Meet the new contributor to Time magazine’s Swampland blog: former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). As I settle in as a guest blogger here at Swampland, I’d like to thank Time and its readers for inviting me to share my views. I hope I can raise the debate about the direction in which the […]
Last week, I had an item detailing the bizarre interest in some media circles with the presidential candidates’ (and their spouses’) appearance. Apparently, the craziest example hadn’t come yet. Consider this exchange on MSNBC this morning, between Joe Scarborough and CQ’s Craig Crawford. SCARBOROUGH: Have you seen Fred Thompson’s wife? CRAWFORD: Oh, yeah. SCARBOROUGH: You […]
For quite a while, Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) has been rumored to have engaged in some dubious conduct, but he maintained some tepid support — right up until a year ago. Jefferson was caught, on film, taking $100,000 in alleged bribe money out of an FBI informant’s car, only to have the FBI find that […]
Obviously, the notion that a person is innocent until proven guilty is a bedrock principle. But when it comes to General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan and alleged Hatch Act violations, she looks about as guilty as a political figure can. This has always been a second-tier Bush administration scandal, but it’s still highly […]
It’s extremely difficult to feel sympathy for those who commit heinous acts, even in a time of war, but it’s nevertheless worth remembering the impact torture has on the torturers. The American interrogator was afraid. Of what and why, he couldn’t say. He was riding the L train in Chicago, and his throat was closing. […]
For a while, partisan fights over Bush’s most far-right judicial nominees were some of the most intense on Capitol Hill. Remember the nuclear option? Of course, the “Gang of 14” diffused tensions, handed the White House a sweet deal, a series of ideologues won Senate confirmation, and the issue faded away. We don’t hear much […]
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: * In case you needed further proof that debate analysis is purely in the eye of the beholder, consider a couple of examples. The Des Moines Register’s top political analyst, after last night’s […]
The vast majority of the employees at the various cabinet agencies are career staffers. Their tenures have nothing to do with which president or party has power; they are, in the non-pejorative sense, professional bureaucrats. They make much of the executive branch function. For nearly all of the agencies, staffers can and do work under […]
There’s a perfectly good reason that war supporters, from McCain to Patraeus, are scrambling to lower expectations for September — the surge policy isn’t working. Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s […]
Following up on an item from the weekend, the terrorist plot at JFK Airport in New York certainly sounds like the kind of attack that could, in theory, do very serious damage. And to echo a point I raised on Saturday, the officials who were involved with uncovering the plot and arresting the suspects deserve […]