Bush chooses a side

Shortly after Dick Cheney accused Democrats of making “dishonest and reprehensible” attacks, the issue came up during a presidential press conference in Korea. Q: Mr. President, Vice President Cheney called it reprehensible for critics to question how you took the country to war, but Senator Hagel says it’s patriotic to ask those kinds of questions. […]

The ‘I-word’ makes the rounds

Roll Call Executive Editor and Fox News regular Mort Kondracke raised an interesting subject today that might be of interest to the Dem grassroots: impeachment. Kondracke observed that the “I-word” is more common on blogs than the halls of Congress, but, he noted, it does pop up now and again. In particular, none other than […]

A bad deal on the Patriot Act

Update: Apparently the deal isn’t as solid as previously reported. Several lawmakers, from both parties, demanded today that further changes be made to the Patriot Act — or they’ll block reauthorization. Negotiations over the future of the Patriot Act were supposed to be about improving some of the law’s more troublesome provisions. So, when lawmakers […]

Alito’s ‘memo problem’

When a Supreme Court nominee starts facing questions about his or her ideology during confirmation hearings, he or she has a few choices. One is to play dumb and answer questions like Clarence Thomas did in 1991. (“Roe? Griswold? Never heard of ’em.”) If there are memoranda expressing an opinion on some of these issues, […]

Murtha speaks, people listen

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is probably not quite as famous as some of his congressional colleagues, but his reputation and stature in Congress, particularly on military issues, is unquestioned. A former Marine, Murtha is a decorated Vietnam veteran. Ideologically, he rarely draws right-wing fire because of his centrist voting record that always backs the military. […]

Thursday’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: * About a year ago, it seemed the Democratic Party of Florida was in real trouble. Bush won the state by a wider margin than expected, the GOP dominated Tallahassee, and the party […]

The ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ takes a tumble, sort of

Congressional Republicans just haven’t been able to spin that silly “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska they approved as part of the $286 billion transportation bill passed earlier this year. The legislation was filled with equally embarrassing pork projects — let’s not forget the $1.5 million bus stop — but that darn bridge became the symbol […]

If the GOP Veterans’ Affairs Committee won’t listen, Dems will

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) recently announced that, for the first time in six decades, there would be no joint session of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees to hear concerns directly from organizations representing those who’ve served. The announcement was not well received. Disabled American Veterans National Commander Paul W. […]

Those oil execs have some explaining to do

We learned yesterday that the CEOs of the nation’s leading oil companies weren’t entirely honest with the Senate when they were asked about their role in Dick Cheney’s secretive energy task force. Not surprisingly, after learning of the discrepancies, Senate Dems pulled no punches. Senate Democrats on Wednesday urged that oil company executives be summoned […]

How Bush’s Justice Department values civil rights (or not)

When Republicans in Georgia created a new “voter-identification law” earlier this year, they knew a key hurdle would be approval from Bush’s Justice Department. As written, the law forced Georgians without driver’s licenses (disproportionately poor, black and elderly citizens) to pay for a state ID card in order to vote. The city of Atlanta, with […]