McClellan’s act is getting old

It sounds as if the Washington Post editorial board is officially sick of Stonewall Scottie. Here are some things we know about Jack Abramoff and the White House: The disgraced lobbyist raised at least $100,000 for President Bush’s reelection campaign. He had long-standing ties to Karl Rove, a key presidential adviser. He had extensive dealings […]

The stunning debacle on Iraq ‘reconstruction’

I’d seen a few initial reports last year on the breathtaking fraud and mismanagement with Iraqi reconstruction funds, but I honestly can’t wait to hear the vaunted Bush political operation try and spin results like these. A new audit of American financial practices in Iraq has uncovered irregularities including millions of reconstruction dollars stuffed casually […]

So much for ‘cooperation’ with the Katrina probe

After Congress created an investigatory committee to review what went wrong in response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the White House pledged cooperation. But like so many Bush promises, the assurances were meaningless. The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents […]

He wasn’t talking about a ‘support your troops’ bumper sticker

I’ve never been able to relate to Rick Santorum’s values or worldview, but I never expected him to equate supporting his Senate campaign with serving in the military in Iraq or Afghanistan. [Santorum] literally said that putting one of his bumper stickers on your vehicle was a way “to step up and serve your country.” […]

No wonder they called him ‘whip’

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the frontrunner to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader, has a successful political action committee that complements his own “K Street” operation. And who are the top donors to Blunt’s Rely On Your Beliefs PAC? According to a report in subscription-only Roll Call, it’s a funny story. Seeing as he’s […]

Miscellany

A few things of interest… * Think Progress put together a really good web video in advance of Bush’s upcoming State of the Union address (Tuesday, Jan. 31). Think Progress, not surprisingly, found that “a review of his previous State of the Union addresses demonstrates that Bush often includes lofty, promising rhetoric but falls short […]

If we know what play they’re going to call, shouldn’t we able to stop it?

Last week, Salon’s Walter Shapiro spoke with several Dem insiders who lamented the fact that the party was going after Bush on his warrantless-search program, fearing that it would keep the political debate exactly where the White House wants it — with an emphasis on national security, Bush’s alleged strength. The WaPo’s E. J. Dionne […]

Insight on ‘bracing for impeachment’

As a rule, Insight, which is an off-shoot of Sun Myung Moon’s far-right Washington Times, is not a reliable source for news. But for reasons I can’t figure out, the magazine keeps publishing strange items about internal turmoil at the Bush White House. The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress. “A coalition […]

The GOP legislative/lobbying process at work

In a nutshell, when Dems complain about how the Republican legislative/lobbying process works, this is what they’re complaining about. House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the […]

Judiciary Committee approves Alito

In a move that surprised no one, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination less than an hour ago. By a 10-8 party line vote with sometimes bitter partisan debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee today recommended that Samuel A. Alito Jr. be confirmed by the full Senate as associate justice of the […]