On Friday’s Radio Show…

• Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele joins Alan for a candid interview about his tenure leading the RNC. (RESCHEDULED)

• Unity, Schmunity? Alan questions why some Republicans seem repulsed by the concept of sitting with Democrats.

• It’s the Friday Night Free-For-All!…

Mitt Romney’s Curious Strategy

by Stuart Shapiro

I’ve blogged before about the problems that Mitt Romney will have trying to win the Republican nomination for president in 2012.  Basically, with Romneycare as the most direct ancestor of the federal health care law, he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do to Tea Party activists who oppose the law and figure to be very important in the Republican primaries.  Romney’s approach to this dilemma? Ignore the Tea Party!

As the former Massachusetts governor lays the groundwork for a possible second presidential run, he has largely shunned Tea Party activists in key primary states, …

Worst Republican Reason Yet For Repealing Affordable Care Act

by Stuart Shapiro

Republicans have made up a lot of reasons for their vote in the House this week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including that the Act costs jobs and increases deficits.  But the fourth highest ranking Republican in the House, Jeb Hensarling (pictured), may take the cake (h/t Joan McCarter):

Here’s my story, two days ago, I was in San Antonio, Texas, and my mother had a large tumor removed from her head. They wheeled her away at 7:20 in the morning, and by noon, I was talking to her along with the rest of our …

Rep. Paul Broun Won’t Sit With Democrats During SOTU To Watch Obama “Spew His Venom”

Asked on Scott Hennen’s North Dakota radio show about the idea of Democrats and Republicans sitting together during the State of the Union Address, Republican Congressman Scott Broun of Georgia agreed it with a caller that it’s a terrible idea; Broun thinks it’s a trap to silence Republicans. You see, the idea of sitting together, proposed after the tragedy in Tucson, is just a plot to hide Republicans because there are more of them than Democrats in the House.  Besides, some Democratic DNA might rub off on a right-winger.

CALLER: Thank you Dr. Broun it’s an honor to …

Wingnuts Blame Michelle Obama For Pedestrian Deaths Because She Encouraged Kids To “Move”

First Lady Michelle Obama promoted the “Let’s Move” campaign to encourage youngsters to walk to school.  During the period where children were encouraged to be more physically active there was an increase in pedestrian deaths; so, they must be linked, right?

In the period between January and June last year there were 1,891 road related deaths, which – while being only seven more than during the same period the previous year – bucked a trend that had been going down for four years.

It was a 0.4 per cent increase and in 18 states there was an increase …

Anti-Muslim Right-Wingers Attack NJ Gov. Chris Christie For Appointing Muslim Judge

Sohail Mohammed is one of seven judges appointed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to the New Jersey Superior Court, and that has incurred the wrath of some right-wing anti-Muslim bloggers. Think Progress rounds them up:

– In a widely linked post, “Governor Christie’s Dirty Islamist Ties,” blogger Daniel Greenfield writes that “New Jersey, the Garden State, has just taken its first step toward becoming the Sharia State,” and criticized Christie for being “willing to stand up to the teacher’s union, but not to the terrorist’s union.”

– Hate blogger Pamela Gellar, in a post titled “Governor Christie’s Hamas …

Are Republicans Focused On Jobs? No, It’s Abortion

Republicans railed against the president for doing things other than focusing on jobs 24/7.  Now that they run the House, they have decided their own set of priorities. After the health care repeal vote, the next item on the agenda is, what else? Abortion!

The high-profile introduction of a Republican anti-abortion bill — just hours after the health repeal vote and prior to any legislation on jobs or economy—has groups on both sides of the issue gearing up for another aggressive fight.

The No Tax-Payer Funding for Abortion Act, introduced Thursday as H.R. 3, aims to codify the Hyde …

On Thursday’s Radio Show…

• Should the Senate vote on the health care repeal bill? We’ll debate it.

• Alan discusses China and the U.S. economy with Goldline CEO Scott Carter.

• LGBT activist Janice Langbehn shares the personal story behind her fight to protect the hospital visitation rights of same-sex couples.…

Founding Fathers Would Have Supported Government-Run Health Care Paid By Mandatory Tax

Greg Sargent makes the case for the founding fathers support for government-run health care paid for by mandatory taxation. Rick Ungar at Forbes writes how the 1798 Congress passed, and President John Adams signed, “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen” that created a government-run hospital system that required privately employed sailors to buy health insurance.

Keep in mind that the 5th Congress did not really need to struggle over the intentions of the drafters of the Constitutions in creating this Act as many of its members were the drafters of the Constitution.

And when …

FOX News Poll: 77% Say Prayer Helped Save Gabby Giffords

According to a FOX News poll, roughly 8 in 10 Americans believe prayer helped save Congressman Gabrielle Giffords.

Those most likely to believe prayer saved Giffords include white Born-Again Christians (95 percent), those who regularly attend religious services (91 percent), blacks (91 percent), Republicans (84 percent), Southerners (83 percent) and women (81 percent).…

Rep. Steve Cohen Defends His Nazi Comments

Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen issued a statement defending his claim that Republicans use Nazi tactics.

Taken out of con­text, I can under­stand the con­fu­sion and con­cern. In speak­ing about the Repub­li­can mes­sage of “gov­ern­ment takeover of health care” that has been drummed into the heads of Amer­i­cans and the media for more than a year, I ref­er­enced the non-partisan, Pulitzer prize-winning Politfact.com judg­ment that named the Repub­li­can mes­sage as the “2010 Lie of the Year.”

While I regret that any­thing I said has cre­ated an oppor­tu­nity to dis­tract from the debate about health care for 32 mil­lion Amer­i­cans, I want …