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 Massachusetts’ three-way gubernatorial race, a new Rasmussen poll shows all three Dems — [tag]Deval Patrick[/tag], [tag]Tom Reilly[/tag], and [tag]Chris Gabrieli[/tag] — with double-digit leads over Lt. Gov. [tag]Kerry Healey[/tag] (R) and […]
For some reason, the president’s reading habits — every president’s reading habits — seem to generate considerable media interest. Apparently, it’s a peek into the president’s personality, coupled with insight into what might help influence his perspective. But in order for these reading lists to be valuable, we have to believe the books are actually […]
So, Joe Lieberman has bucked his party and is running as an independent. Will he be punished in any way by his Dem Senate colleagues? Other than watching most of them endorse the winner of the Dem primary, not so much. Even as Sen. Joe Lieberman presses ahead with an Independent candidacy and many of […]
It’s important for Dems to forcefully denounce the more spurious [tag]Republican[/tag] attacks, but I always find it uniquely helpful for Republicans to break party ranks and support the [tag]Democrat[/tag]ic line. This weekend, there were ample examples. For example, last week, Dick [tag]Cheney[/tag] lashed out at Dems, saying Ned Lamont’s primary victory would encourage “[tag]Al Qaeda[/tag] […]
The initial charge from many Bush critics last week was that the arrests of suspected terrorists by British officials may have been timed for political purposes. The GOP, on the heels of the Connecticut Senate primary, wanted to aggressively push the argument that the Dems were somehow “weak” on national security, and they wanted to […]
In the short time between the Connecticut Senate primary and the revelation of the thwarted British terrorist plot, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg wrote a fairly controversial critique of [tag]Democrats[/tag], particularly the more progressive elements of the party, and the politics of a [tag]war[/tag] on [tag]terrorism[/tag]. Lieberman’s opponents are not entirely wrong about the war. The invasion […]
I don’t have anything particularly insightful to add to this, but the LA Times had a very good piece today describing how Democrats are responding to this week’s thwarted terrorist plot. As the article describes, Republicans immediately began pushing its predictable Dems-are-weak arguments, but in this case, Dems pushed right back. Their aggressive stance was […]
There seems to be a pattern. Before 9/11, the Bush administration de-emphasized counter-terrorism. Before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the Bush administration slashed funding for the Army Corps of Engineers, levee construction, and the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project. And in advance of a terrorist plot to carry explosives onto U.S.-bound planes, the […]
Media Matters’ Jamison Foser argued yesterday that, in the wake of [tag]Ned Lamont[/tag]’s primary victory this week, the “political [tag]media[/tag] were awash in pro-[tag]Lieberman[/tag] and pro-Republican spin about Lamont, Connecticut voters, and what it all means for this fall’s congressional elections.” If anything, that’s understating the case. Consider these items from just the last 24 […]
Guest Post by Morbo A ban on “infidel” books sounds like something out of a fundamentalist Muslim country. This ban, which is in place right now, comes not from Saudi Arabia but from another far-right theocratic state — Kentucky. A 100-year-old law in the Bluegrass State mandates that “no book or other publication of a […]