Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein, after watching yesterday's Republican presidential debate, slams the GOPers for crass and fact-free pandering on taxes. His piece starts:

To hear it from the Republican presidential hopefuls, the only way for the party to win back the trust of voters on economic issues is to start telling the truth.

Instead, for two hours yesterday, the nine white men who would be president were each peddling the Big Lie that the only way to ensure economic growth is by cutting all the taxes ever created -- and when you're finished with that, cutting them some more.

It was like stepping into a time travel machine (one that goes backward not forward) to hear the Republicans go on and on about the need to cut taxes. To listen to them, one could assume that if America cut all taxes, it would become a real economic powerhouse. They kept repeating the mantra that the economy only grows when taxes are cut (note: they never distinguish between different sort of taxes). But in the 1990s, Clinton raised taxes (slightly) on the well-to-do, and the economy boomed. Sure, the bubble eventually burst. But that usually happens after an expansion. The Bush gang would sure be delighted to have such a bubble these days.

Meanwhile, yesterday on NPR, Matthew Slaughter, who was a member of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers from 2005 to 2007, said, "The reality is the majority of Americans haven't had strong, sustained income growth in recent years." He was trying to explain why most Americans are suspicious of free trade. But one could also ask, does this mean the Bush tax cuts have not been a good deal for a majority of Americans? Bush keeps talking about how swell the economy is, but even one of his own advisers acknowledges the gains have not been shared by most.

WHAT? NO RUDY? This press release just in:

The Ohio Christian Alliance, in conjunction with www.newstalkcolumbus.com and the Christian Alliance chapters of Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania will host a Presidential Candidate Forum web broadcast over the Internet at www.newstalkcolumbus.com on Thursday, October 11, from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. EST. Presidential candidates participating in this forum are Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, former Ambassador Alan Keyes, and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson. All Presidential candidates were invited to participate.

These Christian conservatives are not getting a lot of love from the GOP field. I wonder if they will ask Fred Thompson why he does not regularly attend church.

BACK TO THE FUTURE Trita Parsi, who heads the National Iranian American Council, the largest Iranian-American outfit in the United States, writes,

According to Likud Leader Benyamin Netanyahu, it is 1938 and Iran is Germany. And of course, Ahmadinejad is Hitler, he goes on to imply. Bibi's analogy is very powerful and effective--yet false and tremendously dangerous. As I explain on the blog of Tony Karon (Time Magazine), not only is the analogy aimed at preventing diplomacy and making war with Iran inevitable, the ever so opportunistic Netanyahu played a remarkably different role only ten years ago when he ordered Israel to tone down its rhetoric on Iran and sought to quietly open up to Tehran....

PS. This episode in Israeli-Iranian relations is explained in even greater detail in "Treacherous Alliance - The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the U.S.".

That new book was written by Parsi, who, as a representative of Iranian-Americans, has opposed a U.S. attack on Iran.

BLOGGING HEADS ON THE MARCH. The latest edition of the Pinkerton & Corn show on BloggingHeads.tv is now up. Check out Jim Pinkerton's attack on the neocons of The Washington Post op-ed page and his nostalgic remembrances of Sputnik. (Pinkerton also disavows any family connection to the Pinkertons of union-busting fame.) We also discuss my new belief that Iowa is all-important for Barack Obama. (While it may be possible for Hillary Clinton to lose there and go on to win the nomination, Obama will have to beat Clinton there to have a chance.) We also discuss what it will take for reality on the ground in Iraq to have any impact on policy and politics in Washington. And I explain my decision to leave The Nation for Mother Jones. It's Must-Click TV.

Posted by David Corn at October 10, 2007 10:40 AM