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 […]
I know I’ve been harping on congressional Republicans wrapping up the 109th with a dud, and then childishly pouring salt in the soil to screw things up for Dems next year, but there was an entertaining twist today. House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) compared the GOP’s behavior on the Hill to the Bush administration’s management […]
Way back in June, congressional Democrats gave Republican an ultimatum: raise the minimum wage or forget about this year’s cost of living adjustment to congressional salaries. “Congress is going to have earn its raise by putting American workers first: A raise for workers before a raise for Congress,” said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of […]
Maybe it’s my imagination, or maybe it’s still a little early in December, but the “war on Christmas” doesn’t seem to be quite as big a deal this year as the last few years. Bill O’Reilly is still a little worked up and burdened by an oddly misplaced victim complex, but at least thus far, […]
In one of those issues Bill Kristol would almost certainly like to take back, the Weekly Standard ran mocked critics of the war in Iraq in 2003, right around the time American troops helped topple Baghdad’s Saddam statue. The Standard proclaimed, “The Cassandra Chronicles: The stupidity of the antiwar doomsayers.” Oops. As Paul [tag]Krugman[/tag] noted […]