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: * Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), a Tom DeLay protege, may seem like a safe GOP seat, but Barton’s support has been slipping over the last several campaign cycles, even as Republican support in […]
I appreciate that Dems want to focus their criticisms of the GOP in an election year on the issues that resonate and connect most with voters. Right now, the Republicans have created a “target-rich environment” for political and policy criticisms, and sometimes, Dems just don’t know which new controversies to tackle aggressively. I might recommend, […]
It wasn’t quite a week ago when some of the leading Republicans in Congress, many of whom plan to run for president, emphasized how much they abhor all the federal spending that has increased since 2001. Sure, it’s been a Republican Congress working with a Republican President, but they didn’t want to be bothered with […]
The good news is that White House that leaks classified information like a sieve is anxious to limit clearance for handling classified materials. The bad news is, the Bush gang is limiting their concerns to gay people. The Bush administration last year rewrote the rules for allowing gay men and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, […]
Yesterday, as blog readers everywhere now know, the American Research Group released the results of a national poll gauging support for congressional censure of the president, and possibly, impeachment. Surprisingly, support for both is quite strong, with a plurality favoring the censure resolution currently pending in the Senate. My friend Swan emailed a good question: […]
After the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai Ports World was slated to own and operate six major U.S. ports, most of Congress, including nearly all Republicans, balked. It wasn’t about Arabs, they said, it was about a critical element about infrastructure that could be a weakness in the war on terror. Port security, they said, is […]
When Republicans began criticizing Sen. Russ Feingold’s censure resolution, one of their principal talking points was the notion that a formal rebuke for Bush over wireless searches was, well, nuts. Common descriptions included words like “extreme” and “over the top.” There’s a certain spectrum of sensible political ideas — and this wasn’t in it. Of […]
Over-the-top rhetoric isn’t unusual for some of Congress’ leading Republicans, but when it comes to the federal judiciary, some of these guys push the envelope pretty hard. And then some. Tom DeLay, as you’ll recall, made some veiled threats against judges after the Terri Schiavo controversy. Shortly thereafter, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said judges who […]
Yesterday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to add the Prevention First Act (S. 20) as an amendment to the federal budget resolution. Atrios noted that it’s “the olive branch thingy we’re always supposed to be doing to appeal to the mythical ‘don’t like abortion but aren’t anti-sex’ voting bloc,” and “the press will ignore it.” […]
It seems hard to imagine, but in Missouri, state GOP lawmakers have voted to ban county health clinics from providing family planning services. This isn’t about access to abortion — it’s about access to contraception. It may be the 21st century, but based on some of the comments from the legislature, you wouldn’t know it. […]