Today’s edition of quick hits. * The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Michael Mukasey’s nomination on Tuesday, Nov. 6. If Mukasey doesn’t answer the waterboarding question between now and then, expect the committee to reject the nomination. (It could, conceivably, move on to the floor for full consideration anyway.) * Malcolm Nance, a veteran […]
Following up on this week’s reports about Rudy Giuliani’s patently false healthcare claims, the Giuliani campaign has responded to the criticism. Sort of. If you’re just joining us, Giuliani, in his latest radio ad, tells voters, “I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was […]
Nearly two years ago, then-White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan promised the press corps that a “thorough report” would be released “very soon” documenting contacts betwen the White House and disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Not surprisingly, that never actually happened. The Bush gang thought they could just stall, reporters would eventually stop asking, and […]
Of all the noteworthy exchanges from last night’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia, this one hasn’t gotten a lot of attention today, and that’s a shame. RUSSERT: Senator Dodd, you went on the Bill Maher show last month and said that you were for decriminalizing marijuana. Is there anyone here who disagrees with Senator Dodd in […]
It’s been a rough couple of months for Fred Thompson when it comes to public policy and reality. After being away from politics for a few years, it stands to reason he’d be a little rusty, but he’s had time to clear the cobwebs, read some white papers, and listen to some policy briefings. At […]
I’ve heard from a few folks this morning criticizing the quality of the questions from last night’s Democratic debate. I just went back through the transcript, and it’s true, there were a surprising number of “process” questions that probably don’t matter much to regular voters. There were questions intended to spur controversy between the candidates: […]
I’ve never been entirely clear on why Karen Hughes was tapped to be the Bush administration’s undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. Granted, Hughes is not without talents — she was a capable local journalist, she’s not a bad writer, and she manages to connect unrelated events to 9/11 quite well — […]
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: * I haven’t seen much in the way of post-debate polls (if there were any), but Frank Luntz’s focus group seemed to think that Barack Obama won last night’s event in Philadelphia. * […]
Over the weekend, the WaPo ran a report on a U.S. battalion’s perspective on the war in Iraq, and quoted Maj. Eric Timmerman describing the conditions this way: “It’s just a slow, somewhat government-supported sectarian cleansing.” For reasons that I haven’t been able to fully grasp, it’s one of the aspects of recent events in […]
The trajectory of John McCain’s standing in the race for the Republican presidential nomination has been a sight to behold. He was declared the front-runner (if not the presumptive nominee) far too early, and then declared dead-in-the-water, also prematurely, shortly thereafter. But through it all, the one constant has been McCain’s desire to abandon every […]