Griffith nomination faces minimal opposition

I know I’m just tilting at windmills here, but I continue to be somewhat amazed that Thomas Griffith’s judicial nomination was not a bigger deal. Today, he was confirmed rather easily. The Senate on Tuesday confirmed one of its former lawyers, Thomas S. Griffith, to sit on the U.S. Appeals Court, the sixth judge it […]

Tuesday’s political round-up

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: * Remember last week, when a Dem poll showed former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) giving Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) a serious fight next year? Lugar has responded with a new poll of his […]

‘Either disinterest or a coverup’

It’s been a whole month since we last checked in with our friends in the Denver Three — who, you’ll recall, were forced from a presidential event because of an anti-war bumper sticker — but the controversy continues unabated. (If you’re new to the story and want to catch up on the details, type “Denver” […]

Keeping things in the family

The Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne Jr. thinks he has a grip on the next GOP presidential ticket. McCain-Bush in 2008? That would be John and Jeb, the most logical Republican ticket if the party remains in the polling doldrums. If President Bush and his political maestro, Karl Rove, decide that the only way to […]

Frist’s fiscal faults — Part 2

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a man who clearly wants to be president, has not exactly proven himself a wise money manager. I’m not referring to his votes for reckless tax cuts and massive budget deficits; I mean his handling of his own accounts. We learned in December, for example, that Frist’s campaign committee suffered […]

Good news, bad news on the lynching apology

The Senate vote last night formally apologizing for the body’s failures to stand against the lynching of thousands of African Americans was long overdue. But, while I’m pleased it was successful, some of the details from yesterday were disconcerting. The U.S. Senate last night approved a resolution apologizing for its failure to enact federal anti-lynching […]

Cunningham has some explaining to do

The San Diego Union-Tribune and Josh Marshall got the ball rolling on this the past couple of days, but in case you haven’t heard, Rep. Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham (R-Calif.) seems to have quite a controversy on his hands. A defense contractor with ties to Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham took a $700,000 loss on the purchase […]

Taking money with one hand, severing strings of accountability with the other

There was an interesting, multi–party discussion over the weekend on private school tuition vouchers and the issue of accountability. The dialog helps highlight the inherent contradiction of the religious schools’ arguments about accepting public funds but not public responsibility. There are a variety of ways of coming at this issue, but Kevin Drum, with whom […]

Cooney will have to take his editing pen somewhere else

Last week we learned that the Bush White House let Philip Cooney, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, re-write a government report on global warming, editing out scientific conclusions he didn’t like. The controversy drew fairly strong criticism, which, under traditional Bush rules, would help Cooney get a promotion. But not this time. […]

Monday’s political round-up

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: * Now that the field is set in New Jersey, polls in the state, not surprisingly, show Sen. Jon Corzine (D) ahead of businessman Doug Forrester (R). A new Star-Ledger poll has Corzine […]