‘Prevention First Act’ is a political winner

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who opposes abortion rights, seemed to have crafted the perfect line for wavering Dems a couple of months ago — focus on prevention. He unveiled the Prevention First Act (S. 20), which aims to reduce the number of abortions by focusing on reducing unwanted pregnancies. NARAL, hardly Reid’s natural […]

Coburn doesn’t care about congressional ethics either

For nearly 20 years, members of Congress have been prohibited from “moonlighting.” That is, ethics rules forbid lawmakers from working outside of their official responsibilities while serving in Congress. Sen. Tom Coburn knows this, but has decided that he can ignore ethics rules he doesn’t like. While he’s back home in Muskogee, Okla., for the […]

What a guy

Rudy Giuliani’s stature took a bit of a hit when he became a Bush campaign attack dog last year — going so far, at one point, to start blaming U.S. troops for the administration’s mistakes — but the former New York mayor still seems to consider himself presidential material. But if his gutter politics on […]

Thursday’s political round-up

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) made Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) very happy yesterday, announcing that he would seek re-election to the House and not mount a Senate campaign. Rhode Island Secretary of State […]

The Denver Three aren’t fading away

The three Denver residents (Alex Young, Karen Bauer, and Leslie Weise) who were removed from a presidential event because one of them drove a car with a liberal bumper sticker are not taking this outrage lightly. Yesterday, Dan Recht, the attorney representing the Denver Three, asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the matter. (Recht […]

Not the kind of thing that will help Mississippi’s image

Usually when conservatives want to use the power of the government to promote their religion, they make a half-hearted effort to case the effort in secular terms. With this in mind, it’s almost refreshing to see lawmakers in Mississippi drop the pretense. Mississippi’s Senate voted Tuesday to allow the Ten Commandments, the motto “In God […]

Shortchanging the troops — redux

It’s impossible to reconcile this… “Anytime this nation puts one of our youngsters into harm’s way, we’d better — and we will — make sure they get the best training, the best equipment, the best possible support.” — President Bush, July 2003 …with this. The Army has deployed a new troop transport vehicle in Iraq […]

Is nothing sacred?

There are certain American institutions in which secular liberals are supposed to reign supreme. Not many, of course, but a couple. Alas, even the last bastion of this dying breed appears to be under siege. From our friends at James Dobson’s Focus on the Family: A Hollywood project that has successfully trained Christian writers to […]

Off-message on Social Security, again

Bush’s failures in making his Social Security pitch include a variety of astounding elements, but for me the most surprising is the White House’s inability to craft a clear, consistent message. These guys eat, sleep, and breathe message discipline, but on the president’s signature domestic policy goal, they can’t keep their pitch on track. On […]

I wonder what the weather is like in Bush’s little bubble

There’s Bush’s view of the world… President Bush insisted Wednesday that public opinion is leaning his way on his proposal for a Social Security overhaul and hinted at political problems for lawmakers who oppose him. Notwithstanding a host of recent polls showing waning public support for his proposal, Bush cited only the part of the […]