Punting the Pundits

Fourteen months ago, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members and our allies from National People's Action and the New Bottom Line campaign met with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller in Des Moines to discuss the national foreclosure investigation that he was leading.

Miller vowed to pursue a fundamental transformation of the mortgage servicing industry. He spoke like a people's champion, like someone who would "knock it out of the ballpark" and bring the banks to justice.

But after he announced the details of his settlement with the banks last week, we felt Miller had struck out. [..]

Bold action in the face of grave injustice is not counterproductive - it is required.

If Obama and Schneiderman take these "people first" actions to deliver justice for millions of homeowners and everyday people, then maybe we'll have something to celebrate.

John Nichols: A Politics That Says: The People Shall Rule

After she organized Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Democratic primary challenge to Lyndon Johnson, around the time she joined Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm in forming the National Women's Political Caucus, Midge Miller got herself elected to the Wisconsin Assembly. [..]

The point of progressive public service, argued Midge Miller, was not to be a cog in the machine run by corporate and political elites. It was to make the machine work for the people.

So when Midge Miller's stepson, Wisconsin Senate minority leader Mark Miller, found himself leading a legislative caucus that was being asked to rubber-stamp Governor Scott Walker's attacks on collective-bargaining rights, civil-service protections and local democracy, he thought of Midge. "She believed that it was the first responsibility of legislators to protect the rights of the people," said Miller. "She would never have been a part of anything that rammed changes like these down the throats of the people."

George Zornick: Obama's Plan to Save the Military From Cuts-at the Expense of Domestic Programs

As budget wonks comb over President Obama's outline for fiscal year 2013, a startling White House plan has become clear: the administration is seeking to undo some mandatory cuts to the Pentagon at the expense of critical domestic programs. It does so by basically undoing the defense sequester that kicked in as a result of the Congressional supercommittee on debt. This wasn't a featured part of the White House budget rollout, and for good reason-it undercuts the administration's carefully crafted message of benevolent government action and economic fairness.

The process for this shift is complicated, and has been flagged by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Essentially, Obama wants to eliminate individual spending caps for both military and non-military spending, and institute one single discretionary spending cap instead. Here's the basic rundown.

Ari Berman: Howard Dean Predicts Obama Re-Election, Democrats Retake House

No incumbent president since FDR has been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8 percent. Despite that daunting precedent, an increasing number of political analysts and prominent Democratic Party figures are now bullish about President Obama's re-election prospects. "Obama's chances have definitely improved," former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean recently told me. "If Mitt Romney's the Republican nominee, I would say it's a one- or two-point win for Obama."

Dean also likes his party's chances at the Congressional level. "I'm predicting flat-out that if Obama wins, Democrats take back the House," he says. Other analysts have recently raised that possibility, even though GOP domination of the redistricting process gives Republicans a major edge in 2012.