As everyone has no doubt heard by now, the Senate Judiciary Committee, on party-line votes, sent the appeals court nominations of California Judge Janice Rogers Brown and Texas Judge Priscilla Owen to the Senate floor for consideration. If a nomination is going to spark the “nuclear-option” fight, it’s going to be one of these two. […]
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: * Maybe Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney should have waited until after his re-election campaign to start making presidential moves. A new poll shows only 33% of state voters believe Romney deserves a second […]
When Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) announced that he’d like to see Tom DeLay resign his leadership post, he didn’t point to differences of ideology and/or scandals; he said it was important for the party. “Tom’s conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up […]
Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum has been stranger than usual lately. He exploited the Terri Schiavo controversy to fly to Florida for campaign fundraising, he used a Wal-Mart jet to do it, he threatened to shut down the Senate unless he got his way on Schiavo legislation, he flip-flopped on Amtrak funding, flip-flopped again […]
Earlier this week, there were multiple reports that House Republicans were pressuring House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resolve the impasse over ethics rules with House Dems. For his part, however, Hastert expressed little interest in undoing the damage he and Tom DeLay and worked so hard to do earlier this year. The caucus pressure, however, […]
A few weeks ago, I reported on the 10-year, $21-million investigation into former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. To summarize, Cisneros, during an FBI background check, acknowledged an extramarital relationship he had years prior, and admitted to having paid the woman, but misled investigators about how much he gave her. An independent investigator, David Barrett, began […]
The Bush White House would have us believe that the eviction of three law-abiding citizens from a presidential event because of a bumper sticker was a reasonable move. It was, WH press secretary Scott McClellan said, just a “volunteer” who was “concerned that these people were coming to the event to disrupt the event.” The […]
When we last heard from the White House on its response to Americans getting removed from public presidential events due to a bumper sticker, a top Bush aide seemed to admit that an official working for the White House was directly responsible. The Denver Post’s Diana Carman reported today that there’s been some follow-up — […]
Theodore Olson, who was the solicitor general in the Bush administration for over three years, can hardly be described as a liberal lawyer. It was Olson who represented Bush in the infamous Bush v. Gore case at the Supreme Court; it was Olson who wrote anonymous articles for the American Spectator as part of the […]
Senate Republicans came up with the name “nuclear option” in 2003 — and have spent the last six month trying to get the rest of us to stop using it. As Matthew Yglesias noted today, there’s yet another label in the mix. The Weekly Standard hands down a new party line on what you’re supposed […]