Last night’s debate of Democratic presidential candidates was the third of the campaign, and though it was dedicated largely to domestic issues and challenges facing the African-American community — there were no questions, for example, about the war in Iraq — it was probably the most substantive of the three. It was the first debate […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * TPMM: “Scooter Libby has a new name: inmate number 28301-016. That’s according to the Bureau of Prisons, which is ready and waiting for Libby’s arrival. After losing a motion earlier this month to delay his first day in prison, Libby’s currently trying a last ditch appeal before reporting to […]
The president responded to the failure of his immigration bill with a brief statement to the press. Take a look. Josh noted, “Have you ever seen such a sad-sack president? … He almost looks and sounds like someone has literally knocked the wind out of him.” I think that’s true, but also believe the president […]
Chris Matthews may go out of his way to help promote Ann Coulter’s bile, but it apparently makes him feel all icky. Concluding an hour-long interview with right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on the June 26 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews said: “We have sold a lot of her books tonight. I don’t know […]
Way back in April, during the first round of debate on war funding, Bush excoriated lawmakers for “spend[ing] billions of dollars on pork barrel projects and spending that are [sic] completely unrelated to this war.” It was one of his more disingenuous complaints — the president’s own war funding proposal included funds for federal prisons, […]
The White House “offer” to the Senate Judiciary Committee was fairly straightforward: if members wanted to talk to WH staffers about the prosecutor purge, the discussions had to be a) private; b) not under oath; and c) without transcripts. It’s that last one that never made any sense. Indeed, the Bush gang never even tried […]
It’s been a discouraging week at the Supreme Court. Over the last four days, there have been five major decisions, all of them 5-4 rulings, all of them victories for conservatives, and all of them backed by the same five-member majority (Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy). Today’s ruling on school racial integration was probably […]
A couple of weeks ago, a confident president said his immigration package was going to pass. “I’ll see you at the bill signing,” Bush said So much for that idea. The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the […]
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: * Fred Thompson made a campaign appearance in South Carolina yesterday, and received a warm welcome from a far-right audience, though activists apparently left the event unconvinced. Asked “what do you believe in,” […]
As part of the Washington Post’s multi-part profile on Dick Cheney, Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, accused the Vice President of having made “monarchical claims” on power. In an interesting Slate piece, Fein, a self-identified conservative, follows up on these concerns and explicitly calls for the impeachment of Dick […]