The Bush gang’s penchant for creating fake-news segments — with our money — is well documented. As we learned a couple of weeks ago, at least 20 federal agencies have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years. In all, the administration spent over a quarter-billion dollars on generating professional-quality […]
Because Patrick Fitzgerald is a special counsel that respects confidentiality and disdains leaks, unlike some prosecutors we know (cough, cough, Ken Starr, cough), details about the ongoing White House criminal investigation have been far and few between. Indeed, there’s been far more coverage of the debate about forcing reporters to testify than there’s been about […]
Bush is the first president in 150 years to go an entire term without vetoing a single bill, but if progress on stem-cell legislation stays on track, we’ll see his first one soon. A controversial bill to hike funding for stem-cell research is gaining momentum in the House, increasing the chances that it will be […]
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: * Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum sounded downright panicky in an email fundraising pitch last week. “I must have you working with me to stand against the Big Money leftists,” Santorum wrote. “Now […]
A day after suggesting judges who are the victim of violence may have somehow brought their fate upon themselves, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) followed up yesterday with remarks that were intended to clarify his meaning. It wasn’t particularly helpful. “My point was, and is, simply this: We should all be concerned that the judiciary is […]
The latest Gallup numbers are out and there’s reason for concern at the White House. President Bush seems to have slipped into a second-term slump. Support continues to erode for his signature goal of adding individual investment accounts to Social Security, according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday and Saturday. The coalition that gave […]
A week after Tom DeLay issued an implicit threat against judges — releasing a public statement saying, “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior” — some of his Republican allies are distancing themselves from the Majority Leader’s reckless rhetoric. Dick Cheney got the ball rolling over the […]
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) has been a long-time member of the Conscience Caucus. She’s a loyal Republican on almost every possible area of public policy, but when it comes to Social Security, she not only disagrees with Bush, she’s not afraid to say so. And in a sign of just how difficult it’ll be for […]
In March, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, already awash in scandal and a four-time target of House Ethics Committee rebukes, found himself in more hot water. Reports surfaced that DeLay took an expense-paid trip to South Korea, paid for by a South Korean lobbying group, in violation of House rules. Shortly thereafter, we learned that […]
When it comes to the “nuclear option,” the conventional wisdom tells us that most Republicans are feeling feisty and aggressive, while most Dems are worried and on the defensive. The situation is, fortunately, far more nuanced. Dems, to a large extent, have been in a near-panic because the end of judicial filibusters means that Bush […]