A quick point of clarification about this piece.
I want to be clear that I don’t think Republicans “won” sequestration, in that I don’t think sequestration is any kind of prize, or somehow a worse penalty for Democrats than for Republicans to suffer. Sequestration sucks for everyone. What Democrats lost was a gamble that Republican leaders would fold quickly as sequestration approached or just after it kicked in. Instead, we’re looking at an unstable, unhappy equilibrium where the consequences of the cuts aren’t severe enough to knock either party off its bottom line. Read More
Back in the 1980s and 90s there was this comical line that once Republicans finally cracked the African-American vote Democrats would be out of business forever. In other words, once Republicans got 100% of the Southern whites and all the blacks, Dems would be toast. To which one might say, yeah, that really would be awful for Dems’ electoral prospects. On the other hand, if you have any feel for American politics, that’s just not going to happen. Democrats actually tried; it didn’t work. Read More
Eric Lach takes a look at the NRA’s international efforts to resist gun control.
TPM Reader JT checks in from the front lines of the sequester:
Many of the stories regarding sequestration have spoken only generally about which services will be affected instead of the more interesting question, to what degree that the public will notice.
In my case, I work as an air traffic controller at an air route traffic control center, a facility which handles the airspace between your departure and destination airports.
No one is to the right of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on immigration reform. But in what may be a sign of the broader conservative softening on the issue, Cuccinelli has removed the hardcore nativist immigration page from his gubernatorial campaign website.
Ex-RNC Chief Michael Steele wonders if GOP minority outreach can really work with GOP minority voter suppression. Watch.
In case you missed it, former Gov. Mark Sanford made it into a runoff for the GOP nomination for the SC-01 congressional seat yesterday. The winner of the runoff will face Stephen Colbert’s sister Elizabeth Colbert Busch, who won the Democratic primary.
Remember the ‘union thugs’ who attacked that Fox News comedian in Michigan? Prosecutors say the guy was acting in self-defense, won’t press charges. Video was selectively edited, par for the course.
The way sequester is playing out is looking a lot more like what Republicans had in mind than what Democrats had hoped might happen. Brian Beutler explains.
Benjy Sarlin runs through the numerous new developments on immigration reform that show how much the ground has shifted.