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 Arkansas, State Attorney General Mike Beebe’s (D) gubernatorial campaign got a bit of a boost yesterday when former Social Security Administration chief Bill Halter (D) announced that he is dropping out […]
Opponents of abortion rights seem to believe they’re on a roll and want to keep the momentum going in advance of the 2006 election. South Dakota’s sweeping new ban on abortion is the effort that’s getting plenty of attention, but consider the measure working its way through Indiana’s state legislature. Indiana is a step closer […]
The latest AP-Ipsos poll is out this morning and, like every other recent national poll, the president’s support has slipped badly. Overall, Bush’s approval rating in this poll stands at 37%, the lowest of his presidency in an AP poll. That’s not exactly new. What the AP notes, however, is that Bush is finally losing […]
When creating caricatures of conservative Republican candidates, liberals often describe them as narrow-minded ideologues who pit people against each other and would, if they could, turn back the clock in the hopes of making the country more like a silly episode of Leave it to Beaver. In general, it’s rarely a fair description. In Vernon […]
Paul Krugman’s column today asks conservatives who are turning on Bush an important question. It’s one a lot of us have been thinking about for a long time. “What took you so long?” Bruce Bartlett, the author of “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” is an angry man. At […]
After Dubai Ports World announced yesterday afternoon that it would transfer operations of six ports to “a United States entity,” there was a general sigh of relief among congressional Republicans. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the decision “probably defuses the issue, and now we can move forward.” I think the key word there is “probably.” […]
When John DiIulio worked as a domestic policy advisor in the Bush’s White House, he was a serious scholar who expected to find policy professionals running the executive branch. He was sorely disappointed. “There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a […]
The reports are just starting to emerge, but apparently, Dubai Ports World has decided to give up its management stake in some U.S. ports. Details soon. Update (2:34 pm): An unnamed domestic entity will, according to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), manage and operate the ports in question. A United Arab […]
South Dakota’s sweeping abortion ban has become one of the key political stories of the day, but don’t expect the state’s largest newspaper to publish an editorial on the subject. Apparently, abortion is too controversial. “Part of it was that we wouldn’t change people’s minds, and part of it, regardless of which side we came […]
Jack Abramoff’s revealing interview with Vanity Fair, which sheds new light on the disgraced lobbyist’s relationships with Bush, DeLay, Mehlman, Gingrich, and Burns, among others, has renewed interest in the broader scandal. But it also has me wondering: where is Abramoff going with all of this? The Vanity Fair comes just a few weeks after […]