When Robert Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court, he made things pretty easy. Before becoming a nominee, Bork said all manner of bizarre and scary things. As a nominee, he tried to justify all of them, as anyone with confidence in his or her beliefs might. So, when Ted Kennedy noted, for example, that […]
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) may have asked one of the more politically interesting questions of today’s Samuel Alito hearing: Was the Supreme Court correct to take the Bush v. Gore case in 2000? “I really don’t know,” Alito said. “I really have not studied that case the way I studied a case as a judge.” […]
Listening to the Alito hearings, there’s one word the nominee keeps using, to the point of distraction, in a variety of contexts. See if you catch it. “Now, Judge Chertoff looked at it differently. And there are cases where reasonable people disagree. And that’s all that was going on…. “Now, these cases involve difficult line-drawing […]
I was anxious to hear how Samuel Alito responded to his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) today because, I figured, it’d give a sense of how well Alito could spin embarrassments. It turned out to be less exciting than I had hoped — Alito used the bad-memory defense. CAP, of course, is […]
The more polls that are published about Congress, the worse things look for the GOP. Americans are paying close attention to the lobbying scandal in the Capitol and say corruption in government will play a big role in their vote for Congress in November — more important than Social Security, taxes, abortion or immigration. A […]
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: * Harris Miller, up until recently the president of the Information Technology Association of America, officially announced yesterday that he will take on Sen. George Allen (R) in Virginia’s Senate election. Miller hinted […]
Most Republicans in DC seem to have the strategic wherewithal to get as far away from Jack Abramoff as humanly possible. Most of those who’ve taken his money have gotten rid of it. Those who knew him personally are denouncing him forcefully. But Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) seems to be the only person in the […]
Following up on some recent posts on Bush’s “signing statements,” Knight Ridder helped offer some historical context for the tactic. “We know the textbook story of how government works. Essentially what this has done is attempt to upset that,” said Christopher Kelley, a presidential scholar at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, who generally shares Bush’s […]
Yesterday’s White House press briefing included an odd exchange over the war in Iraq. The discussion wasn’t about the president’s decisions and plans, but rather what Bush critics should say about the president’s decisions and plans. McClellan: …There’s a difference between loyal opposition that has a different view, and those who are advocating a defeatist […]
Under the guise of a war on terror, the Bush administration has decided it can intercept phone calls and emails without a warrant. Apparently, snail mail is fair game too. U.S. officials are opening personal mail that arrives from abroad when they deem it necessary to protect the country from terrorism, a Customs and Border […]