The president attended the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast this morning in DC, and addressed his ongoing (and alleged) desire to establish a “culture of life” in America. From the transcript: “Renewing the promise of America begins with upholding the dignity of human life. (Applause.) In our day, there is a temptation to manipulate life in […]
As readers have no doubt noticed, the site’s been loading very slowly the past couple of days, which has been frustrating (for you and me). I’ve talked to our hosting company, which assures me it’s not a server problem. We’re in the process of trying to identify exactly what’s causing the trouble — is there […]
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: * After MoveOn.org’s online Town Hall Forum this week on the war in Iraq, the group asked members to participate in an online straw poll on which is the best Democratic presidential candidate […]
[tag]Paul Krugman[/tag] devoted today’s column to an issue near and dear to my heart: the religious right movement and its influence on the government. For a change, I’m not entirely sure Krugman has it entirely right. After working at Americans United for Separation of Church and State for several years, I learned quite a bit […]
Reason #1,684,349 why I do not watch television news. This was CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric in last night’s “Notebook” segment: “Hi, everyone. Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque? “Barack Obama has arguably the most diverse religious background of any candidate ever. He was raised in […]
Three weeks ago, the White House took the notion of executive privilege to what I thought was its logical extreme. As it turns out I wasn’t even close. The principle of executive privilege, while fluid, addresses a president’s need for candor from advisors. As the president recently said, “[I]f the staff of a President operated […]
If the political establishment wasn’t suspicious before, it is now. A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years’ worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Henry Waxman directed government agencies today to “preserve e-mails received from or sent to non-governmental e-mail accounts used by White House staffers.” Good idea. * RNC counsel Rob Kelner said today that the RNC stopped deleting all of the White House staff’s emails in response to “unspecified legal inquiries” […]
I noted this morning that the White House, in its desperate attempt to spin its controversial alternate communications system, ran into a problem: last week, spokesperson Dana Perino claimed only a “handful” of White House staffers used RNC email accounts. This morning we learned that 22 current WH aides — and 50 staffers altogether — […]
I know there have been occasionally strained relations between House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and progressive activists, but I think he’s on firm ground this week, urging the caucus to show some resolve in the political fight against the White House over war funding. This is the right message at the right time. […]