Looking at the Bush AWOL story, a lot of reporters seem to be intrigued by the fact that no one who actually served in the Alabama National Guard in the early 1970s can remember seeing Bush there. I’ve heard the GOP response and it’s not entirely unpersuasive. Bush, at the time, was not a nationally-known […]
Just when it seemed like the story couldn’t get any stranger, the Bush AWOL controversy takes a few more twists and turns. Though the White House had insisted that Bush’s medical records would not be released, the White House did release a one-page record of a dental exam last night, which reportedly proves Bush was […]
The New York Times ran an overview piece today about the Plame Game scandal, noting that the investigation has gone from casual and friendly to intense and serious. [T]he investigation into who at the White House leaked the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer has become much more intense in the last few weeks. Some […]
I’ve heard rumors that the Bush White House is run by political geniuses who consistently stay one step ahead, but sometimes I’m a little skeptical. To put this story in context, remember that Bush has the worst record on job creation of any president since the Great Depression. With this in mind, it didn’t make […]
Now that John Kerry’s grip on the Dem nomination looks very secure, we can start having some fun thinking about running mates. Sure, it’s probably smarter to wait until a few more primaries have passed, but there’s no fun in that, so let’s proceed. The conventional wisdom usually looks at pairings from the field of […]
Putting aside, for just a moment, whether Bush actually fulfilled his responsibilities to the National Guard during Vietnam, the Boston Globe raised another interesting angle today that I haven’t seen explored anywhere else. In August 1972, Bush was suspended from flight status for failing to take his annual flight physical. At this point, no one’s […]
If I didn’t know better, I’d say the Bush administration is starting to get a little rattled. Colin Powell made this point abundantly clear yesterday. First, Powell was trying, in vain, to defend the administration’s decisions about Iraq in the months leading up to the war. When a Hill staffer, who apparently wasn’t terribly impressed […]
After months of resistance and delays, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (aka the “House Ethics Committee”) will start hearings today into whether Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) was illegally offered a bribe on the House floor in November in exchange for his vote on Bush’s Medicare bill. If the process proceeds as it’s […]
It sounded like the White House was bringing a resolution to a controversy. Releasing payroll records from 1972 and 1973, which up until recently Bush aides said didn’t exist, press secretary Scott McClellan explained that the documents “clearly show that the president fulfilled his duties.” Apparently, he’s the only one who thinks so. As the […]
When going over the countless false claims made by the Bush administration about the Iraqi threat, or lack thereof, one of the fun ones is the claim that Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons that could be launched against the U.S. or our allies “within 45 minutes.” We’ve since learned that U.S. intelligence officials didn’t believe […]