The once-inevitable ethics war never came to fruition

Speaking of Chris Bell’s ethics complaint against Tom DeLay (see below), at the time of its filing, a long-standing ethics truce between the parties had been broken. Talk of a full-blown partisan war in the House was everywhere. Indeed, House Republicans talked a good game about all the attacks they were prepared to levy against […]

More calls for an independent investigation of DeLay

It’s encouraging to see a lot of follow-up on an Austin American-Statesman report from last weekend on Tom DeLay’s ethics troubles. As you probably recall, Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas), screwed over by DeLay’s re-redistricting scheme, filed a sweeping complaint against the House majority leader with the House Ethics Committee last month. The Statesman noted, however, […]

Has anyone seen Rummy?

The AP’s Robert Burns had an interesting observation yesterday: No one’s seen Rumsfeld in a while. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, for years the most public face of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism, has suddenly become scarce. Burdened by the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal and constrained by the presidential election campaign, the Pentagon chief […]

I’m still not sure where Camejo is from

I don’t mean to blog a dead horse here, but I wanted to follow up for a moment about whether Ralph Nader’s running mate, Peter Camejo, is actually eligible to run for VP. Many of you saw my post the other day about this and sent in news clips that identify Camejo as having been […]

Bush plays hide and seek with the U.N. over Halliburton

I’ve never seen a group of people who have been more anxious to stonewall legitimate investigations than the Bush administration. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen reports just like this one over the last four years. The Bush administration is withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining more than $1 billion in contracts […]

Things are getting ridiculous for the Illinois GOP

If I weren’t so excited about Barack Obama’s campaign in Illinois, I might even feel a little sorry for the state GOP at this point. After getting turned down by nearly every possible candidate, Republicans are more or less left with two options — Jack Ryan, who abandoned his Senate campaign after a sex scandal, […]

Falwell gets busted

TV preacher Jerry Falwell has, in recent years, been relatively cautious about using his tax-exempt ministries for partisan political purposes. He’s always been a GOP hack, and has repeatedly expressed support for Republican candidates, but in recent cycles, has generally kept his ministries out of the politicking business. This month, however, Falwell slipped — and […]

‘We weren’t doing anything wrong’

You may recall, back on the 4th of July, Bush traveled to Charleston, West Virginia (swing state — five electoral votes). The president shared a simple, patriotic message that few, in any, could disagree with: “On this 4th of July, we confirm our love of freedom, the freedom for people to speak their minds, the […]

Republicans aren’t taking their FMA defeat lying down

The Republican’s plan to exploit the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment obviously failed miserably yesterday. The scary part, however, is what the GOP wants to do next. I expected the usual suspects to note that constitutional amendments rarely succeed after their first attempt and that proponents will continue to fight for this as long as necessary. […]

About all that progress in Iraq…

Iraq is still, as Jon Stewart says, a giant Mess O’ Potamia. Violence is still threatening national stability and our already tiny “coalition” will soon be even smaller. It’s even reached the point that the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), doesn’t want members of Congress traveling to the […]