Just to follow up on yesterday’s post about the latest labels the Republicans using to describe their ploy to eliminate judicial filibusters, there’s another name in the mix. First up was the “nuclear option,” which everyone now uses except the very Republican lawmakers who came up with the name in the first place. Since then, […]
As some of you have already noticed, The Carpetbagger Report finally has a comments section. I fully expect those of you who’ve been emailing me, asking why I don’t have this feature, to start adding clever and insightful remarks on a regular basis. Just to clarify a part of the feature, commenters will find a […]
Here’s a legal fight that could have broad implications. The Supreme Court refused Monday to shield the news media from being sued for accurately reporting a politician’s false charges against a rival. Instead, the justices let stand a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that a newspaper can be forced to pay damages for having reported that […]
As Kos and Josh Marshall noted today, this is truly insane. The Secret Service is investigating whether an anti-war bumper sticker that was found on the car of three people had something to do with whether they were removed from President George Bush’s town hall meeting in Aurora last week. The three people say they […]
It’s difficult not to sympathize with the pain Terri Schiavo’s parents are feeling; losing a child must cause anguish that I can’t even imagine. Having said that, this hardly seems like the appropriate way to deal with their sorrow. The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of […]
My new daily feature about campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * New York 1 reported yesterday that Gov. George Pataki (R) “has decided not to seek another term next year and will concentrate instead on a bid for the vice-presidential nomination […]
The kind of colorful imagery one can only find in a Dem from Texas. But some observers of Congress say ethics probes can suddenly flare out of control, as when former House Speakers Texas Democrat Jim Wright and Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich were forced from power. “If you’ve seen a chicken in the barnyard get […]
Right wingers are angry about the way the Schiavo case turned out in the courts. The unanimity of the rulings — among state and federal judges, elected and appointed, Dem and Republican, this month and spanning several years — doesn’t lead them to believe there’s a flaw in their legal reasoning, only that there’s something […]
Congressional Dems have decided that congressional ethics — or in the case of the Republican majority, the lack thereof — is an issue that warrants considerable attention, particularly in next year’s mid-term elections. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) strategy, still in development, aims to make ethical charges the touchstone of those campaigns and would […]
One of the more compelling areas in the debate over the future of Social Security is payroll taxes. It’s an area where even many congressional Republicans feel there’s room to move. To be sure, few, if any, lawmakers are open to moving the payroll tax beyond its 12.4% rate, but many are anxious to consider […]