It was the year of #slutbag and shutdowns … and so much more.
But what appealed to you the most? Which TPM stories captured the most attention?
Here they are — the most-read TPM stories of 2013:
10. HOLDER TO ISSA: YOUR CONDUCT IS ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ AND ‘SHAMEFUL’
By Sahil Kapur
“At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Eric Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) clashed as the Attorney General tore into the Republican oversight chairman’s conduct as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘shameful.'” Read more …
9. HORRIFYING THREATS AGAINST CONGRESSWOMAN TIED TO OBSCURE HARE KRISHNA SECT
“On Wednesday, a man named Aniruddha Sherbow was arrested in Mexico for allegedly making threats against Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a freshman congresswoman who House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has described as a ‘rising star.'” Read more …
8. THE HOUSE GOP’S LITTLE RULE CHANGE THAT GUARANTEED A SHUTDOWN
By Dylan Scott
“Late on the night of Sept. 30, with the federal government just hours away from shutting down, House Republicans quietly made a small change to the House rules that blocked a potential avenue for ending the shutdown.” Read more …
7. MCCAIN TO FOX NEWS: NO, THE SHUTDOWN IS THE GOP’S FAULT
By Tom Kludt
“Let’s have a little straight talk, Martha,” McCain said. “[The administration] wouldn’t have had the opportunity to handle it that way if we had not shut down the government on a fool’s errand that we were not going to accomplish. The whole premise of shutting down the government was the repeal of Obamacare. I fought against Obamacare harder than any of the people who wanted to shut down the government.” Read more …
6. SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: HOW INSURERS ARE HIDING OBAMACARE BENEFITS FROM CUSTOMERS
By Dylan Scott
“Across the country, insurance companies have sent misleading letters to consumers, trying to lock them into the companies’ own, sometimes more expensive health insurance plans rather than let them shop for insurance and tax credits on the Obamacare marketplaces — which could lead to people spending thousands more for insurance than the law intended.” Read more …
5. TOP WEINER AIDE TRASHES INTERN WHO WROTE CAMPAIGN TELL-ALL
“TPM called Weiner’s communications director Barbara Morgan to discuss an unrelated story Tuesday and she went off on a curse-filled rant about former campaign intern Olivia Nuzzi, describing her as a fame hungry ‘bitch’ who ‘sucked’ at her job. Morgan also called Nuzzi a ‘slutbag,’ ‘twat,’ and ‘cunt’ while threatening to sue her.” Read more …
4. BOOKER OK WITH SPECULATION THAT HE’S GAY: ‘SO WHAT DOES IT MATTER IF I AM?’
“People who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, ‘So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight.’” Read more …
3. CHARLIE RANGEL: TEA PARTY IS ‘SAME GROUP’ OF ‘WHITE CRACKERS’ WHO FOUGHT CIVIL RIGHTS
“It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked,” Rep Charlie Rangel (D-NY) told the Daily Beast. Read more …
2. PAULA DEEN ON HER DREAM ‘SOUTHERN PLANTATION WEDDING’
“Last month, Food Network chef Paula Deen gave a videotaped deposition as part of a discrimination suit she’s facing in which she discussed her desire to have a ‘very southern style wedding’ for her brother modeled after a restaurant where the ‘whole entire wait staff was middle-aged black men’ clad in white jackets and black bow ties, according to a transcript of the deposition filed in federal court in Georgia. Deen also admitted to having used the N word and discussed the ways the word could be ‘not said in a mean way.'” Read more …
1. WHY DO POOR PEOPLE ‘WASTE’ MONEY ON LUXURY GOODS?
By Tressie McMillan Cottom at TPMCafe
“We hates us some poor people. First, they insist on being poor when it is so easy to not be poor. They do things like buy expensive designer belts and $2500 luxury handbags.” Read more …
Lead image by Shutterstock.com/Denis Vrublevski
