Given the Harriet Miers fiasco, the Mike Brown tragedy, and the White House’s general embrace of a “hackocracy” in which political hacks are given key government posts, it’s tempting to think the Bush gang will be more cautious in appointing ideological allies to high office. And yet, it keeps happening. The New Republic noted one […]
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: * In its election-eve poll in New Jersey, Quinnipiac shows Sen. Jon Corzine (D) leading Doug Forrester 52% to 45% among likely Garden State voters. The election, of course, is tomorrow. * In […]
Ever the loyalist, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to defend Bush’s plummeting national support last week by comparing his boss to another president who suffered in the polls. “President Harry Truman,” Rumsfeld said at a press briefing, “now remembered as a fine president, would leave office in 1953 with an approval rating of about 25 […]
In February 2000, Sen. John McCain took one of the bolder steps any Republican presidential candidate had taken in a very long time. In the midst of a fierce competition with then-Gov. George W. Bush, McCain traveled to Virginia Beach, home of Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, in advance of Virginia’s GOP primary, to take […]
The White House counsel’s office told presidential aides on Friday afternoon (when else?) that they’ll be getting a little “refresher” course on government ethics. President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior […]
These Republican doctors-turned-lawmakers sure do know some interesting tricks. Bill Frist, for example, can use an hour of family videotapes to challenge the diagnosis of doctors who have examined a severely brain-damaged patient in person. Tom Coburn, meanwhile, can use his medical training to tell if someone is lying, just by looking at them. Coburn […]
At times, complaints about the Patriot Act can sound vaguely hysterical. Critics go so far as to suggest that the law empowers the FBI to obtain secret information about you — including phone calls, internet visits, even credit ratings — whether you’re suspected of wrongdoing or not. The probing of your personal information can be […]
Just last week, some conservatives resurrected the notion that the administration and Congress had access to the same Iraq-related intelligence before the invasion began. As if we needed yet another example to disapprove this embarrassing talking point, the New York Times ran a stunning item over the weekend about the administration using intelligence they knew […]