(Editor’s Note: The Carpetbagger Report, as reported last week, joined the Coalition for Darfur, a bi-partisan online initiative created to raise awareness and resources to address the crisis. This is the second in a series of posts from the Coalition.) Many seemed surprised when UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland recently updated the estimated […]
It looked for a while like Illinois was the ideal choice for Dems to pursue a little DeLay-like re-redistricting, but state Dems put the kibosh on the idea last week. Shifting gears, the party needs another state in which Dems control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature. Next on the list: Louisiana. […]
For all the talk I hear about how Republicans are succeeding because they’ve been able to craft new ideas and take on new issues, it’s amazing how often the GOP looks back to re-fight old battles for no reason. Last week, it was the reintroduction of an amendment on flag-burning. As if that early-90s fight […]
Senate Republicans are either bluffing or they’ve assembled the votes they need to pass the “nuclear option.” Republicans believe they have enough votes to end the filibustering of judicial nominees, a landmark change in Senate rules that would clear the way for President Bush to get conservative judges confirmed but could draw a forceful reaction […]
My new daily feature about campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may nevertheless be of interest to political observers: * Following former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume’s announcement that he’ll seek Maryland’s Senate seat next year, Rep. Albert Wynn (D) said he’ll skip the race. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D), meanwhile, […]
Consider this quote of the day: Privately, some Republican lawmakers were much less supportive of Mr. DeLay, with one saying that if the steady drone of accusations persists, Mr. DeLay will be in trouble and could be forced to surrender his post. “I don’t know if it is tomorrow or next year, but it is […]
Bush said we’d have 125,000 trained Iraqi security forces by the end of 2004, which wasn’t even close to true. Condi Rice insists there 120,000 are now trained, equipped, and ready to provide security, which is still wildly off-base. The Pentagon says there are 136,000 members of Iraqi security forces, but grudgingly notes that less […]
Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum makes no effort to hide the fact that he’s a devout Roman Catholic. What’s interesting, though, is that he’s taken to organizing classes on Catholic doctrine for members of Congress in his private office. Santorum has brought in the Rev. Michael Sliney, a local priest, to oversee the course, which […]
I know I’m a day late on this one, but Condoleezza Rice said something ridiculous on Meet the Press Sunday that’s still bugging me. Russert brought up the fact that Rice described herself in a recent interview as “mildly pro-choice” and asked Rice to explain. She gave a fairly predictable answer: she’s against some peripheral […]
House Dems, particularly those trying to serve on the House Ethics Committee, have come to realize something important: there’s no point in having the committee do any work at all if it’s going to operate under fraudulent rules. They’ve intentionally brought on gridlock, which given the circumstances, is exactly what’s warranted. Just as new controversy […]