The Blue Dog Coalition is made up of 36 conservative Dems, all of whom are the type of Dems party activists find terribly frustrating for not being nearly liberal enough. They’re also the same Dems Republicans will reach out to when there’s a close vote, because they know the Blue Dogs are prone to break […]
Two weeks ago, executives from the oil industry announced unprecedented windfall profits. Exxon Mobil announced that its third-quarter net income jumped 75%, to $9.92 billion. Its profit in the first nine months of this year — $25.42 billion — already equals its full-year earnings for 2004, and the company’s sales are expected to exceed those […]
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is a very conservative lawmaker from a reliably Republican district in a consistently “red” state. And after yesterday’s results, even Hayworth doesn’t want to be seen with Bush in his home district. You may know J.D. Hayworth as the Arizona Republican caught up in Jack Abramoff’s mess, as a member of […]
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 Republican officials have come up dry looking for Senate candidates they can support in Florida, they’re prepared to re-embrace Rep. Katherine Harris. Harris acknowledged yesterday that she’s had some difficulties […]
The Washington Post reported this week that when it comes to tolerating torture, Dick Cheney is not the leading voice, he’s the only voice. A State Department official described Cheney’s camp as a “shrinking island.” Condoleezza Rice isn’t on the island, and as of yesterday, neither is intelligence czar John Negroponte. Yesterday, this isolation became […]
Late last week, Bush ordered the entire White House staff to attend mandatory briefings on ethical behavior and the handling of classified materials. The Bush gang made a point of emphasizing that everyone has to take the refresher course; the memo to the staff specifically explains, “There will be no exceptions.” Unfortunately, it depends on […]
I suspect Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert thought they had come up with a clever little plan. They saw Harry Reid pull an adroit stunt last week and thought maybe they could turn the tables a bit. Instead the gang that can’t shoot straight pulled another Keystone Kops routine. As I mentioned briefly yesterday, Frist […]
If yesterday produced one big winner — outside those whose names were actually on ballots — it’s outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D). In fact, let the Warner ’08 hype begin in earnest … now. Tim Kaine tied himself to Warner, telling Virginia that if they’ve liked the last four years, he’ll carry the progress […]
Yesterday produced four major “culture war” headlines, two on modern science, two on discrimination against gays. The results were split right down the middle. In Maine, yesterday produced a rare victory against intolerance. Maine voters on Tuesday upheld a law that gives protection from discrimination to gays and lesbians, a reversal of two previous votes […]
So this is what it feels like to have a good election year. I’d almost forgotten. Just 24 hours ago, National Journal’s Charlie Cook, a non-partisan election analyst, said, “For Republicans, pulling out a statewide victory anywhere would at least slow the snowballing anxiety and pessimism that is pervading the beleaguered GOP.” That sounded about […]