When President Barzani of the Kurdistan regional government came to Washington in October, Bush was anxious to publicly embrace him, show him off to reporters, and post pictures of him on the White House website. When President Talabani was in DC a month prior, the same thing happened. So, when Ahmad Chalabi — the Iranian […]
Of all the FDA’s recent troubles — and there have been many — the handling of Plan B emergency contraception has been the hardest to defend. To quickly review for those just joining us, nearly two years ago, an FDA advisory panel voted 23 to 4 to approve over-the-counter access to the medication. One FDA […]
Usually there’s something in a national poll the president can find encouraging, but not the latest Gallup numbers. There are plenty of interesting results, but here’s the one Mr. “Restoring Honor and Decency” will find the most disturbing. A 53% majority say they trust what Bush says less than they trusted previous presidents while they […]
In The Note today, ABC News’ gang said there were a number of factors to consider when analyzing what might happen in 2006 and beyond, but chief among them was: * Whether there is a Democratic position on Iraq by September 25, 2006 (or not). Tim Russert posed a similar question to Howard Dean on […]
The funny thing about presidential credibility is, once it’s gone, you can’t get it back. U.S. intelligence obtained what officials said was a stolen Iranian laptop in July. Its contents were reportedly devastating, complete with computer simulations and accounts of experiments that made it clear that Iran was working towards the creation of a nuclear […]
Steve Schmidt is not just a conservative pundit. He’s the chief spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney and serves as a “Special Advisor to the President.” And today, he smeared a sitting justice on the Supreme Court. ABC News’ The Note contacted Schmidt about a report on a memo, written by Samuel Alito, that said […]
Last week, a surprisingly large number of conservatives expressed concern that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s record in opposition to abortion wasn’t quite clear enough. Today, it seems those questions have been answered. Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee, wrote that “the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion” […]
I usually try to resist reporting on every nutty utterance from Bill O’Reilly and his ilk; there’s just too much material. But last week, O’Reilly apparently went too far, even by his standards. O’Reilly went on a rather predictable tirade when a majority of San Francisco voters backed a ban on on-campus military recruiting at […]
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: * Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) continues to say he won’t run for president in 2008, but now he’s dropping hints about a possible campaign in the future. In an interview with a […]
When Bush used Veterans Day to lash out at Democrats, it was unseemly. When he took a few cheap shots at John Kerry, it was embarrassing. (Was Clinton going after Bob Dole a full year after the ’96 election?) But to truly appreciate the dismal point Bush’s presidency has reached, consider the president’s new-found interest […]