Shortly after the last election, the competition among would-be committee chairmen (and women) grew intense on Capitol Hill. Apparently, the number one factor had nothing to do with merit and everything to do with cash. Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), for example, wanted desperately to be House Appropriations Committee chairman, so he contacted Speaker Dennis Hastert […]
I don’t know when (or if) The New Republic will make it available to non-subscribers, but Jonathan Cohn has a fascinating look this week on Rep. John Shadegg’s (R-Ariz.) Health Care Choice Act (via Kevin Drum). Considering the right’s general hostility to almost every proposal to reform the nation’s health care system, this legislation is […]
This week, Murray Waas reported that John Ashcroft, while he was still attorney general and before he recused himself from the matter, requested and received detailed briefings on the Plame Game investigation. In fact, Ashcroft seemed particularly interested in the details of at least one FBI interview with Karl Rove, who just so happened to […]
It seemed like yet another conservative op-ed column with the usual harangue against unions and in support of Wal-Mart. The piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe, however, has a bit more of a back-story to it. On Aug. 10, the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, participated in a nationwide back-to-school boycott of Wal-Mart. […]
I heard from a friend of mine on the Hill that Claude Allen, a White House domestic policy advisor and Bush confidant, was on James Dobson’s radio program the day after the Focus on the Family chief compared stem-cell research to Nazi experiments. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has the right idea here: he’s written to […]
It was bad enough that Rumsfeld’s Defense Department created the “America Supports You Freedom Walk” to exploit 9/11. It added insult to injury when those who wished to participate in the government-sponsored “Freedom Walk” on public property were told they had to endure Pentagon “screening.” But now Rumsfeld & Co. have quietly gone back and […]
The AP had an interesting item yesterday on a House Dem who wants to move the party away from its solidly-pro-choice background. I wonder, though, if he realizes that he’s already won. Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who opposes legalized abortion, is helping the party’s effort to broaden its base by reaching out to […]
You’ve got to be kidding me. Cindy Sheehan — the mother who’s camped out near Crawford, Texas, demanding to speak with President Bush about her GI son who died in Iraq — is continuing her vigil but the makeshift memorial erected at her campsite has taken a hit. The campsite has close to a thousand […]
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: * Despite the fact that GOP establishment in Michigan has reluctantly rallied behind the Rev. Keith Butler (R) in next year’s Senate race (no one else wanted to run), incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow […]
The Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday that it expects the federal government to run a $331-billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2005. That’s good news, of course, but Republican crowing is painfully misguided. Republicans interpreted the report as validating the Bush administration’s tax cuts as an engine of economic growth. “It provides further evidence that […]