Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who considers himself something of a maverick, was just another Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, offering John Roberts softballs and lashing out at justices he doesn’t like. “Well, there are all kind of hearts. There are bleeding hearts and there are hard hearts. And if I wanted to […]
Guess who’s under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission? The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating stock sales made by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in HCA Inc. shortly before the Nashville, Tenn.-based company warned it wouldn’t meet its previous second-quarter earnings forecast. Mr. Frist, a Tennessee Republican and a potential presidential candidate in […]
The Republicans’ work with Head Start — which focuses on preschool education, but also emphasizes medical care, nutrition, parental counseling, and social interaction for nearly 1 million children — has been a problem for a while now. For example, Dick Cheney, in 1986, was one of only a handful of members of Congress to vote […]
For a White House that has more than its share of political troubles, this week has connected the Bush gang to the Jack Abramoff scandal in extremely unhelpful ways. We learned this week, for example, that Bush’s top federal procurement official has been arrested for obstructing a criminal investigation into Abramoff. Also, Karl Rove’s top […]
It may have seemed at the time like a political coup. Conservative lawmakers in the Republican Study Committee seized an opportunity, hosted a well-attended press conference, and laid out an aggressive budget-cutting agenda to help improve the government’s deteriorating budget outlook. They even came up with a clever little name: “Operation Offset.” Under the circumstances, […]
At a practical level, there’s some terribly amusing about the right finally expressing displeasure at very idea of more federal borrowing. They’ve taken their sweet time about reaching this point. For the better part of five years, conservatives couldn’t be bothered at all. The war in Afghanistan? Charge it. Iraq? Charge it. Expanding Medicare? Charge […]
SurveyUSA has another one of those fun-filled 50-state polls, this time returning to the subject of the president’s approval rating, state-by-state. The top five: Utah — 63% approve, 36% disapprove Idaho — 57% approve, 40% disapprove Nebraska — 55% approve, 42% disapprove Mississippi — 55% approve, 43% disapprove Wyoming — 55% approve, 44% disapprove The […]
As expected, John Roberts was approved by the Senate Judiciary this afternoon. The only question was how many Dems would vote against him. The answer: five. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved John Roberts’ nomination as the next Supreme Court chief justice, virtually assuring the conservative judge confirmation by the Senate next week. Three […]
In a move that should surprise no one, David Safavian, the Bush administration’s top federal procurement official and Jack Abramoff confidant was recently arrested, will be given a terrific opportunity — so long as he testifies against some of his former colleagues. A lawyer for David H. Safavian, the former White House budget official arrested […]
Four months ago, Roll Call had a report noting that Dem congressional leaders, including Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, have come to see Wesley Clark as a “go-to guy” on foreign policy matters. As part of this role, Clark has become a frequent visitor to the Hill, speaking to Dem caucuses on the Hill about […]