I’ve been waiting and waiting for [tag]congressional[/tag] Dems to do something exactly like this. [tag]Democrats[/tag] ratcheted up their election-year push for an increase in the federal [tag]minimum wage[/tag] Tuesday by promising to block a [tag]congress[/tag]ional [tag]pay hike[/tag] unless some of the lowest-paid hourly workers get their first raise in nearly a decade. “Congress is going […]
It’s been six months since [tag]Bush[/tag]’s [tag]signing statements[/tag] — those pesky little White House documents in which the president signs legislation into law, but points out he’ll [tag]ignore[/tag] certain provisions of a [tag]law[/tag] whenever he wants to — first generated attention in the political world. As regular readers know (from dozens of posts on the […]
As Faiz noted, GOP pollster/consultant Frank Luntz, as recently as 2000, encouraged his Republican clients to not only be skeptical of global warming, but to plant seeds of doubt with the public. As one infamous Luntz memo advised: Voters believe there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come […]
I noted last month that Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly’s ratings are on the decline. Apparently, it’s not just him; it’s his whole network. As Jonathan Singer noted Broadcasting & Cable, a trade publication for the TV industry, reported that [tag]Fox News[/tag]’ ratings are “dropping precipitously.” Slackers at [tag]Fox News Channel[/tag], you’re on notice! Your […]
OK, so the Republican line is that the major dailies — including the New York Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal — have seriously undermined national security by exposing the Bush’s administration’s secret program to monitor bank records without court orders. Conservatives are having trouble articulating why the revelations are so dangerous, but that […]
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: * In New Jersey’s closely-watched Senate race, which has gotten pretty ugly of late, Sen. [tag]Bob Menendez[/tag] (D) has built on his earlier leads, and enjoys one of his biggest margins yet over […]
When Bill Clinton was president, he appointed Ann Brown to chair the [tag]Consumer Product Safety Co[/tag]mmission. The panel doesn’t get a lot of ink, but it’s responsible for reviewing thousands of consumer products to see which, if any, pose a health risk and might need to be recalled. Brown had spent 20 years as a […]
Not quite two weeks ago, news outlets had it all figured out for us: [tag]Bush[/tag] has the momentum and will inevitably surge in the polls. Indeed, in many instances, the media didn’t wait for the public to express their [tag]approval[/tag]; they simply asserted it. Knight Ridder said Bush “is on a bit of a roll.” […]
About a month ago, The Nation’s Ari Berman wrote an interesting piece on the “new” [tag]John Kerry[/tag]. As Berman explained, like [tag]Al Gore[/tag] after the 2000 campaign, [tag]Kerry[/tag] has become more assertive and less cautious after his [tag]defeat[/tag]. In the past few months Kerry has presented a side of himself very different from the one […]
As the debate on the [tag]flag[/tag] [tag]amendment[/tag] got underway yesterday in the Senate, one of the leading proponents of the measure, Sen. [tag]Orrin Hatch[/tag] (R-Utah), insisted there’s a genuine public clamoring for this amendment. “They say that [tag]flag burning[/tag] is a rare occurrence; it is not that [tag]rare[/tag],” he told the chamber. An aide hoisted […]