As political rancor in Washington heightens speculation about a government shutdown tonight, there has been an erosion in the proportion of Americans who identify with the most conservative members of the national electorate. 23% of U.S. registered voters now consider themselves to be supporters of the Tea Party. This is […] Read more »
National stakes in Virginia’s gubernatorial race
… Cuccinelli matches the profile of the kind of candidate whom many Republican activists wish their party would nominate for national office — someone authentically and unapologetically conservative and willing to fight for those ideas. To these conservatives, the past two Republican presidential nominees, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in […] Read more »
How to Explain the Rise of Ted Cruz
Anyone remember back to February when Time magazine anointed Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio as the GOP’s “savior” on its cover? Seven months later, it’s Rubio’s Cuban-American Texas doppelganger, Sen. Ted Cruz, who has grabbed the party’s attention—or, more precisely, seized its throat. … Cruz’s rise offers more evidence that a […] Read more »
Where the GOP’s suicide caucus lives
… The ability of eighty members of the House of Representatives to push the Republican Party into a strategic course that is condemned by the party’s top strategists is a historical oddity. It’s especially strange when you consider some of the numbers behind the suicide caucus. As we approach a […] Read more »
Ted Cruz: The Great Uniter
It’s hard to get Democrats and Republicans to agree on much of anything these days. Ted Cruz has managed to bridge that partisan gap all by himself. And, precisely because of himself. I asked a group of long-time Hill watchers if they’d ever seen another member of Congress alienate friends […] Read more »
Tea Party Support Dwindles to Near-Record Low
As Washington braces for another budget showdown, this time with the threat of defunding the new healthcare law in the mix, the key political force pushing for conservative policies sees diminished popular support. Fewer Americans now describe themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement than did at the height […] Read more »