The more things change…

Boy, these circumstances sure sound familiar. [George W. Bush and Karl Rove] came together during young adulthood, when an ambitious former Texas congressman, George H.W. Bush, held the job of chairman of the Republican National Committee. It fell to the elder Bush to investigate allegations that Rove had used dirty tricks in a campaign for […]

Wall Street Journal pushes the limits of self parody

Because I find the outrageousness of the Plame scandal so obvious, I’m fascinated by conservative defenses that have been launched in Karl Rove’s defense. Most of the arguments include some combination of misstatement of facts, trivia, and ad hominem attacks on Joseph Wilson. But for the real entertainment, one has to consider today’s editorial in […]

Novak cooperated with prosecutors

For two full years, no one’s been able to figure out how, exactly, Bob Novak has kept himself out of trouble in the Plame scandal. He’s the one who published Plame’s name, he’s the one who contacted the CIA after getting the leak, and he’s the one who knows all of the relevant details about […]

Well, that was unpleasant

As many of you may have noticed, my site was down most of the morning because, once again, my server was down. Needless to say, this was more than a little frustrating. With this in mind, I’m hoping readers might be able to give me a hand. Can anyone recommend a reliable hosting company? I’m […]

Wednesday’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: * Rick Santorum continues to trail Bob Casey in advance of next year’s Senate campaign. A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Casey leading, 50% to 39%. Apparently, Santorum’s new book isn’t helping to […]

The White House isn’t talking — except to a select few

In case you missed it, yesterday’s White House press briefing included one exchange that was quite revealing. ABC’s Terry Moran noticed that Republican talking points responding to the Rove/Plame fiasco attacked Joseph Wilson with some fairly specific information: Rove’s conversation with Time’s Matt Cooper only lasted two minutes and initially dealt with a separate policy […]

It depends on what the meaning of ‘fired’ is

I should know better than to be surprised by anything coming from a Fox News “journalist,” but this one even startled me. When it comes to finding out who was responsible for the Plame scandal, the White House has said, on more than one occasion, that the responsible leakers would be fired. This isn’t particularly […]

A Prayer for the Dying

(Editor’s Note: The Carpetbagger Report, as regular readers know, has joined the Coalition for Darfur, a bi-partisan online initiative created to raise awareness and resources to address the crisis. This is the latest in a series of posts from the Coalition.) As Mark Leon Goldberg of the American Prospect reported back in April, the Bush […]

Hearings could answer a lot of questions

The quote of the day came on NBC’s Today show this morning. Tim Russert said he spoke to a Republican source last night who told him: “If this was a Democratic White House, we’d have congressional hearings in a second.” It’s a no-brainer. There’s a White House scandal in which national security was compromised and […]

Bush should expect more of these questions

Obviously, the person everyone wants to hear from directly on the Plame scandal is Karl Rove. Short of that, press secretary Scott McClellan will do, but he’s not talking. And then, of course, there’s their boss. The White House is suddenly facing damaging evidence that it misled the public by insisting for two years that […]