Dionne and Galston, Brookings
Infographic from EJ Dionne and William Galston:
In less than a decade, public opinion has shifted dramatically toward support for the legalization of marijuana. The temptation is to conclude that the trend in favor of marijuana legalization is similar to the flow of opinion in favor of same-sex marriage, but not all hot-button social issues are created equal, according to a new paper from E.J. Dionne and William Galston.
Politico:
Establishment Republicans have spent years tiptoeing around the tea party, concerned that its hot rhetoric and deep pockets could wreak havoc in their ranks and further disrupt the national party leadership’s carefully-laid plans.
But Rep. Michele Bachmann’s sudden fall exposes the reality of tea party players: their power in Congress is mostly a mirage.
Politico:
Luis Miranda, former head of Hispanic media for the White House, has a warning for Hill Republicans: Block the nomination of Thomas Perez for Labor secretary at your own peril.
“I think that’s just the nature of what [Latinos] see come out of Washington, there’s automatically going to be a knee-jerk reaction [by Republicans],” Miranda, 36, said in an interview with POLITICO. “It’s not necessarily accurate, but some of the negative commentary about Judge [Sonia] Sotomayor… certainly reinforced that notion.”
More politics and policy below the fold.
Jonathan Chait takes apart Yuval Levin:
Yuval Levin, editor of the conservative journal National Affairs, frequent contributor to both National Review and the Weekly Standard, winner of the $250,000 Bradley Prize for excellence in the field of conservative punditry, and unofficial adviser to Paul Ryan, is probably the preeminent conservative intellectual of the Obama era. He has helped to formulate and justify the Republican strategy on domestic policy.
Unfortunately, as I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, two of the most important intellectual premises of that strategy have fallen to pieces. On Friday, Levin wrote a reply — or, at least, a column that purports to be a reply. Mainly, it is a series of evasions about what he and the Republicans have argued, serving only to further confirm the impression that Levin’s analysis has collapsed and he has no idea what to do about it.
Greg Sargent on Lincoln Chafee's party switch:
In one sense, the allegiance to Democratic priorities isn’t surprising. Chafee is a strong supporter of President Obama, who issued a statement warmly embracing his switch. Chafee campaigned for the president in 2008 and spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
But what’s remarkable is that someone with Chafee’s priorities was once a Republican. Chafee left the GOP six years ago, largely because he had decided it had squandered its mantle as a party of fiscal responsibility. Since then, however, his view of his former party has only dimmed, if Vareika’s quotes are any indication.
Jamelle Bouie on Mitch McConnell and the further deterioration of the GOP:
What makes this a nice partner to Bachmann’s retirement from the House of Representatives is the fact that it mirrors her rhetoric, which draws heavily from the conspiracy-mongering of right-wing media. Like Bachmann has her entire career, McConnell is drawing on the widely-held view, among conservatives, that Barack Obama is corrupt, dangerous, and hostile to the Constitution of the United States (hence the comparison to Nixon). Only McConnell is the leader of Senate Republicans.
The party of Nixon? More like the party of Joe McCarthy.
NY Times:
Immigrants have contributed billions of dollars more to Medicare in recent years than the program has paid out on their behalf, according to a new study, a pattern that goes against the notion that immigrants are a drain on federal health care spending.
We begin and end today with
EJ Dionne:
In fact, Bachmannism is far from finished. The Minnesota right-winger deserves to be memorialized with an “ism” because she perfected a tactic well-suited to the current media environment: continually toss out outlandish, baseless charges, and, eventually, some of them will enter the mainstream media — if, at first, only in the form of “coverage” of what conservative radio shows, Web sites or Fox News are talking about.
You don’t have to bat 1.000 or even .350 in this game. Get just a handful of your accusations and strange takes on reality into the political bloodstream and you’ve won.