Boehner’s Economic Speech

House Minority Leader John Boehner today laid out five prescriptions for the Obama Administration on the economy and gave a flavor of what he might do if he becomes Speaker after the midterms. In a speech at Cleveland’s historic City Club, where every virtually president has spoken since Teddy Roosevelt, Boehner slammed the President for [...]

RE: Rangel’s Rant

Thanks to TIME’s Katy Steinmetz, a rough transcript of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s speech on the floor today: The Speaker Pro Tempore: For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? The house will be in order. Members will take their seats. The house will be in order. Members will please clear the aisles. [...]

Rangel’s Rant

Video courtesy of C-SPAN In an unprecedented 31-minute speech on the House floor done against the advice of lawyers and friends, Rep. Charlie Rangel, attacked head on the allegations against him and the process under which he said he’s suffered unfairly. Rangel seemed to indicate that he’s fired his lawyers, telling them he can no [...]

Why God Invented C-SPAN

Retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, is clearly upset with the media’s morbid fascination with Tickle-Me-Massa. He feels that this episode is robbing newspaper inches and front-page real estate from the coverage our brave colleagues are producing out of Afghanistan. And when I say upset, I mean really, really, really, really upset. Like [...]

Did Palin Have a Crib Sheet?

The Q&A portion of Sarah Palin’s appearance before the National Tea Party Convention was supposed to be a casual give and take of a few pre-submitted and pre-screened questions. We don’t know if Palin got those questions in advance but at one point during the session she seems to be reading something off of her [...]

Palin’s Speech

The Grand Ole Opry may have been next door but Sarah Palin preached to the choir on Saturday at the National Tea Party Convention and brought down the house. The two-day event, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Hotel, had been a relatively placid affair – Tea Partiers learned how to social network and [...]

Congress’s Tepid Reaction to Obama’s Afghanistan Plan

Congressional reaction to the 30,000-troop surge in Afganistan was as tepid as President Obama’s West Point speech. As details of the plan leaked out throughout the day — with more than 30 members traveling to the White House to be personally briefed — few spoke with passion: no one – including Obama – mentioned human [...]

The Swooning Over Sarah…

About the loneliest precinct in the GOP these days is the one reserved for troublesome Republicans who think Gov. Sarah Palin was a poor VP choice, even after The Speech. Well, here I am. Hello? Anybody else? Wow, there is a big echo in here… In my postings here and my appearances on NBC I’ve [...]

Obama on Gustav

As a journalist who has covered Obama for 19 months now, I have heard him deliver more speeches than I can count. I know when he’s tired he goes long – like 90 minutes long – rambling through oft-repeated points and stories. I’ve seen him address crowds of 80,000 and rooms of less than 100. [...]

A Mini Preview of Obama’s Speech

Given Obama’s statements in Moline that he wasn’t aiming for soaring rhetoric in his acceptance speech tomorrow, it’s not entirely surprising that a reporter on Obama’s flight in to Denver from Billings, Montana today asked David Axelrod: Is Obama aiming for boring? Axelrod laughed and snarkily replied: “Yeah, that’s why it’s taken so long, because [...]