If we took foreign and defense policy out of the picture entirely, what’s Bush’s worst domestic policy initiative? The tax cuts were a disaster, the faith-based initiative was outrageous, No Child Left Behind ended up flopping, and there is no coherent energy policy to speak of. But for my money, Bush’s Medicare scheme tops ’em […]
Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum, can be a little odd. Just a month ago, she published an item arguing against evolution by explaining that modern biology is literally unconstitutional because it suggests that “the Constitution was written by animals and for animals.” She did not appear to be kidding. This week, Schlafly managed […]
Last week, some friends of mine filed a lawsuit against a California school district that offered a “philosophy” course that taught intelligent-design creationism. The curriculum makes it pretty clear that the course was little more than a vehicle to promote ID, undermine modern biology, and tell local public school students that the Earth is “thousands […]
Some elements of the far-right have declared open season on Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), so much so that they’re questioning the medals Murtha earned in combat. James Webb, secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration and, like Murtha, a Marine who served in Vietnam, won’t stand for it. [I]n recent years extremist Republican operatives […]
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: * Former Rep. Bob McEwen (R-Ohio), who left Congress in 1993 in the wake of the House banking scandal, will announce today that he’s taking on Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) in a Republican […]
The ultra-conservative Washington Times ran an interesting item today on legal scholars’ take on Bush’s warrantless-search program. The piece, not surprisingly, gave pretty significant attention to the president’s defense, but did a pretty fair job highlighting GW’s Jonathan Turley’s perspective, including his belief that the controversy “is one of the most serious constitutional crises that […]
The good news is House GOP leaders have unveiled a proposal to reform the way Congress does business and, at least on the surface, curtail the influence of lobbyists. Reading over most of the coverage, the plan purports to do much of what one would expect in light of the Abramoff affair — limits on […]
At a recent White House press briefing, Scott McClellan told reporters that he was reviewing WH records so he could get a better sense of Jack Abramoff’s dealings with the White House, including number of visits, meetings, pictures, etc. Reporters were naturally curious about the information and McClellan told them, “I’m making sure that I […]
The Jack Abramoff scandal has clearly rattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert, so much so that he’s not making a lot of sense while defending his caucus. QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, if I could ask you a question, the Abramoff scandal is what has forced you into this position. A year ago, the things that you’re proposing […]
It’s bad enough that Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has helped spearhead the congressional Republicans’ “K Street Project.” But if Santorum thinks he can play dumb about it now, and expects anyone to believe him, he’s in worse shape than his supporters feared. Yesterday, Santorum claimed the K Street Project “has not been about putting pressure […]