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. Katherine Harris’ (R-Fla.) Senate campaign remains up in the air, but also in disarray. Pollster Ed Goeas tendered his resignation this week, and plans for the “major announcement” Harris announced this […]
As part of my ongoing fascination with the oddly anti-Bush articles appearing in Insight magazine, an off-shoot of Sun Myung Moon’s far-right Washington Times, the latest issue suggests the hands-off president has reached a point in which he’s delegating almost everything. President Bush has decided to stay out of the lion’s share of decisions made […]
Richard Capka may not be a household name, but chances are you’ve heard about his most notable professional challenge: Boston’s Big Dig, which at $14.6 billion, was the most expensive highway project in the history of the world. Capka was the CEO of the project from January 2001 to June 2002 until his position was […]
The notion that Americans should trust the Bush administration to use its surveillance powers responsibly, and trust federal agencies not to abuse the rules, is getting harder and harder to believe. An FBI counterterrorism unit monitored — and apparently infiltrated — a peace group in Pittsburgh that opposed the invasion of Iraq, according to internal […]
At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, would-be presidents were cautious about criticizing the president (or the Republican Congress) directly, but they practically tripped over one another to emphasize one problem: fiscal irresponsibility has run rampant. Yesterday, some of these same Senate Republicans had a chance to do something about it, by voting to restore “paygo” […]
By any reasonable measure, Stewart Simonson was probably the wrong choice to be the Health and Human Services Department’s point man “on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.” With the avian flu raising concerns in the public health community, Simonson’s total lack of experience in the field was more than a little […]
I’m a little behind on this one, but with the Southern Republican Leadership Conference unofficially kicking off the 2008 presidential campaign over the weekend in Memphis, there’s been some renewed buzz about the GOP field and whether John McCain is the likely Republican nominee, as conventional wisdom suggests. Paul Krugman explained yesterday that it’s “time […]
I’ve never cared for the Electoral College. I appreciate its historical origins, and the power it allegedly extends to smaller states, but the system is, to put it mildly, flawed. It can (and has) produced presidents who came in second, it can depress turnout, and it shifts candidates’ attention to just those “battleground” states that […]
Just three months ago, the far-right American Family Association announced it would boycott Ford Motor Co. Nervous, Ford backed down and told the AFA that it would cut back on advertising in gay-oriented publications. A week later, the company came to its senses, reversed course, and announced that it would actually increase its advertising in […]
If you’re not familiar with deranged pastor Fred Phelps and his unhinged Westboro Baptist Church, consider yourself lucky. Phelps has an odd hobby: bringing his far-right followers from state to state in order to protest at the funerals for troops killed in Iraq, literally celebrating their death with signs that read “Thank God for dead […]