No one really likes the idea of a CEO president anyway

TNR’s Clay Risen had a good piece today exploring the notion of the CEO political leader. In Bush’s case, the president was supposed to use his MBA, a first in presidential history, to run the nation like a business and be the CEO President. Except, as we now know, that never worked out for Bush, […]

Administration embraces Geneva Conventions protections — sort of

At first glance, this Court-imposed reversal of policy seems like a long-overdue turn in the morally-defensible direction. The [tag]Bush[/tag] [tag]administration[/tag], in an apparent policy reversal sparked by a recent [tag]Supreme Court[/tag] ruling, said today it will extend the guarantees of humane treatment specified by the [tag]Geneva Conventions[/tag] to detainees in the war-on-terror. In a memo […]

Tuesday’s political round-up

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 an extremely encouraging poll out of Montana, a new Rasmussen poll shows state Senate President [tag]Jon Tester[/tag] (D) with a sizable lead over incumbent Sen. [tag]Conrad Burns[/tag] (R), 50% to 43%. […]

What has the GOP done for you lately?

This week, asked to mention some of the recent success stories of his [tag]Republican[/tag] colleagues, former House Majority Leader [tag]Dick Armey[/tag] (R-Texas) said, “I’m not sure what this [tag]Congress[/tag] has [tag]accomplished[/tag].” He’s not the only one; no one else can think of lawmakers’ accomplishments either — including the [tag]GOP[/tag] leadership. In an election year, when […]

Stay out of the Bushes

Last week, U.S. News reported that Florida Gov. [tag]Jeb Bush[/tag] (R) is being talked up as the ideal vice presidential candidate in 2008. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes vice president,” said a Bush friend and Florida lawmaker. After all, it was good enough for his dad. The two reasons cited: Jeb is wildly […]

Rove vows veto on stem-cell bill

[tag]Karl Rove[/tag] sat down with the Denver Post editorial board this week and said that if the Senate passes the [tag]DeGette[/tag]-[tag]Castle[/tag] [tag]stem-cell[/tag] [tag]bill[/tag], which has overwhelming public support and will pass with a bi-partisan majority, it will draw the first [tag]veto[/tag] of [tag]Bush[/tag]’s presidency. “The president is emphatic about this,” Rove – Bush’s top political […]

If Connecticut for Lieberman works, will Joe keep his Dem seniority?

Last week, [tag]Joe Lieberman[/tag] formally announced that he would run as an independent if he lost to Ned Lamont in Connecticut’s Democratic primary next month. Yesterday, Lieberman officially got the ball rolling. Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman filed paperwork Monday that will allow him to collect signatures to petition his way onto the November ballot […]

Don’t believe Bush’s budget hype

[tag]Bush[/tag] is going to host a [tag]White House[/tag] event today to announce some [tag]budget[/tag] numbers that, on the surface, appear encouraging. Thanks to unexpected tax receipts, the federal budget [tag]deficit[/tag], which broke a record recently when it topped $400 billion, will be considerably smaller this year, shrinking to about $300 billion. So, what’s the problem? […]

Blaming North Korea on Clinton — and so it begins…

Since Bush took office in 2001, North Korea has grown progressively more dangerous. Kim Jung Il has removed weapons inspectors from the country, developed more nuclear weapons, and ignored international demands and test fired missiles on the 4th of July. As noted on Meet the Press yesterday, the Institute for Science and International Security estimated […]

It’s July 2006 — do you know where your terror alert level is?

Garance Franke-Ruta had an item today on an issue that’s just waiting for more attention. Funny how we’ve only had one elevation of the national threat level since President Bush was re-elected, and how the last such alert based on “new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack” was lowered on […]