Today’s edition of quick hits. * The Bush administration tried to shortchange victims of Hurricane Katrina, and force them to jump through ridiculous hoops in order to get benefits to which they were entitled. Fortunately, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon put a stop to the nonsense. “It is unfortunate, if not incredible, that FEMA […]
Within the Republican Party right now, there seem to be three factions who want to define the reasoning behind the GOP’s failures. There are some remaining Republican moderates (Republican Main Street Partnership, Christie Todd Whitman) who believe the party has fallen on hard times because it’s veered too far to the right, and there are […]
In the waning days of the GOP majority, House Republican leaders have to make some tough choices about what to spend their time on. Iraq? National security? Health care? No, they’ve decided to go back to an abortion measure that won’t become law anyway. While they still can, House Republicans are looking at scheduling a […]
I’ve often wondered if a tipping point exists for Republicans when it comes to the war. Apparently, we’re not quite there yet. As of today, Maliki and Bush relations are fraying, the stability of the Iraqi government is shaky, the American public’s patience is gone, and the civil war rages on unabated. Taken together, even […]
The spirited conversation between Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D) and President Bush has raised more than a few eyebrows. Dems seem to believe Bush was rude and provoked the heated exchange, while Republicans tend to believe the opposite, but either way, George Will’s “reporting” on the issue was wrong. Wednesday’s Post reported that at a White […]
Two things have been abundantly clear about Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for quite a while: 1) he’s one of the House’s less-sane members; and 2) he really hates immigration. But even I was surprised to see just how far King is willing to go on both points. While the military “quagmire” in Iraq was said […]
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: * It was close, but Democratic challenger Larry Kissell conceded the undecided House race in North Carolina’s 8th district yesterday, giving Rep. Robin Hayes (R) another term. Out of the 121,523 votes cast, […]
The day after the elections, at a White House press conference, a reporter asked the president which parts of the Democratic agenda, if any, he could support. Bush only mentioned one issue specifically: “[O]ne of these three characters asked me about minimum wage. I said, there’s an area where I believe we can make some […]
Speechwriter-turned-pundit David Frum delivered a commentary on NPR yesterday that you’d swear was a parody if he weren’t so serious about it. (via Tapped) Imagine if the Republicans had retained their Congressional majority and the first thing they did was suggest big new subsidies for, say, the oil industry. Would there no public outrage? But […]
Just to follow up on the previous post, it’s probably worth remembering that no matter what anyone, anywhere, says, the president still believes “stay the course” is the only way to go. You could be forgiven for thinking there was something big in the works. President Bush is holding a three-way summit in the Middle […]