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 Connecticut, I’m afraid the race is going in the wrong direction for Democrat Ned Lamont. A new Quinnipiac poll shows Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) leading his Dem challenger, 52% to 35%. […]
It’s hard not to admire the White House’s sense of timing. The president officially designated this week “National Character Counts Week,” a time in which Americans are supposed to “renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character.” The proclamation includes the […]
Here’s a House GOP classic. In May, we learned that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, was under investigation from federal prosecutors for possible corruption. It’s alleged Lewis used his power, to earmark “hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts” for clients of his longtime friend, Bill Lowery, a […]
Maybe Republicans got together at some point recently and decided they didn’t want to win this year anyway. Consider a recent incident involving Rep. Jim Gibbons (R), who is currently running for governor of Nevada. A single mother and a Nevada congressman running for governor gave vastly different accounts of a night of drinking that […]
For the better part of 2006, the dominant political argument about Iraq is that Democrats “disagree among themselves” over the war and a strategy for the future. Republicans were committed to “staying the course” and “more of the same,” but among Dems, there was a great deal of diversity of thought. Indeed, just yesterday, Bush […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is worth reading, in large part because it’s amazing to see just how unpopular the GOP is right now. Voters’ approval of Congress has fallen to 16% — the lowest since NBC and the WSJ started doing polls together 17 years ago. […]
I hate to admit — really, I do — but this week, none other than Bill O’Reilly asked one of the best questions in a Bush interview in a very long time. Maybe he did it by accident, maybe he asked it expecting the president to have a better answer, but whatever the explanation, it […]
I never fully understood exactly why Bill Clinton was labeled a “waffler” during ’92 campaign, but the criticism stuck. I always found it relatively encouraging that Clinton could find merit in competing ideas, and could appreciate a certain diversity of thought before deciding on a course of action, but his “waffling” became a key criticism. […]
Well, this could certainly be interesting. A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney’s office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election season debate over lobbyists’ White House access. The Washington Post asked for two years of White House visitor logs […]
Towards the end of the legislative session, in a last-minute flurry of activity, congressional Republicans managed to pass something called the “Secure Fence Act,” which purports to authorize the construction of 700 miles of new fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The House and Senate passed it, and the president wants to sign it. So what’s […]