OK, so Rudy Giuliani has a problem when it comes to domestic policy. And his personal life. And his knowledge of foreign policy. And who he chooses to associate himself with, professionally. But, when it comes to his presidential campaign, at the very least, he has the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to point to, right? […]
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: * Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson delivered the keynote address to the secretive right-wing Council for National Policy over the weekend, and the group was reportedly impressed. The media was forbidden from attending […]
Let’s look back to Jan. 11, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat at the witness table in Hearing Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building explaining why “those who talk about engagement with Syria and Iran” are all wet. “That’s not diplomacy — that’s extortion,” she said. Rice and the rest of the […]
Dean Barnett, writing in the Weekly Standard, noted the kind of cultural qualities he’d like to see in our presidential candidates. Now imagine what a candidate could get done if he achieved fluency in pop culture. Picture a candidate who could effortlessly segue from paying homage to Dale Earnhardt’s #3 to saying how much High […]
When Bush vetoed war funding two weeks ago, he said it was necessary because lawmakers’ withdrawal timeline would mean “American commanders in the middle of a combat zone would have to take fighting directions from politicians 6,000 miles away in Washington, D.C.” As it turns out, the president might be right about the commanders’ frustration […]
There’s been quite a bit of discussion over the last few days about a majority of the Iraqi parliament endorsing draft legislation calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. It’s one thing for the Bush administration to ignore the will of Americans and their elected representatives in Congress, but are war supporters […]
It was a credibility-killing moment for John McCain. Last month, the senator insisted there are parts of Baghdad that are safe for Americans to go for a stroll and that General Petraeus travels around the city “almost every day in a non-armed Humvee.” Obviously, that was wrong. McCain took this to the next step, of […]
Perhaps the single most frustrating aspect of contemporary political debate is the myth that somehow Democrats are anti-military, while Republicans are pro-military. David Broder, reporting from the DNC’s winter meeting a few months ago, observed, “One of the losers in the weekend oratorical marathon was retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who repeatedly invoked the West Point […]
Following up on yesterday’s item about Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) replacing Doolittle on the House Appropriations Committee, Erick at RedState declared “war” on the House GOP leadership and offered a run-down on Calvert’s alleged misdeads. In 2005, Calvert and a partner paid $550,000 for 4.3 acres of land. Calvert then used his earmarking powers to […]
We’ve known a while that Monica Goodling was chiefly responsible for vetting Justice Department attorneys based on partisanship and ideology, but this piece in the NYT is nevertheless stunning in its detail. Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion […]