Most of the Republican arguments against the stimulus bill have been sore loserism and cheesy politics at the least appropriate time–a moment of crisis. And many of the arguments Christopher Caldwell makes in this piece reflect the defects of the Republican position–spending money on education isn’t “welfare.” Indeed, if done right, it’s a form of [...]

At the start of the year, Barack Obama’s team announced, to some significant fanfare, that the president wanted 40 percent of the stimulus package, or about $300 billion, to come in the form of tax cuts. On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill passed out of the House last week. It  contains only [...]

Recently-elected RNC Chair Michael Steele addressed House Republicans today, speaking up the importance of continued opposition to Barack Obama and the House Democrats when neccesary. “The goose egg you laid on the president’s desk was just beautiful,” he told the crowd, of their recent unanimous opposition to the House stimulus bill. (Hear his further thoughts [...]

H/T Michael Turk.

George W. Bush may have left the building, but the the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives isn’t going anywhere. It’s just being reinvented. In the middle of the presidential campaign last summer, Barack Obama surprised a lot of people from both parties when he announced that the faith-based office not only wouldn’t [...]

The Maryland Republican is the new chair of the RNC after six rounds of balloting. His initial reaction: “This is awesome.” UPDATE: Change the GOP can believe in? From Steele’s acceptance speech, going on now: “For those of you who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over.”

Well, maybe just some promising news: the team being assembled to tackle Afghanistan is quite impressive. A few days ago, it was announced that Vali Nasr, the brilliant Shi’ite scholar, would be a senior advisor to Richard Holbrooke’s negotiating team. Nasr’s book, The Shia Revival, is one of the indispensable works about the region and [...]

The Washington rumor mill is working overtime on speculation that President Obama may name Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) as his new Commerce secretary. Official word from both camps is decidedly mum and cagey (Gibbs: “I’m not going to play the name game. The president hasn’t made his decision on the next Commerce Secretary yet.”). For [...]

From the print magazine, Massimo Calabresi and I have a story on Larry Summers, who has quickly become perhaps the most powerful economist in the world, meeting daily with President Obama to design a dramatic remaking of the U.S. Government’s role in the economy. An excerpt: But with unemployment soaring toward 25-year highs, housing prices [...]