Friday’s political round-up

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 probably won’t matter too much, but [tag]Jonathan Tasini[/tag], the former president of the National Writers Union, filed the necessary petition signatures yesterday to challenge Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[/tag] in a Dem primary. […]

The ‘shift in the political winds’ isn’t blowing the GOP’s way

The Hill had a front-page item this week reporting that House Republicans are growing “more optimistic” about 2006. The GOP is willing to concede that the party had a tough time a few months ago, but their “newfound optimism is grounded in what Republicans say is a shift in the political winds.” As far as […]

Deposing some top Republicans — and not just in the Plame case

Yesterday, the announcement that Valerie and Joseph Wilson are filing a civil suit against top White House officials involved in the Plame scandal sparked speculation about the interesting insights to be gained through the [tag]discovery[/tag] process. But as long as we’re talking about deposing [tag]Republicans[/tag] in a civil suit, let’s not forget the [tag]New Hampshire[/tag] […]

In election-year pandering they trust

The [tag]Senate[/tag] has a limited amount of time left this session and plenty of proposals lawmakers would like to try and pass, but the chamber found time yesterday to approve a resolution that “celebrates, commemorates and reaffirms” the national [tag]motto[/tag]: “[tag]In God We Trust[/tag].” James Dobson and Focus on the Family are thrilled. “It is […]

House conservatives smacked around on Voting Rights Act

I noted on Wednesday that a rebellious group of about 80 House Republicans were threatening to derail reauthorization of the [tag]Voting Rights Act[/tag] because they opposed bilingual ballots in some districts and they were “offended” by federal oversight of voting in districts that “were notorious for institutionalized acts of racism, such as adopting laws designed […]

Specter, true to form, caves on NSA surveillance

The headline on the front page of the Washington Post today tells readers that [tag]Bush[/tag] “compromised” on his warrantless [tag]surveillance[/tag] program. Similarly, the New York Times leads with word that the [tag]White House[/tag] backed down “after months of resistance.” Given the details of the “[tag]compromise[/tag],” however, it appears that Bush gave up very little — […]

Bring on the civil suit

It’s hard to overstate how interesting this might be. Valerie [tag]Plame [/tag]Wilson, Ambassador Joseph [tag]Wilson[/tag] and their counsel, Christopher Wolf of Proskauer Rose LLP, will hold a news conference at 10 AM EDT on Friday, July 14 at 10:00 AM at the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045, to […]

Noonan suggests politicians have too much work to do

I’ve seen some fairly amusing explanations for Congress’ inability to govern, and I’ve heard some people rationalize why so many lawmakers seem so dumb, but leave it to [tag]Peggy Noonan[/tag] to offer a unified theory of politicians’ problems: they just can’t keep up. I am thinking about the huge and crushing number of issues we […]

Steve King strikes again

If we were to make a list of the top five nuttiest House Republicans, [tag]Steve King[/tag] would have to be near the top. It was prop time on the House floor Tuesday night when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), making the case for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, showed a miniature version of a […]

It’s the medical errors, stupid

I’m a little late on this one, but if you haven’t read Ezra’s piece in Slate on the “medical malpractice myth,” it’s definitely worth checking out. The Republican answer to runaway health-care spending is to cap jury awards in medical malpractice suits. For the fifth time in four years, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried […]