First up from the God machine this week is a portion of an interview Bush did with Fox News’ Brit Hume that didn’t seem to generate much in the way of attention. Hume noted that he’s spoken with a number of people who consider themselves Bush allies, but believe that his presidency has “run aground […]
The Hill reported this week that the president would host a meeting with leaders of the conservative Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions, in order to discuss areas of “mutual cooperation.” The get-together, which happened yesterday at the White House, hasn’t generated much in the way of media attention, but I found one local news […]
Morbo is on a top-secret mission today and won’t be able to share any words of wisdom, but were he were around, I’m pretty sure this story would drive him nuts. On game days, football fan Tracy French pulls his SUV into a reserved parking spot and rides an elevator to a stadium suite outfitted […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Quote of the Day #1: Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon has offered tacit support for the war in Iraq for years, but he’s done. Smith said he is at, “the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same […]
It’s always encouraging when law-enforcement officials catch a would-be bomber. A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall during the Christmas rush, authorities said. Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, was acting alone and never actually […]
The end of the [tag]Mark Foley[/tag] scandal (Page-gate?) seems a little anti-climactic now; at least as far as the politics goes, the elections seemed to punish most of the people responsible. Still, it’s interesting that a bipartisan ethics panel found that GOP leaders were negligent in their handling of this mess. The House ethics committee […]
The Chicago Tribune’s Frank James noted today, “We American reporters aren’t sure why our British cousins don’t stand when they ask questions of our president or their prime minister like we do. But they sure have a suave way of asking the impertinent questions we reporters are duty bound to ask the powerful.” Indeed, they […]
Bloomberg had an item today explaining how Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is successfully recruiting far-right supporters by positioning himself as an electable alternative to John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. “In Romney,” Bloomberg reported, “who is courting social and religious traditionalists, they see a candidate who can energize Christian conservatives, stay on message and, in […]
At yesterday’s White House press conference with Tony Blair, the president used one phrase six times in reference to the war in Iraq: “the American people.” Bush kept referring to the electorate — the American people want Dems and Republicans to work together; the American people need to know we can’t quit in Iraq; 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: * For about an hour yesterday, it appeared that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) was an admitted presidential candidate. Fox News reported that the governor had told an FNC reporter that he […]