I suppose one way to gauge just how serious the Plame scandal is for the Bush White House is how furiously the president distances himself from its principal players. Under normal circumstances, Bush stands behind his close friends, no matter how much trouble they’re in (Rumsfeld, for example, is still running the Pentagon). But when […]
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: * With just eight days until New Jersey picks its new governor, a new Zogby poll is in line with nearly all of the other recent polls: Sen. Jon Corzine (D) is up […]
When Dick Morris starts publicly questioning Dick Cheney’s role in the Plame scandal, it’s kind of interesting because Morris loves Cheney and has dismissed the controversy for months. But when Nick Kristof raises the specter of Cheney’s resignation in the New York Times, the White House has an entirely different kind of problem. Kristof observes […]
Part of the Dems post-Plame-indictment strategy seems to be emphasizing the need for Karl Rove to be forced out of his job. For a variety of reasons, I think this is a very wise approach. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid got the ball rolling yesterday on CNN, repeating his call for Rove’s ouster four times. […]
Patrick Fitzgerald may have warned us all not to read “tea leaves,” but the political world wants to know whether Karl Rove is in the clear, and can move forward knowing that an indictment is a long shot, or whether Rove remains in legal jeopardy. The media gave mixed signals, based on thin sourcing, all […]
With all that’s going on with the White House leak scandal and the Supreme Court, it’s important that stories like this one don’t get lost in the shuffle. On Friday, the Department of Agriculture released new data on hunger in the United States. The results weren’t encouraging. Findings show that the number of people living […]
In May, before there was even a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the White House began reaching out to far-right activists to ask who they’d like to see nominated. The Christian Legal Society, one of the groups “solicited” for their views and recommendations. The Washington Times reported that the group wrote a short list of […]
Harry Reid warned Bush not to nominate Samuel Alito. Bush’s base had other ideas. Now Reid is following up with a shot across the White House bow. “…[T]he Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people. “I am disappointed in this choice for several reasons. First, […]
With the Harriet Miers debacle behind him, the president had a choice. He could pick a consensus candidate that “unite” both sides of the aisle during these trying and divisive times, or he could touch off a bitter partisan conflict by picking a hard-line conservative that makes his far-right base happy. Surprise, surprise, Bush went […]