Over-the-top rhetoric isn’t unusual for some of Congress’ leading Republicans, but when it comes to the federal judiciary, some of these guys push the envelope pretty hard. And then some. Tom DeLay, as you’ll recall, made some veiled threats against judges after the Terri Schiavo controversy. Shortly thereafter, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said judges who […]
Yesterday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to add the Prevention First Act (S. 20) as an amendment to the federal budget resolution. Atrios noted that it’s “the olive branch thingy we’re always supposed to be doing to appeal to the mythical ‘don’t like abortion but aren’t anti-sex’ voting bloc,” and “the press will ignore it.” […]
It seems hard to imagine, but in Missouri, state GOP lawmakers have voted to ban county health clinics from providing family planning services. This isn’t about access to abortion — it’s about access to contraception. It may be the 21st century, but based on some of the comments from the legislature, you wouldn’t know it. […]
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: * Tom DeLay may have won his Texas GOP primary two weeks ago, but his Republican rivals are in no mood to come together for the sake of the party. At this point, […]
The president was in upstate New York this week for a scripted “conversation” on the administration’s prescription drug program. Early on, Bush made one of his favorite jokes. Bush: I called upon a fellow named Dr. Mark McClellan to join me in this effort. He’s here. That’s him right there. He is a — (applause.) […]
When Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) announced before the 2004 election that he would not vote for Bush-Cheney, we got a sense that Rhode Island’s junior senator isn’t the president’s biggest fan. But would Chafee, up for re-election in a very “blue” state, actually support Russ Feingold’s censure resolution? It’s at least possible. Early yesterday, Chafee […]
Things looked bad for Senate candidate Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), but they looked even more distressing for Democrats. Harris suffered weak poll numbers, poor fundraising, and a staff that kept quitting. Then, to complicate matters, she was caught accepting illegal campaign contributions from a corrupt defense contractor. Dems wanted Harris weakened before she took on Sen. […]
The other major national poll released yesterday afternoon came by way of the Pew Research Center. The NBC/WSJ numbers were bad, but the Pew numbers are worse. In the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush’s approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged. How […]
There were two major national polls released yesterday, both with filled with interesting data on the political landscape. I’m going to take these one at a time, starting with the latest from NBC News/Wall Street Journal. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll might sound like a broken record, but the tune grows louder as […]
The past few days, in the wake of Sen. Russ Feingold introducing his censure resolution, we’ve all seen (and probably felt) some frustration. Here’s a Dem sticking his neck out to take on the president, on an issue in which the White House is quite clearly wrong, and the party is no where in sight. […]