Far-right commentator Neal Boortz was one of the lucky handful of Republican activists who was invited to the White House for a private, off-the-record audience with the president this week. Like the rest of the attendees, Boortz honored the agreement and didn’t report on what, specifically, was said in the meeting, but he dutifully explained […]
Brad Plumer said something interesting today that caught my eye: “[House Minority Leader] John Boehner seems to be surprisingly adept at keeping his caucus in line these days.” Plumer was talking about the House GOP voting together on S-CHIP expansion, but it got me thinking: the Republicans have been surprisingly united lately, haven’t they? * […]
The hyper-conservative World Net Daily has caused a bit of a stir on the right today with this report. Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney has cited the social welfare network of the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group as a role model the U.S. should copy to help promote “goodness” and “freedom” around the world. Sections […]
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: * John Edwards thinks he’s found a weak point in Hillary Clinton’s armor: Fox News. “Edwards criticized [Clinton] for taking more than $20,000 in donations from News Corp. officials, arguing that the company’s […]
By this point, we know all about the partisan, political briefings the White House conducted in government buildings for government employees, despite clear prohibitions by the Hatch Act. The briefings were about as subtle as a sledgehammer — administration officials needed to know which congressional races were most important, so they could in turn misuse […]
I realize that the White House is desperate to gain increased surveillance power under a “revised” FISA, and I know lawmakers have shown a serious willingness to give the president more of what he wants. But there’s just no reason for Trent Lott to scare the bejeezus out of people who live and work in […]
It’s certainly not my intention to defend Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy every day, but this latest flap is just odd. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton drew another distinction between herself and Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, refusing to rule out the use of nuclear weapons against Osama bin Laden or other terrorists in Afghanistan and […]
Congress and the administration have been scrambling this week to rush through some pretty significant changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a surprising disregard for concern about civil liberties. What’s the rush? Why act in haste on something so important? It turns out, officials knew something we didn’t: part of Bush’s legally dubious […]
Chances are you’ve noticed that the site looks a little different. OK, more than a little. Our old template seemed to contributing to server problems, and we thought, “If we’re going to overhaul the template, maybe it’s time to give the ol’ site a facelift, too.” The result is the newly-redesigned Carpetbagger Report. I suspect […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Having dispatched some holds, the Senate easily approved a sweeping ethics and lobbying reform bill this afternoon, after an 83 to 14 vote. With the House already having passed the measure, the bill now goes to Bush, who has not yet said whether he’ll sign the bill. Senate Majority […]