He was as good as gone. For two weeks, every White House aide with access to a phone had leaked word that Treasury Secretary John Snow was on his way out, sooner rather than later. Just last week, the Washington Post reported, “One senior administration official said Treasury Secretary John W. Snow can stay as […]
There was an interesting item in the New York Times yesterday about the behind-the-scenes wrangling over the intelligence reform bill on the Hill, but, as several alert readers noted, there was one sentence that jumped out. The NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg noted in the piece that Joe Lieberman has been among the key players in […]
Taking a brief break from political news, a Carpetbagger guest poster, Nili, has been doing some excellent non-political work on preventing kids from drinking alcohol, and he asked me if I’d be willing to post a brief public service announcement on the issue. If you have kids between the ages of 11 and 14, or […]
I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure why Harry Reid’s tacit respect for Antonin Scalia is causing such a fuss. If you’re just joining us, Reid said on Meet the Press that he disagrees with Scalia on many issues, but if Bush tapped Scalia to replace Rehnquist as the chief justice, Reid would probably, […]
It’s a shame to see stories like these, but one has to assume that we’ll be seeing more of them in the coming months. A Navy petty officer opposed to the war in Iraq refused to board his ship Monday as sailors and Marines deployed for the Persian Gulf. Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes, […]
No wonder the Bush gang usually insists on speaking exclusively to sycophantic crowds; real people who haven’t been vetted by campaign operatives sometimes ask difficult questions. The nerve of these people! Donald Rumsfeld, for example, probably thought a little chat with troops serving in Iraq yesterday — mostly National Guard and Reserve soldiers — would […]
In case you missed Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, which brought this to my attention… Sunday afternoon on CNN: Blitzer: So the bottom line, is the world safer today as a result of the removal, the invasion of Iraq, or is the world less safe? Musharraf: Oh, I think it’s less safe, certainly. We […]
It’s still ridiculously early, and most likely candidates have barely gotten past the imagination stage, but we should all keep an eye on Delaware’s Joe Biden for 2008. My friend Poppy tuned into Imus and got the scoop. On Imus this morning, Joe Biden said that he is “proceeding as if I am running” for […]
In October, the NYT reported that the government was making contingency plans for a draft of medical personnel. The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military’s medical corps. In a confidential report this […]
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I thought if there was one issue that congressional Dems could be united on, it would be the drive to protect Social Security. Apparently not. President Bush’s call for private accounts within Social Security drew an early expression of bipartisan support Tuesday when Florida Rep. Allen Boyd stepped […]