I hesitate to put this in print because I’m probably being hopelessly naïve, but I wonder if there’s a small upside to the worst part of yesterday’s deal over judicial nominees: campaign fodder. Maybe I’m just rationalizing — and I’m sure readers will let me know — but Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and Bill […]
The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll was taken before the deal was reached on the nuclear option, but since Bush is unlikely to get any credit for the compromise — if anything, he tried to undermine the negotiations — the surprisingly bad poll numbers remain noteworthy. President Bush’s job approval rating dropped to near its lowest […]
I’ve mentioned that Bill Frist is one of the big losers as a result of the deal struck by the Group of 14, but there’s another name that might challenge the Majority Leader at the top of that list: James Dobson. The man who believes he’s helping guide the Republican domestic agenda made a series […]
The “Group of 14” is taking a victory lap today and I can’t say I blame any of them. They struck a deal that seemed highly unlikely, they put a stop to the nuclear option crisis, and each of them is now a media darling. (The press inevitably fawns over anyone who supposedly bucks the […]
OK, so is the “Group of 14” deal that thwarted the nuclear option a good one or not? Who wins? Who loses? Blogging doesn’t lend itself well to subtleties and unforeseen variables, but I think it’s fair to call this arrangement a “mixed bag.” On the surface, Dems didn’t gain very much at all. They […]
Details are sketchy, and everything will be clearer in the morning, but it looks like an 11th hour compromise has been reached that will avoid the nuclear option. Senators from both parties reached a compromise Monday night to avoid a showdown on President Bush’s stalled judicial nominees and the Senate’s own filibuster rules. “We have […]
Harry Reid has taken some risks when it comes to the fight over the nuclear option, but he’s consistently been successful in a) making Bill Frist look bad; and b) getting his message out. Tonight, however, Reid will take his communications strategy to a new level. Reid’s office just sent out an alert explaining that […]
The six-by-six negotiators will continue to try and work out some kind of deal that will short circuit the nuclear option. But let’s say it doesn’t work out and the matter comes to the floor tomorrow for a vote. How’s this going to play out? Harry Reid says he’s “cautiously optimistic,” while Mitch McConnell answered […]
Through most of the fight over the nuclear option, it’s seemed, at least on the surface, as though the White House has been on the outside looking in. Senate Republicans were the ones who came up with the idea in 2003, conservative activists have been demanding it ever since, and the debate has put Bill […]
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: * Californians apparently don’t mind electing actors as governor, so Warren Beatty is apparently mulling a bid. After delivering a blistering critique of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s leadership of the state, Beatty initially indicated he […]