I have bad news and good news. The bad news is I’ll be stepping away from my desk for four whole days, Thursday to Sunday. It will be my longest time away from the blog in over three years. (It’s up to Dale and TAIO to try and guess exactly what I’ll be doing with […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * I’m still officially neutral on the House Majority Leader fight between Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and John Murtha (D-Pa.), but if Roll Call is right, Murtha has a problem. Apparently, Murtha told a group of Democratic moderates yesterday that an ethics and lobbying reform bill being pushed by Nancy Pelosi […]
Dan Froomkin today asked the question of the week: “Is Bush’s claim that he wants to work in a bipartisan manner a genuine change — or a ruse? Watch what he says — but even more so, what he does.” Good idea. And in the week since the election, what he’s done is nominate a […]
What on earth has gotten into James Carville? Democratic strategist James Carville says his party should dump Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic Party because of incompetence. Carville, during coffee and rolls with political reporters today, said Democrats could have picked up as many as 50 House seats, instead of the nearly 30 they […]
It was an interesting, three-way showdown today at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, with Dems talking about a timeline for withdrawal, John McCain talking about adding 20,000 more troops to Baghdad, and CentCom commander Gen. John Abizaid saying they’re both wrong. The McCain-Abizaid discussion was particularly interesting. MCCAIN: Did you note that General Zinni […]
As recently as a week ago, it seemed as if Sen. [tag]Lamar Alexander[/tag] (R-Tenn.) had just about wrapped up the race for Senate Minority Whip. But Sen. [tag]Trent Lott[/tag] (R-Miss.), who knows the behind-the-scenes game as well as anyone on the Hill, quietly lobbied his GOP colleagues and won a narrow vote today for the […]
You’ve got to be kidding me. President Bush on Tuesday renominated the chairman of the agency that directs U.S. overseas broadcasts even though the nomination has been stalled in the Senate amid allegations of misconduct. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson was nominated again as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and for a term on the […]
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: * Three years after having been ousted from his leadership post for praising a segregationist’s presidential campaign, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) made a comeback today, getting elected Senate Minority Whip. He defeated Sen. […]
When Karl Rove and his cohorts unilaterally tapped Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) as the new chairman of the [tag]Republican National Committee[/tag], several key political figures were thrilled. Unfortunately for the GOP, they were all Dems. Gone are the days when the [tag]Bush[/tag] [tag]White House[/tag] can make a political decision and have it embraced by the […]
It’s mid-November, so I suppose it’s foolish to be surprised, but I’ve been quietly hoping that this year’s non-existent “[tag]war on Christmas[/tag]” would be more of a subdued skirmish. As it turns out, I just might get my wish, not because conservatives have accepted “Happy Holidays” as a perfectly acceptable expression, but because retailers are […]