OK, so the Republican line is that the major dailies — including the New York Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal — have seriously undermined national security by exposing the Bush’s administration’s secret program to monitor bank records without court orders. Conservatives are having trouble articulating why the revelations are so dangerous, but that […]
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 New Jersey’s closely-watched Senate race, which has gotten pretty ugly of late, Sen. [tag]Bob Menendez[/tag] (D) has built on his earlier leads, and enjoys one of his biggest margins yet over […]
When Bill Clinton was president, he appointed Ann Brown to chair the [tag]Consumer Product Safety Co[/tag]mmission. The panel doesn’t get a lot of ink, but it’s responsible for reviewing thousands of consumer products to see which, if any, pose a health risk and might need to be recalled. Brown had spent 20 years as a […]
Not quite two weeks ago, news outlets had it all figured out for us: [tag]Bush[/tag] has the momentum and will inevitably surge in the polls. Indeed, in many instances, the media didn’t wait for the public to express their [tag]approval[/tag]; they simply asserted it. Knight Ridder said Bush “is on a bit of a roll.” […]
About a month ago, The Nation’s Ari Berman wrote an interesting piece on the “new” [tag]John Kerry[/tag]. As Berman explained, like [tag]Al Gore[/tag] after the 2000 campaign, [tag]Kerry[/tag] has become more assertive and less cautious after his [tag]defeat[/tag]. In the past few months Kerry has presented a side of himself very different from the one […]
As the debate on the [tag]flag[/tag] [tag]amendment[/tag] got underway yesterday in the Senate, one of the leading proponents of the measure, Sen. [tag]Orrin Hatch[/tag] (R-Utah), insisted there’s a genuine public clamoring for this amendment. “They say that [tag]flag burning[/tag] is a rare occurrence; it is not that [tag]rare[/tag],” he told the chamber. An aide hoisted […]
In the unlikely event you haven’t heard… [tag]Rush Limbaugh[/tag] was detained for about 3 1/2 hours at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of [tag]Viagra[/tag] in his possession without a prescription. The 55-year-old radio commentator’s luggage was examined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after his private plane landed at […]
In less than an hour, the Senate is scheduled to start debate on the weakest culture-war fight of them all: a [tag]constitutional amendment[/tag] to [tag]ban[/tag] [tag]flag[/tag] “[tag]desecration[/tag].” At this point, the measure has 66 supporters in the Senate. If it gets a 67th, the [tag]amendment[/tag] will go to the states where it almost certainly will […]
Many congressional [tag]Democrats[/tag] have backed a plan for Iraq that calls for significant troop withdrawals by the end of the year. Gen. George W. [tag]Casey[/tag], the top American commander in Iraq, has a plan that calls for the same thing. Today, [tag]White House[/tag] Press Secretary [tag]Tony Snow[/tag] was asked to explain why the Dems’ plan […]
There were some interesting rulings from the Supreme Court handed down this morning, but perhaps the most important development wasn’t a ruling, but an announcement about a case that the justices agreed to hear. The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming, setting up […]