Michele Bachmann was the muse for a new romance novel called Fires of Siberia, to be published June 1, about a fiery presidential candidate who tries to bone up on her foreign policy credentials only to get stuck in the wilderness with a sexy stranger.
The Iraq War did not go as planned — not for Iraq, not for the United States, and not for the careers of the people who told us it'd be such a great idea to go. Let's catch up with the folks who brought us there a decade ago today.
Gun-rights advocates appear to be on the brink of killing a renewed assault weapons ban on Capitol Hill. But the movement's post-Newtown victory is hardly complete — and success may be a high water mark in the political unity of gun proponents.
If Congress operated according to public opinion, Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee would be a pariah in the halls of the House.
Paul will endorse a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants Tuesday, and to measure how much and how quickly Republicans have changed on the issue, just look at what he used to say. Then just look at the voters Republicans are infuriating while they win over new ones.
Roger Ailes, president of Fox News and maker of sinister expressions, shows his true colors in a new biography, Roger Ailes: Off Camera, by Zev Chafets. We've seen them before.
The former chairman of the Republican National Committee appears to be on a self-promotional tour focused on insulting current RNC chair Reince Priebus. On MSNBC, he argued that "I won, and he didn't." Except Steele had nothing to do with the election he won.
As the Republican party continues to re-evaluate itself this week, Rove's role is looking increasingly dangerous when you compare his predictions to the facts on gay marriage, the Iraq war, the 2012 election, and more.
The Republican National Committee says in a new report that it can figure out how to win national elections by following the examples of the 30 Republican governors. But a closer look at what state those 30 governors govern, and when they got elected, complicates the picture.
A major new poll not only reveals some of the largest support ever seen for same-sex marriage in the United States, but also show how dramatic the reversal of public opinion has been in just the last ten years.
The credibility of The Daily Caller's report that New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez had sex with prostitutes during a junket in the Domincan Republic took yet another blow on Monday afternoon as The Associated Press reported that police in the Dominican Republic have determined that an attorney named Melanio Figueroa paid three women a couple hundred dollars each to make the claims on camera.
The lessons the Republican National Committee learned from the 2012 elections is that both the party's message and its policy needs fixing.
Nik Wallenda, the highwire acrobat who in June 2012 traversed Horseshoe Falls (the biggest waterfall of the Niagara Falls), has announced his plan to cross the Grand Canyon, presumably above one of the Arizona canyon's more dramatic drops.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments later today on a challenge to Arizona's Proposition 200, approved in 2004, that required proof of citizenship to vote. If the Court upholds the measure, it could significantly curtail the Latino vote for years.
Authorities have confirmed tor the first time ever, that hackers attempted and almost succeeded at rigging a Miami primary vote, uncovering underlying security issues with the online voting systems of the future.
There were really two CPACs this weekend: official CPAC and angry CPAC. This is where you could see the conflict between the party's attempt to get new voters and the rebellion of its old ones.
Non-politician Hillary Clinton has officially decided that she supports same-sex marriage, announcing her position in a video for Human Rights Campaign.
The former congressman and current reigning king of political sex scandals on Twitter isn't just filing papers and spending a lot of money on his run for New York mayor — he's still bitter and apparently planning the demise of Nancy Pelosi, a scenario that he somehow thinks will only happen when a Clinton is president again.
Thomas Perez, a civil rights lawyer in the Obama Justice Department, is about to be nominated to be the new Secretary of Labor, setting the stage for some key battles that the president expects to fight in his second term.
Jack Dorsey is already campaigning to be mayor of New York City, and he doesn't even live there. He does happen to be in a position where he can express the ambition to a national audience on pretty regular basis, however.
The Speaker of the House talks with Martha Raddatz about the state of his relationship with the President, while Paul Ryan defends his budget from the criticisms that it's old, boring and a recycled campaign documents.
After three days of panels and speeches about what the GOP can do to make a comeback, the idea that no comeback is necessary must have been refreshing to the CPAC attendees. By the end of Cruz's closing keynote speech, they were on their feet. Of course, that was because he asked.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won the presidential primary straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday with 25 percent of attendees' votes, just ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who also got 25 percent.
President Obama is hurting the country by abandoning his responsibilities in order to run a permanent campaign, Sarah Palin told CPAC Saturday. Then she took a sip from a Big Gulp. At the close of her speech, she carried it off stage like a trophy.
Like many of the politicians at CPAC with ambitions for higher office, Michele Bachmann offered a vision of a new path forward for Republicans. Bachmann's was unique in that it combined a more inclusive message — "We care about people!" — with her signature cable news-ready attacks on President Obama.
A panel about how conservatives can fight back when liberals call them racists descended into shouting when an actual segregationist joined a CPAC panel titled "Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You're Not One?" We're not making any of this up.
Anthony "Disgraced Congressmember" Weiner has filed initial paperwork with the City of New York suggesting that he has already spent about $115,000 toward a bid for Mayor.
On Friday, the North Dakota Senate passed two of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. Once you meet the bills' sponsor, you'll understand how things got so extreme.
Now that Republican senator Rob Portman's son has come out to him, he supports gay marriage. This makes him the first Republican senator to hold that position. That's great, right?
The Maryland legislature voted to make it the 18th state to ban capital punishmen. While good news for the men currently on the state's death row, the move is mostly symbolic for any push to end the practice globally.
That was quick: The governor of Louisiana apparently no longer thinks his party is stupid. He reused lengthy portions of a January speech on Friday at CPAC, but left out the most controversial remarks, like calling his own party "stupid."
Taking the CPAC stage to cheers for his first major speech since November, Romney did not in any way name what his mistakes might be, instead reprising a 2012 stump speech for a 2013 version of the party that he left necessarily vague.
A Republican New York State Assemblymember who last June voted against legalizing marijuana in the state was ticketed for possession of marijuana, which is still illegal in the state of New York due to political opposition.
If it takes personal association with a minority group for members of Congress to act on their behalf, perhaps an overview of the demographics of Congress can provide some insight into our political debate. Here's how it breaks down, by gender, ethnicity, net worth, and sexual orientation — in charts.
Why did Republicans lose the 2012 elections when so many Republicans really didn't like President Obama?
All that attention the National Rifle Association leader has gotten since the Newtown shooting might be getting to him.
New government data suggests that spiking gas prices are making everything else more expensive — data that could help the president on Friday as he continues to make the case for expanded investment in alternative fuel sources.
The conservative provocateur was the coolest thing at the first day of the annual conservative gathering, even though he died a year ago.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has some news for Paul Ryan and House Republicans: Obamacare was a losing battle.
A federal grand jury has been convened to examine the relationship between the New Jersey senator and a Florida doctor in an episode which may end up doing as much damage to the reputation of the senator as to the conservative website that attacked him.
He was a controversial pick for a speaking slot at CPAC, with organizers saying Trump was wildly popular with attendees. But it's hard to say why. He doesn't know how to give a political stump speech, and that was evident on the floor Friday morning.
As part of a mini press-tour to set up his first presidential trip to Israel next week, Barack Obama told an Israeli television station that Iran is at least a year away from developing a nuclear weapon.
A woman in Argentina says that her rejection of a young male suitor more than 60 years ago, drove the heartsick boy to join the priesthood. Oh, and his name just happened to be Jorge Bergoglio.
Portman says the reversal stems from his 21-year-old gay son coming out to him two years ago, as he now becomes the first Republican Senator on that side of the controversial issue as it heads for landmark arguements in the Supreme Court.
With the nuclear test and Kim Jong-Un's crazy statements about "breaking waists," things are obviously heating up with North Korea. It's cool, though, because the Pentagon is ready with buckets of water to throw on this fire.
The ever-savvy White House digital team has figured out how to turn the administration's most appealing asset into internet traffic: story time with Vice President Biden.
Even when answers seem to arrive on the controversial Benghazi attack, the questions never fade away: Faraj al-Shibli, a man thought to be involved in the September 2012 attacks on the American consulate, has been captured in Libya, according to two sources speaking to CNN, as Republicans back home refused to let the issue fade.
Rand Paul presented old ideas as new ones in his I'm-the-future-of-the-GOP speech to CPAC Thursday, while Marco Rubio presented newish ideas as old ones.
The marathon filibusterer brought his invigorated libertarian stump speech to an enraptured audience (and Metallica), inveighing that the GOP needs to change by returning to the classical principles spelled out in the country's constitution.
The partisan divide on proposed gun legislation has only sharpened in the 90 days since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, and votes in the Senate's Judiciary Committee now suggest that high-profile reforms — from the most controversial to the most popular — may be in more trouble than anyone might have imagined.
Explaining that he wanted to preempt liberal critiques of his speech, one of which (he predicted) was his lack of new ideas for the Republican Party, Rubio declared, "We don't a new idea. The idea is called America, and it still works." Also: water joke.
Have a story we missed? A link we have to click? A sharp opinion about the news? Instead of waiting for us to post it, tell us on the Open Wire.
Submit your news and ideas | See all reader postsThe Atlantic Wire is your authoritative guide to the news and ideas that matter most right now. Our team tracks newsmakers and opinions across the entire media spectrum: newspapers, web sites, television, radio and magazines.
But we do more than just collect information. By synthesizing, analyzing and summarizing what’s out there, and adding new information when we can, we are a news engine that gives you a quick and valuable account of the issues of the day.
Have a hot tip? A story we missed? Tell us on the Open Wire
How to send us editorial or technical feedback
Get Five Best Columns in your inbox each morning (preview)
