Earlier this month, Wal-Mart lost a key political battle when lawmakers in Maryland overrode a gubernatorial veto and effectively required Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care. The retail behemoth’s biggest concern was how many other states would follow suit. The fears are well-founded — Wal-Mart now has to worry about Washington state. More […]
When it comes to his warrantless-search program, Bush’s honesty has been in short supply. He’s misrepresented his legal authority, his predecessors’ decisions, Congress’ authorizations, and his administration’s congressional briefings. But there’s one particular distortion Bush has emphasized that’s more annoying than the others. “In the weeks following September the 11th, I authorized a terrorist surveillance […]
In the 2004 presidential race, John Kerry offered a very clear approach as to how the United States should deal with Iran: have the international community offer Iran nuclear fuel to be used in a peaceful nuclear energy program. As Kerry put it at the time, “We should call their bluff and organize a group […]
According to the latest USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, only 39% of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the economy. In some polls, it’s even lower. This isn’t likely to make things any better. The economy grew at only a 1.1 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of last year, the slowest pace in three […]
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) made his first appearance on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” yesterday and got to chat with a woman in Arkansas who was concerned about illegal immigration. The woman declared: “It’s only after the influx of illegals that you were elected, sir. How is this possible?” Visibly unhappy, Villaraigosa responded, “Are you […]
About a week ago, Washington Monthly published a reform plan from Paul Begala and James Carville that goes much further than anything leaders from either party seem willing to put on the table. The Begala/Carville plan, called “Not One Dime,” would effectively ban lawmakers from accepting anything of value from anyone; ban raising money altogether; […]
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: * A new Zogby poll delivers the latest in a series of encouraging polls for Eliot Spitzer’s (D) gubernatorial campaign in New York. The results show Spitzer with huge leads over his most […]
The WaPo’s E. J. Dionne Jr. noted the other day that the White House is telegraphing its punches for the 2006 cycle. Dionne said that the midterm message, in a nutshell, is, “If you don’t want to get blown up, vote Republican.” We talked about how best to respond to the attacks, but The New […]
The Washington Post editorial board has been pretty consistent in its support of Bush when it comes to terrorism and Iraq, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the WaPo run a much-needed editorial taking the White House to task for its absurd partisan attacks stemming from the controversy on warrantless searches. The Bush administration’s […]
Pollsters have been busy the past few days, pulling together data on the electorate’s views in advance of the president’s State of the Union address. Here’s a summary of what the various news outlets found: * New York Times/CBS poll — Bush was viewed favorably by 42% of the respondents, statistically the same as in […]