Speaking of Katrina, there’s an interesting controversy brewing about Bush pulling strings to get a lucrative contract for a major GOP donor. No, not that Bush, the other one. A top House Democrat released e-mails Tuesday detailing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s role in pushing a $236 million federal contract for Carnival Cruise Lines to house […]
Sen. Barack Obama’s proposed deal with American auto manufacturers seems like the kind of innovative idea we expect from him. And as a policy matter, it makes a lot of sense. Trying to jump-start gains in auto fuel efficiency after decades of inaction, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is proposing an unusual swap for the Big […]
Last night, NBC Nightly News reported that the White House did not necessarily consider the new Katrina video as a political problem. NBC reported, “Tonight a White House official says the tape does not contradict anything the Bush Administration has said.” I suspect the Bush gang went from 1 to 10 on the damage-control meter […]
There’s been considerable debate for six months about what Bush didn’t know about Hurricane Katrina and when he didn’t know it, which makes the newly-released video something close to a smoking gun. A newly leaked video recording of high-level government deliberations the day before Hurricane Katrina hit shows disaster officials emphatically warning President Bush that […]
I’ll have more on this in the morning, but in the meantime, the White House is going to have a very tough time spinning this one. In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives […]
During his confirmation process, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito kept an arms-length distance between himself and any of the controversial figures in the GOP base. After Karl Rove’s controversial phone call to James Dobson about Harriet Miers, this was especially true about the controversial Focus on the Family chief. But now that Alito is on […]
Chris Matthews was on the Today show this morning and, citing the recent CBS poll, made an interesting — and for Matthews, surprisingly astute — observation about the national mood. (via Kleiman) “The people don’t like the President even more than they don’t like his policies.” That’s true. Looking at the most recent numbers, the […]
I know most people don’t go around reading the Constitution all the time, but this is a little discouraging. Americans apparently know more about “The Simpsons” than they do about the First Amendment. Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. But more than […]
It often gets overlooked, but one of the factors that helped the GOP take control of Congress in 1994 was a series of Dem incumbents retiring at the exact same time. Dems have high hopes this year, but it’s part of the formula that hasn’t quite fallen into place. That, however, may soon change. House […]
The far-right Washington Times had an interesting report today on the deteriorating relationship between the Bush White House and congressional Republicans. In particular, the Times noted, GOP lawmakers didn’t care for the president’s veto threat last week. “I was offended,” Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said of Mr. Bush’s threat last week to veto legislation […]