To follow up on yesterday’s item about a Senate amendment to a massive defense appropriations bill that would prohibit prisoner abuse, the measure passed the Senate last night by a wide margin, despite a veto threat from Bush. The Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in […]
At yesterday’s White House press conference, the president briefly summarized one of the reasons he has so much faith in Harriet Miers’ abilities. “I know her well enough to be able to say that she’s not going to change, that 20 years from now she’ll be the same person with the same philosophy that she […]
When we last checked in on the Hill to gauge Republican reaction to Tom DeLay’s mounting legal troubles, we found two GOP lawmakers returning contributions from DeLay’s political action committee. Undeterred, the up-until-recently House Majority Leader has stayed on the offensive, lashed out wildly at his real and imagined critics, and worked to rally his […]
On Monday, after Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, most senators issued some kind of vaguely-polite statement. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said nothing. On Tuesday, when several GOP senators started voicing support for Miers’ nomination (Orrin Hatch led the way), Brownback issued a carefully-worded statement. Brownback explained that while he “trusts” the president, […]
I vaguely remember the time — I believe it was called the “1980s and ’90s” — when Republicans railed against the idea of social engineering. In 1993, Henry Hyde wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he lambasted the Clinton White House for its alleged belief that government could use its power to […]
I reported yesterday morning that Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is one of the very few religious-right leaders to embrace Harriet Miers’ Supreme Court nomination. Apparently, at least according to Dobson, his support is driven by inside information. Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, started calling influential social conservatives to reassure them about […]
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: * In the 17-candidate race to replace former Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), State Sen. John Campbell (R) led the pack, but will have to go through the motions in the general election later […]
I’m not entirely certain, but I think George Will’s column today said the president is incompetent. First things first. Will’s column was about Harriet Miers and the undeniable reality that she’s unqualified for the Supreme Court. [T]here is no reason to believe that Miers’s nomination resulted from the president’s careful consultation with people capable of […]
For the first time in months, Bush was asked directly yesterday to respond to developments in the ongoing Plame Game criminal investigation. It didn’t go well. One reporter asked if Bush would remove a member of his staff if they were indicted in this scandal (as he had promised earlier). Bush said he wouldn’t “talk […]
About two weeks ago, an Army captain and two sergeants from the 82nd Airborne Division who were responsible for supervising prisoners in Iraq went public with first-hand accounts of routine torture, in many instances ordered by military intelligence officers. What’s worse, the leading whistleblower, Capt. Ian Fishback, a West Point graduate — whose concerns went […]