Speaker John Boehner’s resignation may have been prompted by a new fight over funding Planned Parenthood, but it was decades in the making. His announcement Friday is a result of the House Republican caucus’s transformation into a far more conservative and Southern body than it was a generation ago. It’s […] Read more »
72% of GOP Voters Dissatisfied With Boehner, McConnell
On the same day that House Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation, a whopping 72 percent of Republican primary voters said they were dissatisfied with his and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s ability to achieve GOP goals, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. CONT. Mark Murray, NBC […] Read more »
Congress and Its Leaders Suffer Public Discontent
Now on August recess, members of Congress returning to their districts may receive a skeptical reception from constituents, as 14% of U.S. adults approve of the job Congress is doing, down slightly from 17% in July. CONT. Andrew Dugan, Gallup Read more »
Congress’s Missteps Could Weigh Down Republican Candidates
When the Republican-run Congress convened in January, Senator Cory Gardner, a Colorado freshman, said his party’s task was to show it could govern “responsibly” and “maturely.” House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed. As Congress prepares to leave for its August recess, accomplishments, along with maturity, […] Read more »
As the G.O.P. Base Clamors for Confrontation, Candidates Oblige
For Senator Ted Cruz to call his party’s leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, a liar as he did Friday and again Sunday in the Senate was an extraordinary personal attack, but given how much the conservative base of the Republican Party has come to loathe its leaders, it was also good […] Read more »
No Cost for Extremism
… The GOP’s great right migration is the biggest story in American politics of the past 40 years. And it’s not just limited to Congress: GOP presidents have gotten steadily more conservative, too; conservative Republicans increasingly dominate state politics; and the current Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are among […] Read more »