DeLay’s army stops writing checks

Tom DeLay’s outrageous behavior may not be in the headlines right now — we’ll probably have to wait until the House Ethics Committee is done investigating his many transgressions — but it’s encouraging to see support for his legal defense fund dry up. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is getting less help from his […]

Friday’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: * In Pennsylvania, publicity surrounding Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum’s new book apparently hasn’t boosted his re-election prospects. A new Rasmussen poll shows Santorum trailing Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert Casey (D) 52% to 41%. […]

Maybe it’s the envoys

When Bush delivered his June 28 speech on Iraq and the war on terrorism, one interested observer watched in disgust, knowing full well that the president wasn’t telling the nation the truth. The problem, at least from the White House’s perspective, is that observer was Bush’s hand-picked envoy to Afghanistan after we invaded the country […]

New York Times moves the ball forward

Way back when, John DiIulio, the head of Bush’s White House faith-based office, said of his administration colleagues: “There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you’ve got is everything — and I mean everything — being run […]

What did Karen Hughes know?

In her book, Ten Minutes from Normal, presidential counselor Karen Hughes explained her belief that Bob Novak learned about Valerie Plame from an administrative agency — not the White House — which we now know wasn’t the case. Still, Hughes seemed to appreciate the seriousness of the situation. “But regardless of the source, the leak […]

Once again, it’s the cover-up, not the crime

In case you haven’t already seen it, Bloomberg, which has been doing fine work on the Plame scandal, has learned that prosecutors believe that Rove and Libby may have lied during their testimony about how they learned about Plame’s identity (via Think Progress). Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor […]

State Dept. memo was ‘Top Secret’

It may seem like a minor point, but the State Department memo that told top White House aides about Valerie Plame was, in fact, classified “Top Secret.” A key department memo discussing Joseph Wilson’s Niger trip was classified “Top Secret,” and the passage about his wife’s CIA role was specially marked “S/NF” — not to […]

Darfur

Regular readers know that The Carpetbagger Report is a member of the Coalition for Darfur, a bi-partisan online initiative created to raise awareness and resources to address the crisis. The Coalition did not produce a post this week, but instead is focusing attention on the work of Smith College Professor Eric Reeves, who has written […]

Open Forum

Hark, whom many of you may recognize from the comments section, emailed me recently to suggest that I make an open forum for readers to comment on events/articles/ideas that I didn’t get to in the course of the morning/afternoon. So, I thought we’d give it a shot. What’s on your mind?

The press corps hasn’t given up yet

Yesterday’s White House press briefing focused overwhelmingly on John Roberts and the Supreme Court. There were only two questions about the Plame Game scandal, neither of which Scott McClellan answered. How about today? McClellan kept his briefing, well, brief, but the press corps hasn’t let go of the issue. Helen Thomas got the ball rolling. […]