Their lips were moving — Part II

Bob Drogin’s excellent article in The New Republic about David Kay’s report on Iraqi WMD (or lack thereof) reminds me of another example of the question… How can you tell when Bush administration officials are lying about Iraq? When their lips move. The Kay report was, to be sure, not good news for the White […]

Howard Dean’s tactless attack on politicians in Washington

I realize that Howard Dean is running as an outsider, taking on “Washington politicians,” and promising to “shake things up” in DC. That being said, Dean has also surrounded himself with key Washington insiders such as Joe Trippi and Steve Grossman, and all the while, has been reaching out to Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill […]

This isn’t the first church-state problem General/Evangelist Boykin has faced

Several news outlets are picking up on the controversy surrounding Army Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, the new deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, and his anti-Islamic evangelism. The LA Times, for example, urges Donald Rumsfeld to “retire the Pentagon’s self-proclaimed crusader before he does more damage.” One thing the media has missed, so […]

Arab American political influence prepared to reach unprecedented heights

Following up on a very successful meeting in Chicago of national Muslim leaders a month ago, the Arab American Institute’s annual leadership conference will begin tomorrow in Dearborn, Michigan. By all indications, the conference will further demonstrate that Arab Americans’ influence in American politics will reach unprecedented heights in next year’s election. As the Detroit […]

The latest poll numbers out of Pennsylvania

Yesterday I went over some of the latest polling data out of California; today I’ve got the numbers from an almost equally important state — Pennsylvania. With over 12 million people and 21 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is among the top five states in the Union when it comes to presidential politics. The state is often […]

Bush administration calls on religious zealot to hunt terrorists

The Pentagon has turned to Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin to coordinate the military intelligence as part of our ongoing hunt for Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and others. Before today, I’d never heard of Boykin, so the fact that he’s helping lead the search for known terrorists didn’t immediately strike me as particularly alarming. […]

Haley Barbour and the Council of Conservative Citizens

The other day I recited a handful of recent examples of Republican lawmakers offering disturbing and offensive remarks about racial and religious minorities. Today I found another example that may be even worse than the others. Haley Barbour, the former national chairman of the Republican National Committee, is the Republican nominee for governor of Mississippi, […]

Nethercutt compares schools to soldiers — and comes to the wrong conclusion

I’ve got an insane “quote of the day” for you. I saw (via Josh Marshall) that George Nethercutt (R-Wash.) got a little “carried away” after he returned from a four-day trip to Iraq. Nethercutt, who is running for the Senate against incumbent Sen. Patty Murray (D), said he saw strong progress being made in Iraq. […]

Q3 fundraising totals show a few candidates with money troubles

Yesterday was the deadline to report fundraising totals from the third quarter (July, August, and September). Before yesterday, only two candidates — Dean and Clark — were publicly reporting their Q3 totals because both did well. Now, however, there was no way to hide the tallies. There are two numbers to consider. First is the […]

Iowa and New Hampshire are important, but not a literal necessity

USA Today’s Walter Shapiro had an interesting column today about the primary/caucus system and the candidates’ positioning in advance of the 2004 race. While Shapiro’s column had some noteworthy observations — about February primaries vs. January and the importance of matching-funds, for example — he made one historical note that was incorrect. “Historical precedent has […]