Oh, this is a good one. As most of America slept early last Sunday morning, the Bush Administration hustled and bustled to prepare for the Sunday morning talk shows — among others Colin Powell was appearing on Face the Nation and Donald Rumsfeld was booked on Fox News Sunday. Condi Rice was not scheduled to […]
Gas prices are reaching all-time highs and OPEC is cutting output, so Bush is getting a little nervous. Naturally, this means it’s time for Bush’s campaign to roll out the latest attack ad against John Kerry. This one’s titled, “Wacky.” (Really, that’s the name the campaign gave it.) Some people have wacky ideas. Like taxing […]
If Bush is hoping for political cover from his buddies on Capitol Hill over the Medicare scandal, he can forget it. Congressional Republicans are going out of their way to distance themselves from the controversy. Republican lawmakers are distancing themselves from the still raging Medicare scoring controversy by chastising the Bush administration for withholding information […]
As I may have mentioned before, one of the most frustrating features of political journalism, for me, is an unnecessary aversion to conclusions. Articles will note what the Dems said, then what the GOP said, but never tell readers who’s right (assuming there’s an objective truth available). Knight Ridder’s Ron Hutcheson, therefore, probably deserves a […]
West Virginia, and its five electoral votes, went with Bush in 2000 by a surprisingly strong 6.3% margin. Yet, despite its cultural conservatism, Bush appears to be slipping badly in popularity in the state and one recent poll showed him tied with Kerry at 46% in a general election match-up. If you’re wondering why, look […]
Earlier this month, the GOP released talking points to its attack dogs, complete with specific data on how best to attack John Kerry’s economic plan. They felt comfortable with the fiscal analysis because they relied on Treasury Department officials to crunch the numbers. Which is precisely the problem. As the Wall Street Journal reported today, […]
Number of words Bill Frist used on Friday to accuse Richard Clarke of being a self-serving, opportunistic, felonious perjurer: 2,074 Number of words Frist has used on this matter since he admitted he hadn’t even seen Clarke’s 2002 testimony and since Clarke announced his support for broad declassification: Zero. Shouldn’t some enterprising young reporter ask […]
Josh Marshall found a terrific nugget in this Reuters piece. It’s so awful, it’s hilarious. An emotional former President George H.W. Bush on Tuesday defended his son’s Iraq war and lashed out at White House critics. It is “deeply offensive and contemptible” to hear “elites and intellectuals on the campaign trail” dismiss progress in Iraq […]
It seemed like an unusually responsible course of action for Tom DeLay. Facing a possible indictment for one of his many fundraising scandals, DeLay started talking, according to several articles citing several sources, about contingency plans if and when that happens. In fact, the reports were surprising in their specificity. Roll Call noted that DeLay […]
I never thought I’d see a journalist actually apologize — in print — for the media’s Iraq coverage, but one finally has (via Ezra). As Editor & Publisher noted yesterday, “While the major media, from The New York Times on down, has largely remained silent about their own failings in [covering the false information on […]