The White House, John Ashcroft, and congressional Republicans continue to insist the Plame Game scandal should be investigated by the Justice Department, not an independent special counsel. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking Dem on the House Judiciary Committee, did a fantastic job yesterday explaining why appointing a special counsel wouldn’t only be appropriate, it’s […]
I know it’s the biggest political story of the season, but I’m afraid I don’t have a lot to say about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s victory in California yesterday. I’m disappointed by the results, have trouble comprehending Schwarzenegger’s appeal, and find it hard to believe that he’ll have any success as the chief executive of the nation’s […]
Wesley Clark’s campaign manager, Donnie Fowler, announced yesterday that he is leaving the campaign, saying that he’s frustrated over the divisions between DC political professionals and grassroots supporters who helped lead the “Draft Clark” movement. I have a hunch there’s a little more to this. If Fowler, who was Al Gore’s field director in 2000, […]
For a White House known for its discipline and coordination, it seems as though administration officials frequently have trouble keeping their stories straight. In announcing the administration’s new Iraq Stabilization Group last week, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld not only supported the group’s creation, but helped devise its existence along […]
When it came to Third Quarter fundraising among presidential candidates, there were three questions on most political observers’ minds: would Bush top $50 million for the quarter, would Dean raise more than any Democrat ever has in a single quarter, and would Wesley Clark demonstrate an ability to raise a significant amount right away. The […]
Giving a boost to hopes that Democrats can reclaim the Senate in 2004, four-term Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles (R) announced today that he is retiring from politics. Speculation had swirled in recent months that Nickles may not run for fifth term in the Senate. The conservative lawmaker ended the suspense today, saying he didn’t want […]
White House press secretary Scott McClellan held a media briefing yesterday, as he does every Monday, and dealt with a number of questions about — you guessed it — the Plame Game scandal. There weren’t a lot of fresh revelations, much to no one’s surprise, but McClellan did offer one comment that I enjoyed. “The […]
A regular reader, whom I fondly call Dr. Who, believes my earlier post about the Pentagon selling materials that can be used for making biological warfare agents was incomplete. With this in mind, allow me to elaborate. Dr. Who notes that the same items the Pentagon was selling at the DoD website are available elsewhere, […]
I admit to harboring a love-hate approach to the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. On the one hand, he’s a conservative partisan pretending to be an objective journalist. On the other hand, he usually does a pretty good job as a reporter covering the “media analysis” beat. I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that […]
Imagine a foreign government selling equipment that could be used to create biological warfare agents, over the Internet, to anyone willing to pay for it. For about $4,000, this government will send any buyer an evaporator, incubator, and centrifuge equipment with no questions asked. Terrible, right? I mean, if Saddam Hussein’s regime was doing this, […]