Would it not have been smarter to use his political thick skin to ward off attacks for trying to move the GOP forward, rather than just taking incoming flack for being just a shade off from Trump?

I’ve been an unapologetic defender of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Maybe not much longer.

In our book commemorating the 100th anniversary of The Capital Times, John Nichols and I devote several pages to our founder William T. Evjue’s fight against the Ku Klux Klan.

Either out of ignorance or just plain obstinance, Wisconsin’s legislative Republicans apparently would rather put school-aged kids to work than help parents take jobs to help alleviate the state’s labor shortage.

The new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court fired the state court system director and established a committee that assumes the constitutional duties of the chief justice. Justice Rebecca Bradley says these changes violate the state constitution, politicize the court, and undermine the public’s trust in the state’s justice system.

The four liberal justices’ actions this week reek of raw abuse of power, and undermine the confidence of the people of Wisconsin in our high court.

Business, government and higher education itself must be a part of forging a long-term solution. It may include downsizing but it need not mean sacrificing quality. Less is sometimes more.

With the governor’s vetoes, the state will still be sitting on over $4 billion dollars that should be returned to the taxpayers of Wisconsin because the government took in more money than it needed.

To hear Chief Justice Annette Ziegler and her right-wing allies describe it, you would think the new progressive majority on Wisconsin’s highest court was destroying a collegial institution, running roughshod over the integrity of the Court and threatening the very rule of law itself.

But is it a crime — or a legal stratagem?

Embracing the clean energy transition that’s already underway will help our state add more good-paying jobs and save Wisconsinites money on their energy bills — all while helping us avoid the worst of the climate crisis scenarios.

A report released this week demonstrates that constituents in ten states where Republican members of Congress have fought against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have received hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of shady operators and actions in the financial industry.

Is it revenge for conservatives’ past overthrow of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson?

With Janet Protasiewicz now joining three other Justices to comprise a fair-minded majority, they will “return this court to the national reputation it once enjoyed.”

Just days after circumventing Wisconsin Supreme Court rules to fire the director of the state court system, the court’s new liberal majority took the unprecedented step of stripping Chief Justice Annette Ziegler of her power to administer court business, which most significantly includes determining which cases are taken up in what order.

Political parties, big money have ruined people’s confidence in justices.

Let’s reaffirm our confidence in the will of the American people so it reflects the bold confidence of our Founding Fathers as they faced an uncertain future with all the limitations of their 18th century worldview.

The next 15 months will tell.

Barring the former President from the ballot—or offering him a plea deal in exchange for dropping out of the race—are both very bad ideas.

If the Paul Ryans of the conservative world want to make a compelling case against Trump, it can’t be that he’s unelectable. It’s that he’s irredeemable.