DNC Chairman Howard Dean, who, as some may have noticed, has a tendency to make headlines with controversial remarks, raised a few eyebrows yesterday for suggesting that the United States may not win the war in Iraq. “The idea that we’re going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong,” […]
Quick, name three bills the Senate has voted on this year that made religious conservatives happy. Let’s see, there was the Terri Schiavo debacle … and that’s about it. Unfortunately for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the far-right has noticed. It’s worth remembering that religious conservatives expected 2005 to be their watershed year ever for […]
I didn’t intend to do two “war on Christmas” posts in the same day, but I saw a poll that needs more attention. The story has generally been a tongue-in-cheek commentary for weeks. There isn’t a real conflict because only one side is doing all the complaining. When the O’Reilly/Falwell/AFA crowd starts a letter campaign […]
I don’t mind that the New York Times created a blog devoted to movies. I do, however, mind the name they came up with for the blog. What’s worse, it doesn’t really make any sense in a movie context. “Carpetbagger” clearly has its roots in a political context and is still used with political connotations. […]
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: * State Sen. John Campbell (R-Calif.) was elected to the House yesterday in a special election held to replace now-SEC Chair Chris Cox. Campbell won with 45%, ahead of Democrat Steve Young who […]
For most of the fall, the White House has taken a very proactive approach to opposing any congressional measure that might hinder the ability to torture detainees. In September and October, Bush said, in no uncertain terms, that he’d veto a defense appropriations bill that prohibited prisoner abuse. In response to the threat, the Senate […]
Nearly all of the debate about pre-war intelligence on Iraq has focused on motivation — everyone knows it was wrong; the question is whether it was intentionally manipulated and exploited by the Bush administration or not. But the Wall Street Journal raised an interesting point today about the pre-war intelligence. A lot of it — […]
The Bush gang really hasn’t been paying much attention to the far-right whining about the alleged “war on Christmas,” or they’d be far more on-message. At this point, the White House has done nearly everything wrong — from Laura Bush’s “happy holidays” wishes, to “Children’s Holiday Reception” (where kids were encouraged to have a “very […]
Joe Lieberman may be many things, but a tone-deaf politician isn’t one of them. He’s won three U.S. Senate races, was a two-term state attorney general, and was even the Majority Leader of the Connecticut Senate back in the ’70s. Lieberman is savvy and shrewd when he needs to be. Which is why I’m confused […]
On Monday, a Texas judge upheld a felony indictment against Tom DeLay, allowing money laundering charges to move ahead. For DeLay, who hoped to have the charges thrown out so he could reassume his leadership post in the House, it was a serious setback. Just how close were DeLay’s lawyers to successfully arguing that the […]