Dr. Alan Carlin, a 37-year agency veteran, was muzzled earlier this spring. Dr. Carlin offered a report poking holes in the science underlying the theory of manmade global warming. His superior, Al McGartland, complained the paper did "not help the legal or policy case" for Team Obama's decision to regulate carbon, told him to "move on to other issues," and forbade him from discussing it outside the office.

Now come Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, married, and each with more than 20 years tenure at the EPA. They too are dismayed by Democrats' approach to...]]> Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 'We don't look at either of these gubernatorial races . . . as something that portends a lot for our legislative efforts," insisted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday, as New Jersey and Virginia voters gave Democrats a thumping. Unfortunately for the White House, its opinion no longer counts.

On Jan. 20, Barack Obama began a race against time. The White House knew its liberal agenda would prove unpopular in many parts of the country represented by Democrats. So long as the president looked strong, those Blue Dogs and freshmen and swing-state senators would stick. Show them any sign of weakness, however, and rattled Dems would begin to care more about their own...]]> Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 "One thing I can tell you: They can go out and chase me and chase the Chamber and put stuff in the newspaper. It only . . . drives more and more support. . . . You think we are going to blink because a couple of people are out shooting at us? Tell 'em to put their damn helmets on."

Them's fighting words, all the more so when delivered in the feisty, New York accent of U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue. The 71-year-old was recruited 12 years ago in order to revitalize a drifting business lobby. And the gregarious chief hasn't disappointed: He's grown the Chamber's membership, tripled its budget, transformed its lobby shop, and increasingly thrust it into the political...]]> Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way.

–Jim Malone,

"The Untouchables"

When Barack Obama promised to deliver "a new kind of politics" to Washington, most folk didn't picture Rahm Emanuel with a baseball bat. These days, the capital would make David Mamet, who wrote Malone's memorable movie dialogue, proud.

A White House set on kneecapping its opponents isn't, of course, entirely new. (See: Nixon) What is a little novel is the public and bare-knuckle way in which the Obama team is waging these campaigns against the other side.

In recent weeks...]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

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Mr. Deeds is the Democratic state senator running for governor of Virginia, and while he's at it, running away from his commander in chief. It ought to worry Democrats that their top recruit for the year already views their Washington agenda as a liability. It ought to worry Mr. Deeds that there seems no escape.

The Virginian's problem is that he's a little too important to party leaders. The Obama White House isn't half as worried about what Virginia means for next year's elections as it is what Virginia means...]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 In the Aug. 6 edition of the Las Vegas Sun, readers saw an op-ed by Harry Reid. "I have never taken up the Washington hobby of pointing fingers for political gain," reassured Nevada's eminently reasonable, bipartisan, four-term senator.

A few hours later, Mr. Reid appeared for the national press, armed with a piece of Astroturf, to berate town-hall protestors as captive to "Internet rumor mongers and insurance rackets." The Republican Party "is run by a talk-show host," snapped Washington's eminently angry and partisan majority leader.

Welcome to Mr. Reid's bipolar world, which isn't about to fuse any time soon. As a senator up for re-election next year in a swing state...]]> Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

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The Michigan Democrat, at least until last year, presided over the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. As such, Mr. Dingell, the House’s longest-serving dealmaker, was positioned to be point man for President Barack Obama’s health-care and climate priorities.

Mr. Hansen, as everyone in this solar system knows, is the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Starting in 2004, he launched a campaign against the Bush administration, claiming it was censoring his global-warming thoughts and fiddling with the science. It was all a bit of a hoot, given Mr. Hansen was already a world-famous devotee of the theory of man-made global warming, a reputation earned with some 1,400 speeches he'd given, many while working for Mr. Bush. But it gave...]]> Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

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The email address you have entered is...]]> Fri, 08 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Listen. That sound of silence? That's what's known as the united Republican response to President Barack Obama's drive to socialize health care.

The president has a plan, and he's laid it on the table. The industry groups that once helped Republicans beat HillaryCare are today sitting at that table. Unions are mobilized. A liberal umbrella group, Health Care for American Now, is spending $40 million to get a "public option," a new federal entitlement that would kill off private insurance. Democrats passed a budget blueprint that will allow them to cram through that "public option" with just 51 votes.

Republicans? They're trying to figure out what they think.

Well, not...]]> Fri, 08 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Listen. That sound of silence? That's what's known as the united Republican response to President Barack Obama's drive to socialize health care.

The president has a plan, and he's laid it on the table. The industry groups that once helped Republicans beat HillaryCare are today sitting at that table. Unions are mobilized. A liberal umbrella group, Health Care for American Now, is spending $40 million to get a "public option," a new federal entitlement that would kill off private insurance. Democrats passed a budget blueprint that will allow them to cram through that "public option" with just 51 votes.

Republicans? They're trying to figure out what they think.

Well,...]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Arlen Specter's decision to go Democrat has sent the GOP into a new round of infighting over what the party is, and where it goes now. Mr. Specter is a very unhealthy basis on which to be having what might otherwise be a healthy debate.

Not that anything could stop the bitter winds now blowing through the Republican fields. Within hours of Mr. Specter's bombshell, the sides were formed up. Team Good Riddance featured the Club for Growth's Andy Roth: "Arlen Specter is the epitome of everything voters have come to hate about the Republican Party." "Arlen Specter makes case for term limits," Tweeted Mike Huckabee. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out," sang pundit Michelle...]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Congressman Henry Waxman played to the crowds this week with high-profile hearings designed to boost his climate legislation. To listen to the Energy and Commerce committee chair, a House global warming bill is all but in the recyclable bag.

Rep. Henry Waxman, left, and Rep. Edward Markey.

To listen to Congressman Jim Matheson is something else. During opening statements, the Utah Democrat detailed 14 big problems he had with the bill, and told me later that if he hadn't been limited to five minutes, "I might have had more." Mr. Matheson is one of about 10 moderate committee Democrats who are less than thrilled with the Waxman climate extravaganza, and...]]> Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Then again, only in Washington could the word "powerful" be applied to three members who voted for a bill that they always intended to vote for, no matter how big, bad or ugly. Their real accomplishment this week wasn't "fixing" the stimulus; they didn't. Their real role was providing cover for moderate Democrats (smile, Messrs. Conrad and Nelson) who might have been reluctant to vote for an unpopular spending blowout, were it not for GOP back-up.

A week ago the Capitol's phone lines were jammed with Americans -- half of them from North Dakota -- livid about "stimulus" waste. A number of Senate Democrats, several up for re-election in red-state America, were sweating dollar signs....]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

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Truth commissions and special prosecutors are just the beginning of the left's demands. Congress is mulling document requests from agencies Mr. Obama now runs....]]> Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

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The email address you have entered is...]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 The Blagojevich drama is titillating enough, and local Democrats' dithering over how to fill Mr. Obama's seat guarantees it will remain a storyline longer than is comfortable. But the Illinois drama has also thrust new light on the ongoing ethical controversies of House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel. At the rate the House Ethics Committee is receiving complaints -- over Mr. Rangel's real-estate problems, tax problems, his privately sponsored trips to the Caribbean, and donations to his center in New York -- this too will make headlines for a while.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune published a new story about Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who racked up $420,000 through a...]]> Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

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This decision was made easier by the fact that the Big Three's balance sheets have made even sympathetic Washington spenders worry about throwing money at a bankruptcy. Democrats decided it would be better to direct the funds in a way that allowed them to later deny fault.

The plan? Make it the Bush...]]> Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Next up, Mr. Obama will re-regulate the economy, with no ill effects whatsoever! You may have heard that for the past 40 years most politicians believed deregulation was good for the U.S. economy. You might have even heard that much of today's financial mess tracks to loose money policy, or Fannie and Freddie excesses. Our magician will show the fault was instead with our failure to clamp down on innovation and risk-taking, and will fix this with new, all-encompassing rules. Presto!

Did someone in the audience just shout "Sarbanes Oxley?" Usher, can you remove that man? Thank you. Mr. Obama will now demonstrate how he gives Americans the "choice" of a "voluntary" government health...]]> Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500 The nation has had prior almighty Senates, of course, and it hasn't been pretty. Free of the filibuster check, the world's greatest deliberative body tends to go on benders. It was a filibuster-proof Democratic majority (or near to it, in his first years) that allowed FDR to pass his New Deal. It was a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate that allowed Lyndon Johnson to pass his Great Society.

Note, however, that it could have been worse. These were days with more varied political parties. Rebellious Democrats teamed up with Republicans to tangle with Roosevelt. Johnson ran the risk that the GOP would ally with Southern Democrats. There was some check.

As Karl Rove pointed out...]]> Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Her sin is in fact to belong to that new mold of Republican - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint - who know it's no longer enough to simply hawk lower taxes. In 10 years as a state legislator and treasurer, her target has been the slothful political favor factory that's led Republicans away from small-government principles and outraged conservative voters.

And, oh, the howls of misery. Ms. Steelman's Republican colleagues were livid with her attempt to strip them of comfy pensions, annoyed with her "sunshine law" requiring them to be more open in their dealings, furious at her attacks on their ethanol boondoggles, appalled that she...]]> Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Sat, 24 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500