S&R: Rep. Boehner, Chairman Bernanke called yesterday for Congress to pass a stimulus plan to help stabilize the U.S. economy. Studies have shown repeatedly that stimulus plans directed at the poor are the most likely to both help those who need the money the most and to have the greatest economic benefits for the country – the poor are most likely to spend any money given them instead of save it or use it to pay down existing debt. The same studies have shown that your preferred stimuli – corporate tax cuts, capital gains tax cuts, an “all of the above” energy development plan, etc. – fail to provide significant stimulus to the economy in less than one to two years and are not cost effective for that reason. Given these facts, why should Americans who are suffering from a bad economy right now support your plan when they won’t see any improvement for at least another year?

Sarah Palin told ABC’s Charles Gibson yesterday that she favors admitting Georgia and the Ukraine, both on Russia’s borders, to NATO. When Gibson asked her if she would go to war with Russia to defend Georgia, she said, “”Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.”

Right you are, Ms. Palin, but help doesn’t always mean military help, else the NATO countries would have chosen up sides and embroiled themselves in war when Greece and Turkey went at it over Cyprus. You are technically correct, though, because the defense clause of the treaty reads: Full Story »

Today’s question is for three of our nation’s prominent leaders: President George W. Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. John McCain.

Q: Mr. President, Sen. McCain, Sen. Lieberman, you’ve all recently made clear your support for waterboarding as an interrogation technique. Since, in your estimation, waterboarding is a legal, effective and harmless tool, is it therefore your belief that it would be acceptable and appropriate for enemy nations and organizations to waterboard captured American servicemen and women? If so, can you explain how this stance is consistent with your frequently stated “support” for our nation’s troops?

Welcome back to day 2 of the S&R Year in Review. Today we tackle some of 2007’s big moments in news and current events.

The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq Surpasses the American Civil War in Duration: The United States’ involvement in World War I lasted only 19 months and World War II lasted 44 months for the United States, even though the war itself was nearly six years long. The occupation of Iraq (aka the Iraq War) outlasted World War II in November of 2006, making the duration of U.S. involvement in Iraq the third longest foreign occupation in U.S. history. The American Civil War lasted 48 months, and the Iraq occupation surpassed that duration on March 20, 2007. This makes the Iraq occupation the third longest running period of continuous conflict in U.S. history, behind only the Vietnam War and its sister conflict in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Full Story »

Today’s question is for GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.

S&R: Rev. Huckabee, you’ve spoken at great length about the importance of faith in your political life. If elected, what would you do in a hypothetical situation if you felt that your Christian faith were in conflict with the Constitution?

Today we introduce a new feature at S&R. In The Daily Brushback we’ll pose a question to a person famous or infamous that we wish someone in the mainstream media actually had the cojones to ask. We don’t expect answers, of course, but that’s never a reason not to ask. And since we have no “access” to risk losing, we can be honest, penetrating, rude, and even funny. The Daily Brushback won’t, despite its name, appear daily, but we call it that because it sounds better than The Periodic Brushback or The Occasional Brushback.

TDB: Sen. Clinton, we’d like to ask you to speculate a little bit. How do you believe you’d have formed critical opinions about policy goals and strategies had you lived in an era before opinion polls were invented?