Silly me, I never thought the administration would take John McCain’s call for thousands of additional troops in Iraq seriously. And yet, here we are. As President Bush weighs new policy options for Iraq, strong support has coalesced in the Pentagon behind a military plan to “double down” in the country with a substantial buildup […]
For the last couple of weeks, all we’ve heard from the White House is about the “new way forward” in Iraq that the president will present to the nation before Christmas. Bush is going through the motions — meeting with all the right people, especially those who agree with him more than the Iraq Study […]
Following up on an item from yesterday, there have been several new national polls released, all of which show remaining support for the war in Iraq evaporating quickly. I’ve often wondered what the Bush gang thinks about results like these. Yesterday, we got a hint. At yesterday’s White House press briefing, there were plenty of […]
In Texas’ 23rd congressional district, incumbent Rep. Henry Bonilla (R) wasn’t expected to have too much trouble. In November, he’d almost won the district outright, coming just two points short of avoiding a run-off and heading back to DC for an eighth term. There were widespread rumors that Bonilla had come to consider his re-election […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * As Republicans finally give up their majority, they leave the public with a stunningly bad impression of politicians. According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, only 15% of Americans give senators or very high marks for honesty and ethical standards, while 14% do so for House members. The only […]
One of Josh Marshall’s readers raises a really good point. Just to put things in perspective… with public approval solidly in the 20s, the war in Iraq is now less popular than a bevy of social issues that have long been considered political poison for Democrats. Imagine if a Democratic president and Congress had made […]
It will only be three years too late (and three years after it was promised by the Senate GOP), but the Phase II report will see the light of day. The three unreleased sections of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s controversial “Phase Two” report on the Bush administration’s use of prewar intelligence are headed for circulation […]
The notion of blaming Americans for the Bush administration’s failures in Iraq started catching on among some high-profile conservatives a couple of weeks ago. The offensive approach has already been thoroughly debunked, but that didn’t stop Tom DeLay from spouting his blame-Americans-first nonsense on Fox News last night. Here’s another major Republican name who blames […]
Tom Edsall had an interesting opinion piece in the NYT today, but I think his broader point gets the story backwards. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic establishment’s anti-establishment candidate. She is simultaneously an insurgent, seeking to end a 220-year reign of men, and the heir apparent — dominant in cash ($14.4 million in the bank), […]
Following up on a post from Saturday, Congressional Quarterly national security editor Jeff Stein asked Rep. [tag]Silvestre Reyes[/tag] (D-Texas), soon to be the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a series of questions about the religio-political dynamics of the Middle East, most of which Reyes answered well. Then, he stumbled. [tag]Al Qaeda[/tag] is what, I […]