Pete Spiliakos

Our Forfare Davis has written about the disappointment of some who expected President Obama and his team to keep their distance from the lobbying and influence peddling culture of Washington. I’m not sure why anyone expected different or better. Obama accommodated himself to . . . . Continue Reading »

The divorce papers of Democratic lobbyist super couple Tony and Heather Podesta show that for a certain class of people government is not a public service or a field for settling partisan disagreements so much as an opportunity for self promotion: “As a married couple who both lobbied they . . . . Continue Reading »

I don’t think Jeb Bush’s position on immigration is fatal to his chances of winning the 2016 Republican nomination for all the reasons Ramesh Ponnuru describes and several others besides. Bush’s support for a combination of policies that include legalization before effective . . . . Continue Reading »

Persistence Continue Reading »

Let me know if you’ve heard this one. Republicans need to move to the center and nominate moderate candidates that will accommodate an America that is moving to the left. They need to find candidates from outside their declining base who can appeal to an ever more diverse country. Republicans need . . . . Continue Reading »

UC Santa Barbara Professor Mireille Miller-Young is more imprudent, but no more ideologically insane than the administration of Stanford University. Miller Young forcibly took a sign from, and allegedly assaulted a pro-life protestor at her college. The Volokh Conspiracy cites the police report, in . . . . Continue Reading »

Young voters are more politically up-for-grabs than one would think. They are more likely to favor same-sex marriage, and are unreceptive to the kind of fear of big government/socialized medicine political shorthand that is commonplace in conservative discourse (the scare words don’t scare them). But young voters are also closely divided on immigration policy and a narrow majority favor restricting most abortions. Continue Reading »

David Frum looks at Pew Data on the young and concludes that “The millennial generation will be a generation characterized by high levels of inter-ethnic conflict.” I doubt it, but the data do offer some other lessons.Millennials are more likely to find themselves alienated from . . . . Continue Reading »

Chris Christie came to the Conservative Political Action Conference in DC last week with a self-serving message. The Republican Party has a communications problem, one that can only be solved by a new communicator, one a lot like Chris Christie. What Christie doesn’t get is how deep a problem . . . . Continue Reading »

I haven’t seen every speech at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, but... 1. Mike Lee is not a stirring speaker but he gave a noble speech. He respected the delegates enough to avoid flattering them. He challenged the delegates to go from the politics of . . . . Continue Reading »