Update: Foley has resigned. Nothing, and I mean literally nothing, captures the attention of the political world like a scandal involving sex. With this in mind, I was inclined to wait and see what happens with this story, but in light of the interest, I figured it was probably worth a post. I noted briefly […]
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: * Could Nevada’s Senate race be competitive after all? The Las Vegas Review Journal notes a new poll that shows Sen. John Ensign’s (R) lead over Jack Carter (D) has narrowed to about […]
Just when you thought you’d heard the last of [tag]Jack Abramoff[/tag], he comes back with a vengeance. As details of Abramoff’s White House connections emerged, the president and his top aides went to great lengths to argue that the disgraced lobbyist was a non-factor. Press Secretary Scott McClellan was willing to acknowledge that Abramoff attended […]
Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) sure is a fount of wisdom, isn’t he? Emailer K.K. mentioned yesterday that during the debate on torture, Lott told his colleagues, “Who hasn’t been attacked by a dog when they deliver laundry?” Better yet, Lott spoke to reporters yesterday after the president stopped by the Senate, and explained a bit […]
With the midterm election just 40 days away, the president is getting a little antsy. And when Bush gets antsy, he starts lashing out wildly, without regard for pesky details like facts. In his sharpest partisan attack of this election campaign, President Bush denounced Democratic critics of his Iraq policy on Thursday and said “the […]
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Senate passed the Bush-McCain Torture Bill yesterday. The final vote was 65 to 34, with 12 Dems breaking ranks to support the legislation. (Tim Grieve refers to them as the Torture 12, which, given the circumstances, seems more than fair.) I’ll spare you another rant about just […]
Today’s edition of items that definitely deserve attention, but which I just didn’t get to today. * As a rule, when a member of Congress sends personal emails to a 16-year-old page, and asks how old he is, what he wants for his birthday, and requests a photo of him, there’s something not quite right […]
Paul Kiel raises a point that’s been bothering me all day. Over the last two days, the Senate has been considering a bill that, just about everyone can agree, is of singular importance. The Senate has allotted itself ten hours of debate to consider the bill and five amendments offered for it. Compare that to […]
Listening to today’s floor debate in the Senate on Bush’s detainee bill, and reading various commentaries and analyses, I keep hoping to find that one summary that will magically help the nation understand that the legislation under consideration isn’t just another piece of right-wing nonsense, it’s an assault on our democracy. It’s literally offensive. It’s […]
We learned over the weekend that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) confirmed many of our worst fears about the effects of the war in Iraq. The president’s rhetoric notwithstanding, the war is making the terrorist threat worse, not better. Almost as soon as the NIE revelations were splashed across front-pages, Glenn Greenwald, among others, argued […]