The Bush administration took a lot of well-deserved flack for intervening in the Justice Department’s case against Big Tobacco, insisting that the industry pay $10 billion, instead of the $130 billion previously recommended by a government expert witness. But less well known is the administration’s bizarre handling of the international tobacco treaty. Considering the fact […]
Just to follow up quickly on yesterday’s post, Karl Rove’s claim that “throughout the history of the republic, Supreme Court nominations receive an up-or-down vote,” is terribly untrue. I noted that Republicans filibustered LBJ’s nomination of Abe Fortas, but David Greenberg had an item in Slate yesterday explaining that Senate problems with nominees goes back […]
Time’s Matt Cooper was prepared to go to jail to protect his source, but received word early yesterday from his source that he had been released from his promise of confidentiality. And who was this secret source? Surprising absolutely no one, it was Karl Rove. “A short time ago, in somewhat dramatic fashion, I received […]
A horrifying morning in London. Near simultaneous explosions have rocked London, killing several people and injuring dozens in what UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said was an apparent terror attack coinciding with a meeting of G8 leaders in Scotland. A series of four explosions caused mass panic and brought the London transit system to a […]
Of all the political fights associated with filling the newly-announced Supreme Court vacancy, I didn’t expect the most divisive and contentious to be the bitter dispute between conservative Republicans and far-right conservative Republicans over whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales belongs on the short list. And yet, that’s what we have. The White House and the […]
Guest post by Ed Stephan George Will wrote a Fourth-of-July column praising David McCullough’s “1776”. To introduce his paean, he set up a sort of straw man in the form of “historicism”: What is history? The study of it — and the making of it, meaning politics — changed for the worse when, in the […]
Carpetbagger regular Bubba alerted me to today’s AP story on the Plame grand jury that included an interesting tidbit. In a high-stakes battle over press freedom, two reporters face jail, possibly as early as Wednesday, for refusing to divulge their sources to a prosecutor investigating the Bush administration’s leak of a CIA officer’s identity. “Journalists […]
When a politician gets caught hosting an event at an all-white country club, he or she has a choice on how to respond. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) is not choosing wisely. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. addressed criticism yesterday of a fund-raiser he hosted at an all-white country club by saying its membership is […]
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: * Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) is the House member most likely to be in jail before the next election, but the besieged lawmaker said yesterday that he “absolutely” plans to seek a […]
I have assumed for months that the White House, and probably the president himself, are aware of the fact that the drive to privatize Social Security is a complete debacle. Perhaps I misjudged their capacity for self-deception. From the Bush gang’s perspective, they hoped a post-election “mandate” and an aggressive sales pitch would put the […]