein — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:39:28 GMT

The voices of reason have spoken, and they have concluded Barack Obama isn’t being hurt by scandalmania because perceptions of the economy are improving. That’s the determination of the Post’s polling and politics team. Others agree: Nate Silver suspects the … Continue reading →

The Insiders: Obama needs a plan

Ed Rogers — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:21:17 GMT

It’s no secret that President Obama is in trouble. But, as I said last week, he’s down but not out. President Obama needs to take a page out of the Bill Clinton playbook. Part of the genius of former president Bill … Continue reading →

Still hoping for a filibuster compromise

Jonathan Bernstein — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:32:10 GMT

I wrote on Friday about what now looks like a coming showdown in the Senate over Republican obstruction. For more on the chess game involved, see Senate scholar Sarah Binder here and here; she gets into some of the complex … Continue reading →

Tornado devastates Oklahoma

Jonathan Capehart — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:18:45 GMT

The tornado that ground its way through Moore, Okla., was massive. Some estimates put it at a mile wide. The video of the storm as it cut its destructive path seemed unending. And when it was over and the clouds … Continue reading →

All laughs in the presidents’ club

Jonathan Capehart — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:14:42 GMT

You know how I feel about seeing all the living presidents together. Their rare gatherings together say more to the world about our democracy than any history lesson ever could. But there’s something especially rich and sentimental about this photo … Continue reading →

The Insiders: ‘Nothing to see here’ is not a viable strategy

Ed Rogers — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:34:03 GMT

As I’ve always said, in Washington, being guilty is just a disadvantage; it’s not determinative. Likewise, being innocent is just an advantage; it’s not determinative either. Well, we’re now one week into the trifecta of scandals plaguing the White House. … Continue reading →

Troubling signs for Burma’s reforms?

Fred Hiatt — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:32:26 GMT

President Thein Sein of Burma, the former general who President Obama hopes is leading a transition from dictatorship to democracy in his Southeast Asian nation, is not an imposing figure, and the longer you talk with him, the less imposing … Continue reading →

Being gay can (still) get you killed

Jonathan Capehart — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:02:02 GMT

For all my cheerleading of the advances the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has made in this country, I know that things are not as wonderful as they could be or should be. Being gay can (still) get you … Continue reading →

No ‘choice’ in being gay and ‘ordinary’

Jonathan Capehart — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:00:58 GMT

Let me let you in on a little secret about the gays. We’re not all that special. Yeah, we spruce up forgotten, neglected neighborhoods and make them hip. Sure, we’ve been known to spruce up straight men and help women … Continue reading →

PostScript: Krauthammer and de-Watergating Benghazi

Rachel Manteuffel — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:16:09 GMT

An unusual thing happened at the top of Charles Krauthammer’s column today. He urged caution, specifically to the GOP, in comparing Benghazigate to previous bigtime Presidential scandals. Overhyping the scandal in terms of what, politically, it might accomplish — bringing … Continue reading →