Hoffa: Let's 'Take Out' Tea Partiers

Current system must change as retirees outnumber active workers

(NEWSER) - The United Automobile Workers Union starts high-stakes contract talks with Detroit automakers tomorrow, at a time when the union counts more retirees than active workers in its ranks—meaning higher health-care costs—and the American automotive industry is in dire financial straits. The talks are being called "the most important in a generation," the Times reports. More»

Chrysler, General Motors should never have been rescued, Mitt argued

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney's opposition to the Detroit bailout plan may come back to haunt him in the Michigan primary , the New York Times reports. Not only did Bain Capital, the equity firm he founded, refuse to pump money into a flailing General Motors—Romney himself wrote an op-ed for the Times arguing that automakers should go bankrupt rather than get bailed out. Feelings are still sore in the nation's auto capitol: "All of us in the auto industry ... were profoundly disappointed and, I would say, angry," says a former GM executive. More»

Ex-Prez Bush says bailout his idea, and a good one

(NEWSER) - Three years ago, Mitt Romney wrote that President Obama should " Let Detroit Go Bankrupt ," instead of bailing out the struggling auto industry, in a famous New York Times column. And today? Even with the American auto industry on the rebound, Michigan's GOP primary looming on Feb. 28, and Rick Santorum breathing down his neck in the polls , Romney still thinks bankruptcy would have been better than the president's "crony capitalism," he writes in the Detroit News . "I believe that without his intervention things there would be better," he writes. More»

Establishment, Tea Party, libertarians all negative in different ways

(NEWSER) - With the Republican Party so divided, it's no surprise that its response to President Obama's State of the Union address would also be divided, notes the Washington Post . In addition to an official response by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and a Tea Party response by Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and the other GOP candidates also weighed in:

• Cain's rebuttal focused on familiar Tea Party complaints—"Obamacare," "class warfare," and the "liberal media." Cain also addressed old sexual harassment allegations against him, noting that the "false attacks" derailed his campaign, but that accusations against Newt Gingrich failed because "the American people are waking up to dirty, gutter politics,” he said. “The American voters are saying, ‘We ain’t stupid.’"

California libertarian Jules Manson defends racist rant

(NEWSER) - Failed politician Jules Manson appears to be better at attracting attention from the Secret Service than he was at attracting votes in his bid for a city council seat in California. In a Facebook rant sparked by President Obama's support of a revised military authorization bill, Manson called for the assassination of the president and his "monkey children," reports the New York Daily News . More»