The far-right crusade against the federal judiciary took a bizarre turn this week when Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) successfully added an amendment to a Justice Department appropriations bill. Even by the standards of today’s GOP, this one’s nutty. Hostettler has been concerned about a court case in his community called Russelburg v. Gibson County, which […]
Earlier this year, in one of the more offensive examples of conservatism lacking compassion, the Bush/Ashcroft Justice Department sought to hide information about emergency contraception for rape victims. The Justice Department has issued its first-ever medical guidelines for treating sexual-assault victims — without mention of emergency contraception, the standard precaution against pregnancy after rape. Omission […]
National Journal’s Charlie Cook wrote a column earlier this week on the floors of the president’s popularity. He argued, persuasively, that so long as Bush’s support among Republicans dropped no lower than 85%, which is where it’s been for nearly a year, the president’s approval rating will not fall below 40% overall, as each of […]
When Scott McClellan can’t defend Dick Cheney’s comments, you know the Bush gang is having trouble. Earlier this week, Cheney told CNN’s Larry King that the insurgency in Iraq is “in the last throes,” and insisted that violence in the country “will clearly decline.” It’s prompted some to suggest that the vice president is, unfortunately, […]
Last week at this time, I noted that the Bush White House was so encircled in scandal, we could look at just one week — in fact, not even a whole week — and see why the current president is causing his own “scandal fatigue.” Maybe I was lucky, some of you thought. It was […]
There has been a flurry of news this week about Republican lawmakers who, despite backing Bush going into the war in Iraq, are now anxious to see the president’s exit strategy. It seems to be causing something of a strain in the GOP ranks. As bad news continues to emerge from Iraq and the U.S. […]
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: * Dems hoping for another morale booster got one yesterday when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it had new polling showing seven incumbent Republican House members who would be easily defeated if […]
As soon as the religious right political movement started making real inroads in the ’80s, the movement’s groups and leaders have envisioned circumstances in which they’d play the roll of kingmakers, particularly at the presidential level. If a candidate planned on getting the GOP nomination, the Christian conservatives thought, they’d have to jump through the […]
On April 28, during a rare prime-time press conference, Bush sounded intent on staying above the fray. “I felt that people could work — work together in good faith. It’s just a lot of politics in the town. It’s kind of a zero-sum attitude…. I’ll continue to do my best. I’ve tried to make sure […]
Speaking of bills Bush doesn’t want to see on his desk, it sounds like we’ll be seeing progress on federal funding for stem-cell research in the Senate fairly soon. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Wednesday he hoped to have a vote within a month on the controversial issue of expanding federal funding for […]