Democratic Party

Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are "78 to 81" Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it's not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West's comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential...

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Republicans have chosen firebrand conservative minister E.W. Jackson's for lieutenant governor, the first black candidate the party has nominated for statewide office since 1988. Jackson provoked the loudest ovation of the day at from the tea party-dominated Republican Party convention in Richmond on Saturday, declaring in an impassioned speech, "I am not an African-American, I am an American!" He won the nomination on the fourth ballot over six rivals.

After a week of turmoil in the Democratic party, how should the Dems think about the midterm elections? Below are contributions from Geoff Garin, Kiki McLean, Steve Rosenthal, Matthew Dowd, Justin Ruben, Karl Rove and Ed Rogers. GEOFF GARIN Democratic pollster and strategist; president of Hart Research Associates In Congress, 2009 was a year of beginnings, but 2010 must be a year of conclusions. So the question of how the Democrats should proceed is not about boldness vs. caution but about what is actually achievable given...

President Obama passed the 100-day mark of his second term facing questions about whether his political capital is already disappearing. Republicans took delight in his discomfort, but they have their own 100-day question to answer: What have they done since November to turn around their fortunes? The president has had a difficult spring. His gun legislation, though it mustered more than 50 votes, was blocked in the Senate . His advisers are more optimistic about immigration reform, but the measure still faces...

Andrew Kohut is the founding director and former president of the Pew Research Center . He served as president of the Gallup Organization from 1979 to 1989. In my decades of polling, I recall only one moment when a party had been driven as far from the center as the Republican Party has been today. The outsize influence of hard-line elements in the party base is doing to the GOP what supporters of Gene McCarthy and George McGovern did to the Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s — radicalizing...

President Obama passed the 100-day mark of his second term facing questions about whether his political capital is already disappearing. Republicans took delight in his discomfort, but they have their own 100-day question to answer: What have they done since November to turn around their fortunes? The president has had a difficult spring. His gun legislation, though it mustered more than 50 votes, was blocked in the Senate . His advisers are more optimistic about immigration reform, but the ...

Joan Canty Democratic Party activist Joan Canty, 83, a Democratic Party activist who housed protesters in her Washington home during the Vietnam War and helped run an international exchange program for politicians and government officials, died of respiratory failure Aug. 12 at the Sunrise Senior Living facility in Washington. The death was confirmed by her son Brendan Canty. Joan McGowan was born in Seattle. In 1951, she graduated from what is now Holy Names University in Oakland, Calif.

As the budget process in Washington lurches from crisis to continuing resolution to debt limit scramble — with Congress seemingly incapable of dealing with fiscal issues without the prospect of immediate financial collapse — it is worth considering the structural reasons for this seriousness deficit. Some view the culprit as partisan polarization or the disproportionate power of Senate minorities — both of which play a role. But the main challenge is this: Our two-party system has produced a three-party government.

Some years, they speak of "the final eradication in America of the age-old evil of poverty," and then other years, the Democratic Party shifts its focus to "those who work hard, pay their bills, play by the rules  . . . " In 1972 , the party promises "a guaranteed job for all," offering to "make the government the employer of last resort. " But 20 years later , the Democrats pivot and nearly apologize for themselves, appealing to "Americans who may have thought the Democratic...

Organized labor is snubbing the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee's annual Spring Ball on May 11 because of its support for last November's Question B ballot measure limiting certain kinds of collective bargaining by Montgomery police. Joslyn Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO , told the committee in a letter last week that the council is urging local affiliates to boycott the fundraising event. "Given the long and close relationship...

Organized labor is snubbing the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee's annual Spring Ball on May 11 because of its support for last November's Question B ballot measure limiting certain kinds of collective bargaining by Montgomery police. Joslyn Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO , told the committee in a letter last week that the council is urging local affiliates to boycott the fundraising event. "Given the long and close relationship between the...

ROME — Italy's president appointed Enrico Letta as premier-designate Wednesday, asking him to form a coalition government representing Italy's main parties to end two months of political paralysis and put the country back on the path of reform and growth. Letta, a 46-year-old center-left lawmaker and No. 2 Democratic Party leader, said he accepted the job knowing it's an enormous responsibility and that Italy's political class "has lost all credibility. " President Giorgio Napolitano charged Letta with...

There's been a whole lot of soul-searching going on in the Democratic party. Or at least, that's what Democrats say. In recent weeks, a parade of elected officials has lined up to announce the "evolution" of their principles on same-sex marriage. In the last three weeks, no less than 14 Democratic senators have said they've changed their position on the issue. That's the same number, it's worth noting, who came out in support of gay marriage in the 18 years following 1994, when Sen. Tammy...

Benefits for illegal immigrants . Same-sex marriage . Strict regulations on gun purchases . Over the past two years, Maryland has enacted laws that represent a dramatic liberal shift, even for a state long dominated by Democrats. Driving the progressive swing is Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and the Maryland General Assembly, which now embraces legislation that it previously rejected. Emboldened by victories in statewide referendums, the governor and his allies have imposed tax increases, repealed the death penalty and...

It's official: Terry McAuliffe is the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor. The businessman and former Democratic National Committee chairman has long had the party nod sewn up, as other potential contenders like Sen. Mark Warner and ex-Rep. Tom Perriello decided against running for the commonwealth's top job. But the nomination didn't really belong to McAuliffe until Tuesday, when the state Democratic Party certified that he had submitted the necessary signatures to lock up...

Andrew Kohut is the founding director and former president of the Pew Research Center . He served as president of the Gallup Organization from 1979 to 1989. In my decades of polling, I recall only one moment when a party had been driven as far from the center as the Republican Party has been today. The outsize influence of hard-line elements in the party base is doing to the GOP what supporters of Gene McCarthy and George McGovern did to the Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s —...

OSAKA, Japan — Toru Hashimoto is the product of a fed-up country. He is also its chief rabble-rouser. The telegenic Osaka mayor wants wholesale changes to Japan's sleepy status quo. He would like to transfer power from Tokyo to a collection of new regional fiefdoms, bigger than the existing prefectures, that would collect taxes and make streamlined decisions. He holds a tea-partyish small-government philosophy, but he speaks about it in such forceful terms that critics here have given it a different...

The chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia said Wednesday that he is stepping down next month — just over a week after he helped deliver the state in the presidential and U.S. Senate races . Brian J. Moran, who has been chairman for two years, said he wants the party to bring in a new leader as it heads into what is widely expected to be a busy 2013 campaign season in the commonwealth. Moran's resignation is effective Dec. 8 — the date of the next meeting of the...

ROME — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano completed a first day of consultations with political leaders on Wednesday to try to find a way of forming a government after the deadlocked election last month left no party with a majority in Parliament. Napolitano was due to meet the largest parties on Thursday. Italy's political stalemate and the prospect of months of uncertainty has caused alarm across Europe just as the standoff over bank deposits in Cyprus reawakened fears that the euro-zone debt crisis could flare...

RICHMOND — This week in the Virginia governor's race: One of Republican Ken Cuccinelli II's big financial backers compared abortion to slavery . Cuccinelli himself, it turned out, made a similar remark last year. Sen. Barbara A. Favola (D-Arlington) objected to the comparison. Ditto for House Democrats, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and the chairwoman of the state Democratic Party. The contest between Attorney General Cuccinelli and former Democratic National Committee chairman...