For a White House communications machine that emphasizes strict message discipline, Atrios is right, the Bush gang’s approach to Osama bin Laden is lacking a certain rhetorical coherence. (It’s also lacking as a policy matter, but that’s another story for another post.) For example, last week, the president insisted that bin Laden is Hitler, bent […]
A number of Republican House members, who by their own admission are conservatives, are leaving Congress this year, only to find a new brand of even-more-conservative lawmakers anxious to take their place. Oddly enough, it seems the old guard isn’t at all happy about it. Consider Arizona’s 8th congressional district, for example. Dems pleased about […]
I appreciate the fact that congressional Dems believe the old adage that you “can’t beat something with nothing.” I also think, on balance, Dems were probably right to unveil a legislative agenda in advance of the elections, letting voters know what they can expect from Congress if Republicans lose their majority. But to hear that […]
I have to admit, I expected the Republican lawmakers to collapse like a house of cards. They were saying all the right things about the Geneva Conventions, torture, and the rights of all detainees, but I assumed the White House would give them the hard sell, the leadership would offer some kind of “incentives,” and […]
My favorite thought piece of the day comes by way of the National Review’s Byron York, who wrote a column for The Hill noting, “So we’re divided — is that George Bush’s fault?” I think the answer’s clearly “yes,” but consider York’s case. Ask yourself this question: What actions, or series of actions, could President […]
I don’t have anything particularly insightful to add, and Sen. [tag]Mary Landrieu[/tag] (D-La.) is not always my favorite member of the Democratic [tag]Senate[/tag] caucus, but I was delighted to see/hear Louisiana’s senior senator decide she’d had enough of the GOP’s talking points today. What seemed to set Landrieu off was a comment from a Republican […]
The [tag]president[/tag] made a rare visit to Capitol Hill today, as part of an aggressive lobbying campaign to get lawmakers to, as the AP put it, give him more power to “spy on, imprison and interrogate terrorism suspects.” You can tell [tag]Bush[/tag] was really giving GOP members the hard sell — he brought Dick [tag]Cheney[/tag] […]
Sometimes, these guys just start to sound like parodies of themselves. During a Tuesday meeting of the House Republican conference, Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) unveiled a handy new rhetorical device aimed at furthering House Republicans tough-on-terrorism national security agenda. Instead of referring to military tribunals as, well, the military tribunals that they are and […]
It may be stuck inexplicably on page A17, but this is a stunning article nevertheless. U.N. inspectors investigating Iran’s nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran’s capabilities, calling parts of the document “outrageous and dishonest” and offering evidence to refute […]
Yesterday, we talked about VoteVets.org’s new ad in Virginia on Sen. George Allen’s (R) vote against updated body armor for troops in Iraq. The New York Times’ new political blog, The Caucus, had a pretty good item about the commercial, but included an offhand reference that needs to be corrected. A group known as VoteVets.org […]