Moderates long for their once ‘mainstream’ party

I can’t say I blame the handful of Republican moderates left in the party for feeling frustrated. It must be disheartening to see, for example, Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, who wields enormous influence in GOP circles, admit that his mission is to make moderate Republicans an endangered species. “The problem with […]

It’s time to move on, right after I get this last-minute attack in

For those left-leaning McCain fans… John McCain, last week: “I’m sick and tired of re-fighting the Vietnam War. And most importantly, I’m sick and tired of opening the wounds of the Vietnam War, which I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to heal,” McCain told USA Today. “It’s offensive to me, and it’s angering to […]

Ralph Reed’s gambling problem, redux

Bush campaign official and former Christian Coalition hatchet man Ralph Reed can’t seem to shake a major gambling industry scandal that’s been on his heels the past few months. The Nation had the scoop about two months ago. When Ralph Reed was the boyish director of the Christian Coalition, he made opposition to gambling a […]

Bush doesn’t believe we can win war on terror

There’s rarely any point to linking to Josh Marshall since everyone already reads him, but be made an observation this morning that needs some extra attention. Consider this Bush quote: When asked “Can we win?” the war on terror, Bush said: “I don’t think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions […]

Council for National Policy gets a little more unwanted publicity

Just to follow up on Friday’s item about the ultra-secretive, ultra-conservative Council for National Policy, the New York Times obtained some information about the group’s convention gatherings and ran an interesting piece over the weekend. (Alas, the article was hidden deep within Saturday’s issue, where it was sure to be missed.) As the article makes […]

When the data is inconvenient, stop publishing the data

One of the more irritating aspects to the Bush administration’s style of governing is the way in which it handles bad news. As a rule, they’re surprisingly effective at hiding it. About two weeks ago, for example, data from the Department of Education appeared to show that students in charter schools are underperforming, especially when […]

Giuliani beats up a straw man

There weren’t any major surprises from Rudy Giuliani’s appearance on the Meet the Press yesterday, but the former NYC mayor did offer one bizarre comment that stood out. “As people criticized [Bush], ridiculed him, did everything they could to get him off his agenda [of destroying global terrorism], he’s remained with it and it’s made […]

Falwell’s out, Dew’s in

It turns out the information I relied on last month indicating that Jerry Falwell would deliver the invocation at the Republican National Convention was incorrect. That’s the good news. The bad news is his replacement has an offensive record of her own. As Atrios noted over the weekend, Sheri Dew, a Mormon church official in […]

Make that two Novaks that shamelessly tout Swiftboat nonsense

Right-wing columnist Robert Novak wrote four columns about the Swiftboat group’s attacks on John Kerry between Aug. 2 and Aug. 27 — a little better than a column a week on the subject. All of them, naturally, supported the group’s smear. Considering Novak’s political agenda, it’s not surprising he’d repeat the right’s favorite lie incessantly, […]

Poll Day

If you’re a Carpetbagger regular, you know the drill. If you’re new, welcome; we do this every Friday. It’s time for my round-up of statewide presidential polls released over the last seven days. As you may have noticed, as we get closer to the election, we get more data. This week’s data can best be […]