When Bush’s approval ratings reached the high 70s and stayed there for a while, Congress pretty much gave up on deliberations. Whatever the White House asked for, it got. Republican lawmakers, in particular, rallied behind their once-popular leader. Recently, however, as Bush’s poll numbers have fallen to around 50 percent, Republicans have suddenly realized that […]
For about a year now, Dick Gephardt has made Iowa the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. He won the state’s caucuses in 1988, he comes from a neighboring state, and his deep ties with Iowa’s union members made him the odds-on favorite to win the state again in 2004. It’s been fairly obvious that a […]
Newsweek has a really good article in this week’s issue on the U.S. military’s difficulties in translating intelligence obtained in the Middle East. Apparently, finding Arab-speaking translators willing to work with the U.S. government has proven to be extremely difficult. Considering the potential for terrorist attacks, the consequences of this unmet need can be devastating. […]
I’ve been hesitant to write about the tragedy of Terri Schiavo’s case. It’s a heart-breaking story of a young woman in Florida who has been in a vegetative state for over a decade, and who has become the focus on an intense political, moral, familial, and judicial dispute. I don’t want to belabor the details […]
Today’s must read-column comes from the estimable Gene Lyons, author of Clinton-era classics such as The Hunting of the President and Fools for Scandal. Lyons’ essay (which I learned of via Atrios) captures the sentiment that I think many of us feel every day. “Either Rush Limbaugh’s former housekeeper has been doping my morning coffee […]
Two weeks ago, the Bush White House started a “public relations offensive” to let the world know that everything is going well in Iraq and that the war on terror is a great success. All of the administration’s heavy hitters — Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice — gave high-profile speeches urging the public to be upbeat […]
The other day, in a post about Boykin’s controversial religio-political record, I said that the media missed the fact that the evangelism flap isn’t the general’s first foray into a church-state controversy. Specifically, in the Spring, Boykin was misusing the military facilities and personnel at Ft. Bragg, N.C., for — you guessed it — a […]
Everyone’s favorite well-armed evangelist, three-star General William “Jerry” Boykin, has endured about a week of high-profile controversy, but he’s not out of the woods yet. In fact, things got a lot worse for him yesterday. If you’re just joining us, Boykin, the newly-appointed deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, has been a religious right-style evangelist […]
While pushing his third tax cut in as many years, Bush swore the latest round of cuts would create a robust job market. In fact, the Bush administration got specific about its claims, saying that if Congress passed Bush’s tax plan (which it did), the results would be 344,000 jobs created, per-month, starting in mid-2003. […]
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), one of the few Republicans in Congress I can respect, expressed exactly the right sentiment yesterday about Congress ceding too much foreign policy responsibility to Bush, while lamenting Bush’s failure to capitalize on his new-found power. In a speech this week at the Gallup Organization World Conference in Omaha (which I […]