The Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne Jr. thinks he has a grip on the next GOP presidential ticket. McCain-Bush in 2008? That would be John and Jeb, the most logical Republican ticket if the party remains in the polling doldrums. If President Bush and his political maestro, Karl Rove, decide that the only way to […]
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a man who clearly wants to be president, has not exactly proven himself a wise money manager. I’m not referring to his votes for reckless tax cuts and massive budget deficits; I mean his handling of his own accounts. We learned in December, for example, that Frist’s campaign committee suffered […]
The Senate vote last night formally apologizing for the body’s failures to stand against the lynching of thousands of African Americans was long overdue. But, while I’m pleased it was successful, some of the details from yesterday were disconcerting. The U.S. Senate last night approved a resolution apologizing for its failure to enact federal anti-lynching […]
The San Diego Union-Tribune and Josh Marshall got the ball rolling on this the past couple of days, but in case you haven’t heard, Rep. Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham (R-Calif.) seems to have quite a controversy on his hands. A defense contractor with ties to Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham took a $700,000 loss on the purchase […]
There was an interesting, multi–party discussion over the weekend on private school tuition vouchers and the issue of accountability. The dialog helps highlight the inherent contradiction of the religious schools’ arguments about accepting public funds but not public responsibility. There are a variety of ways of coming at this issue, but Kevin Drum, with whom […]
Last week we learned that the Bush White House let Philip Cooney, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, re-write a government report on global warming, editing out scientific conclusions he didn’t like. The controversy drew fairly strong criticism, which, under traditional Bush rules, would help Cooney get a promotion. But not this time. […]
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: * Now that the field is set in New Jersey, polls in the state, not surprisingly, show Sen. Jon Corzine (D) ahead of businessman Doug Forrester (R). A new Star-Ledger poll has Corzine […]
I mentioned last Thursday that I expect a constitutional amendment to “protect” the flag to work its way onto the Republican front burner very soon, in part to help direct attention away from their faltering agenda and in part because it’s a vote-getting wedge issue. Or is it? I was very surprised by the results […]
The last we heard from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), he was rewriting amendments offered by Dems on his committee to make them appear to support sexual predators. Last week, Sensenbrenner drew the Dems’ ire again, this time for his behavior at a hearing on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Sensenbrenner had initially […]
With Tom DeLay’s scandals generating so much attention, reporters seem intent on finding similar controversies surrounding other lawmakers — particularly Dems. It’s part of the pox-on-both-your-houses style embraced by journalists who are afraid of being accused of harboring a partisan bias. Almost two weeks ago, it was a front-page Washington Post piece on some Dem […]