In recent weeks, as talk of the “nuclear option” has shifted from speculation to imminent floor fight, conservatives have wielded a double-edged kvetch: they’re irate about Dems blocking the least qualified of Bush’s judicial nominees, and they’re almost as incensed about how Dems would retaliate if Republicans gutted the Senate’s filibuster rules. A week ago, […]
For those of you who’ve been jumping up and down for weeks, practically begging for ethics investigations of high-profile Republican lawmakers, I have good news: a GOP senator is about to face a serious ethics probe. The odd part, however, is that the investigation will focus on a scandal that a lot of us had […]
Just last month, Halliburton benefited from “a departure from normal policy” that allowed the company to get paid despite audit reports that said the company had not properly accounted for a wide variety of work in Iraq and Kuwait. Army auditors recommended withholding part of the payments, but the higher-ups overruled them. The exception to […]
To hear Senate Republicans tell it, their gains in the 2004 cycle were a message to Dems: don’t stand in the way of the GOP agenda. This is a particularly common line of attack when it comes to judicial filibusters, where Republicans constantly warn Dems of a public backlash against “obstructionism.” But for all their […]
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: * In Rhode Island, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D) took a pass late last year on challenging Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R.) in 2006, and endorsed Rep. James Langevin (D), the current Dem […]
Last month, we learned that Wal-Mart had been violating child labor laws in several states. As part of a deal with Bush’s Labor Department, the corporate behemoth paid a modest fine (about $136,000), but reached an agreement whereby Wal-Mart would get 15 days notice before Bush’s Labor Department investigates any other “wage and hour” accusations, […]
When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist looked at DC’s infamous K Street, home to the city’s powerful lobbying industry, and noticed a problem: some of the lobbyists weren’t Republicans. It was a calamity that demanded a remedy. They created the “K Street Project” — a concerted effort on […]
Late last week, the White House, in response to a lawsuit from Judicial Watch (a conservative “watchdog” group), released hundreds of documents relating to Bill Clinton’s controversial end-of-term pardons. Much to Judicial Watch’s chagrin, the Bush White House blacked out most of the information. The only items not deleted from the material are the names […]
It’s been interesting to see just how much time the president spends away from work and on vacation, but Bush’s personal priorities are even more revealing when one considers what it takes for him to cut a vacation short. In August 2001, for example, Bush received an intelligence briefing that told him, “Bin Laden Determined […]
This revelation was raised on a lot of blogs the past two days, but it’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t get lost in the weekend shuffle when not as many people are online. No matter how one feels about the competing merits of the Terri Schiavo case, it’s a tragic story. It’s been debated, […]