Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A Republican lawmaker tells voters, a few years back, that he loves [tag]term limits[/tag] and wants to make Congress a “[tag]citizen legislature[/tag]” that will somehow return political power “to the people” by having less-experienced officials serving them in public office. Said lawmaker gets elected and realizes that lawmakers […]
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 a surprise that may shake up Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, Russ Diamond, creator of a political action committee called PACleanSweep, created after state legislators approved a controversial raise for themselves, has thrown […]
We had a perfectly good motto for nearly 200 years. The founding fathers went to a lot of trouble to pick “E Pluribus Unum” (“From many, one”) as a reflection of American diversity and unity. Sure, it wasn’t in English, but it was a pretty good motto nevertheless. In 1956, during the Cold War, politicians […]
A couple of weeks ago, I noted that Georgia State Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R) crafted a bizarre connection between abortion and immigration when she argued, “I am convinced it is a consequence [of] the almost 50 million children we have put to death in their mother’s womb through abortion. The large, unfilled job market in […]
It’s been weeks since I last lampooned TV preacher [tag]Pat Robertson[/tag], so I’m due, right? Reader R.S. alerted me to a fascinating transcript from CBS News Sunday Morning, in which reporter Rita Braver sat down with Robertson to chat about the televangelist’s insights on, well, whatever it is Robertson thinks about. [tag]Robertson[/tag] was in rare […]
Over the weekend, Lt. Gen. Gregory [tag]Newbold[/tag], the military’s former top operations officer, became the third retired [tag]general[/tag] to disparage Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and call for his dismissal. Newbold followed retired Army Major General Paul D. [tag]Eaton[/tag], the military official in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004, and retired Gen. […]
In 2003, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft described concerns over the government snooping into libraries, using the Patriot Act, as paranoid hysteria. “The law enforcement community has no interest in your reading habits,” Ashcroft said. Around the same time, several libraries received secret subpoenas from the federal government for internal records, and insisted they had to […]
The only word that comes to mind is “chutzpah.” Scott McClellan is so mad about the reporting on Bush lying about the mobile “biological laboratories” that he wants news outlets to — get this — apologize. From this morning’s press gaggle: McClellan: And I think it’s reckless reporting for ABC to go this morning and […]
Just yesterday, I complained about narrow wish-lists in which the president’s allies explain how he can get “back on track” by following a series of series of simple steps. TNR’s Ryan Lizza seems to agree that the game plans from the likes of Lowry and Barnes are silly, but has decided to offer one of […]
As noted earlier, the Washington Post reported today that the [tag]mobile[/tag] “[tag]biological laboratories[/tag]” the White House touted as proof of an Iraqi [tag]WMD[/tag] program were bogus. Inspectors knew these trailers had nothing to do with bioweapons, and told administration officials, but [tag]Bush[/tag] and others repeated the claim anyway. Howard Dean spoke to The American Prospect […]