In writing about the House Republican leadership contest for the main site, I was reminded of the 1998 gubernatorial primary between Paul Cellucci and Joe Malone in Massachusetts. The two Republican statewide elected officials both wanted to be governor. Bill Weld had left in an unsuccessful quest to become Bill Clinton's ambassador to Mexico, thwarted by Jesse Helms. This made Lt. Gov. Cellucci acting governor and gave him a leg up in a contest where ...

Having run unsuccessfully for both the Republican and Constitution Party presidential nominations this year, nominated himself as the America's Independent Party presidential candidate, gotten his revenge on the Constitution Party by claiming its California state ballot line, and finally cracked 40,000 votes in the general election, some of us were curious as to what Alan Keyes would do for his next act. Well, Dave Weigel found out so you don't have to. Keyes is trying ...

It was only a matter of time. First Sarah Palin and the Wasilla hillbillies were charged with spending John McCain's political capital faster than they could max out credit cards at Neiman Marcus. Now blame for the Republican electoral debacle has been extended to all the rubes who are said to populate the religious right. Even some right-leaning pundits are getting into the act. Beliefnet's Steven Waldman warned before the election that "religious conservatives will ...

Some of the early exit polls suggested that California's Proposition 8 might lose narrowly (though I see CNN's weighted exits are now more consistent with the actual results). With 95 percent of precincts reporting, it looks all but certain that it is going to pass despite a Democratic landslide in the state, the controversy over the initiative's wording, and the fact that same-sex marriage was already in effect. All along, I suspected large numbers of ...