A 90 to 5 vote is a good show of bipartisan legislation, right?
Well, yes and no…
From CNN:
The Senate on Tuesday voted 90-5 to approve a bill that will make it tougher for credit card issuers to raise fees and interest rates starting early next year. [...]
The bill will now go to the House, which is [...]

So, Dick Cheney has been going around telling everyone that President Obama is making us less safe by daring to change some of the Bush era national security policies. But Jack Goldsmith at The New Republic says Cheney’s criticisms don’t hold up. Obama has actually changed very little outside rhetoric and packaging.
Goldsmith details eleven policy [...]

This is an extreme example, but I can’t help but think car companies can easily hit the 35 MPG mileage standards Obama is about to lay out if the following is possible for a street ready car.
From Green Car:
Volkswagen’s CEO, Martin Winterkorn recently confirmed the company is working on a car that will get 235 [...]

Jesse Ventura on The View recently…

By the way, I don’t agree with Hasselbeck being called a “right wing idiot” on the title of this video, but I can’t take it off and I think the point is valid enough to post.

Gallup shows that between 2001 and 2009 the biggest losses are among those who have a college education, but the losses in many important demographic groups like Gen Yers, Midwesteners and moderates are also significant because that’s where the GOP has to be strong or else they’ll lose a generation of voters.

What to say about [...]

There’s an old saying in business. If you can double your price and lose less than half of your customers, you should do it.
Looks like Newsweek is taking the spirt of this idea to heart if the plan behind the re-imagining of their publication is any indication. Because there focus will be less on the [...]

This is a pretty big stake in the ground, because they’ll be using California’s standards…the toughest in the nation.
No doubt you’ll be hearing that this is bad for business, but that’s what they said about seat belts, airbags and every other time CAFE standards were raised. And I think we’re all fairly aware that the [...]

“If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout. That’s just the truth.”
- A GOP strategist for John McCain and Jon Huntsman
Here’s more about Hunstman specifically and Obama’s savvy move to make him ambassador to China…
Now, Huntsman’s decision to accept the president’s invitation to [...]

Has the controversy surrounding Nancy Pelosi’s statements on torture made the Speaker vulnerable to a coup? John Feehery of Politico thinks so.
Feehery compares Pelosi to Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, two former leaders in congress whose declining popularity intersected with controversial statements and resulted in political ouster. Pelosi is already a toxic name for Blue [...]

Tim Kaine and Michael Steele talk about the first 100 days and where Obama is going.

Well, at least the far left.
And hey, fair enough. I don’t agree with many of his recent decisions either, especially the ones regarding the Abu Gharib photos and detainee policies.
But Obama talked at length during the campaign about taking more centrist positions and trying to find common ground and that’s what he’s doing. [...]

This is a pretty surprising turn of events, because not only was Huntsman mentioned by many as a potential presidential contender in 2012, but this move will have the net effect of thumbing his nose at the entire Republican party. Because if anybody is Mr Bipartisanship in the Republican party, it’s Hunstman.
Mix this in with [...]

The global warming debate is heating up in the House, leading to the kind of quirky moments that are a common feature of life on the Hill.
Next week, Henry Waxman (D-CA), will bring his Waxman-Markey climate-control bill before the Energy and Commerce Committee he chairs.
Just minutes after Waxman announced he was “very, very close” to [...]

Usually, when people debate why the conservative movement has hit hard times, they argue about whether Republicans are fiscally conservative enough or whether they are too focused on social issues. Rarely does the third tent pole of modern conservativism get mentioned: the national security conservatives. But that’s the exact group to blame argues Daniel Larison [...]

David Brooks identifies a key problem with the health care reform legislation milling around Congress: it may not save us much money:
If you read the C.B.O. testimony and talk to enough experts, you come away with a stark conclusion: There are deep structural forces, both in Medicare and the private insurance market, that have driven [...]

In a bid to survive bankruptcy, Chrsyler is closing nearly 800 dealerships, a full quarter of the company’s dealers. The dealers themselves had no say.
While bankruptcy may be a better long-term solution for Chrysler than continued government bailouts, the short-term will not be pretty. Car dealerships provide a lot of jobs and a lot of [...]

When it comes to waterboarding, the question now surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is what did she know and when did she know it. Today, Pelosi claimed what she knew, at least at first, was a lie.
[T]he House’s top Democrat, speaking at a news conference in the Capitol, was unequivocal about a CIA briefing she [...]

While some have worried that the Democratic controlled Congress might strip our war efforts of funding, that wasn’t the case in the House where members passed $97 billion in war funding by a vote of 368-60 — $12 billion more than President Obama requested.
The senate is in the process of passing a similar bill, making [...]

Political Wire shares some news about Intrade futures and says that Sonomayor is still in the lead…
Intrade has opened betting markets for the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice with Sonia Sotomayor currently the favored candidate at a 28% chance. Elena Kagan has a 23% chance of becoming the next justice, followed by Diane Wood and [...]