This theme—the government is broken, frozen, incapacitated, petty, pathetic—is everywhere. TIME and CNN have even made it a week-long theme. Newsweek’s Jon Meacham, in typical mahogany-paneled erudition, devotes his weekly column to assuring his readers that history has seen even worse. A new poll shows that 86 percent of Americans …
john mccain
McCain Gets a Primary Challenger
Sure, McCain’s had two primary opponents for months, but this one is so big that one of those original challengers — Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. founder Chris Simcox — actually stepped down and endorsed the new challenger. The newcomer isn’t really all that new, former Arizona Rep. J. D. Hayworth, who lost his seat in 2006. Hayworth …
The Freshman Class and Health Reform Cost Containment
Lately, there has been no shortage of criticism that the Democratic health care bill doesn’t do enough to cut health care spending. My colleague Karen Tumulty had a great story in the magazine recently about how cost-containment provisions in health reform legislation have been whittled down. Right now, on the Senate floor, a group of …
McCain, Maverick No More?
John McCain returned to the Senate in 2000 a virtual liberal: throwing bombs at his Republican leaders (and especially George W. Bush).
John McCain returned to the Senate in 2009 a virtual conservative: a model Republican and leading critic of President Obama – especially, these days, on the war in Afghanistan.
McCain’s …