Cronyism in a cabinet agency is one thing, but the Fed?

One would need a full-time research staff to chronicle and monitor all of the unqualified partisans who were awarded to top government jobs because they share the White House’s ideology, but the Federal Reserve is supposed to be different. There are some things the Bush gang is just not supposed to mess with, and the […]

Post-State of the Union bounce? Not so much

Last week, the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza asked, “Will President George W. Bush get any kind of bump in the polls following his latest State of the Union address?” For the past two weeks, the White House and its allies have tried as hard as they can to manage expectations and dismiss any notion of a […]

Another week in Bushville

Long time readers may recall that I sometimes like to put together Friday round-ups to take stock of what we’ve learned about the president over the last seven days. I haven’t done one since December, but this week lent itself well to just such a post. Indeed, my friend Peter Daou, riffing off a post […]

Brownie isn’t holding back

Former FEMA Director Mike Brown’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is even more entertaining than expected. Brownie has been the administration’s scapegoat for months — and today he seems determined to turn the tables and place the blame for the Katrina fiasco on his former colleagues. (The WaPo is running […]

‘Intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made’

Nearly three years after the start of the war in Iraq, the notion that the White House cherry-picked intelligence and made up their minds about an invasion regardless of what the facts warranted is no longer new. It’s not even controversial. And yet, there’s still something uniquely powerful about the top CIA official in charge […]

Friday’s political round-up

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 Keystone Poll, conducted by Franklin & Marshall University, was published this morning, and shows Dems leading in both of this year’s major statewide races. In Pennsylvania’s Senate race, Bob Casey […]

Goss might want to chat with his boss about this

CIA Director Porter Goss has a passionate, well-written op-ed in the New York Times today, emphasizing the significance of keeping classified information secret. Poor Porter; his timing couldn’t be worse. After all, on the same day the Director of Central Intelligence wrote this… At the Central Intelligence Agency, we are more than holding our own […]

Steele’s stem-cell stupidity

Opposing stem-cell research is odd, and comparing stem-cell research to Nazi experiments is ridiculous, but it takes a special kind of stupid for a statewide political candidate to compare stem-cell research to Nazi experiments in front of a group of Jewish leaders. Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele infuriated some participants at a Baltimore Jewish […]

Maybe the bust could come with an asterisk

Before the president delivered remarks on the war on terror in the National Guard Building in DC, Bush received a nice bronze gift. Presidents are often memorialized in their most famous moments — George Washington crossing the Delaware, Theodore Roosevelt at San Juan Hill. Now President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard has […]

Brownie may have some news to share

Yesterday, Mike Brown, the former head of FEMA, indicated that he is ready to reveal his correspondence with President Bush and other officials during Hurricane Katrina unless the White House forbids it and offers legal support. The White House said no and now good ol’ Brownie appears ready to dish some dirt. And, apparently, there […]