Wednesday’s political round-up

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: * AP: “Democrat Barack Obama, confronting claims that he’s light on foreign policy, surrounded himself Tuesday with heavyweights who said his differences with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and others are just what the […]

Lott’s resignation moves Republicans even further to the right

By any reasonable measure, outgoing Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) hasn’t exactly been a moderate. Lott was forced out of his Majority Leader seat in disgrace in late 2002, after heralding the segregationist platform of former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond. Speaking at a Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash, Lott said, “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, […]

When the investigator is under investigation

Way back in April, the Office of Special Counsel launched a broad investigation into Karl Rove’s political activities, with particular attention on the prosecutor purge, RNC emails, and fairly obvious Hatch Act violations in which Rove’s office politicized various federal agencies. “We will take the evidence where it leads us,” Scott Bloch, head of the […]

Dennis Kucinich … and Ron Paul?

Dennis Kucinich is generally not taken seriously as a credible presidential candidate, and is generally invited to participate in presidential debates because organizers can’t think of a rationale to block a sitting member of Congress. A lot of observers are under the impression that Kucinich is running just to run — a presidential campaign, even […]

Witnesses corroborate Romney’s anti-Muslim bigotry

Mitt Romney ran into a little trouble yesterday when the Christian Science Monitor ran a report today from Mansoor Ijaz, who recently asked Mitt Romney whether he would consider a Muslim-American for a cabinet post. Concluding that Muslims are too small a religious minority to qualify for a cabinet post, Romney reportedly said he would […]

Bill takes Hillary off-message

It was only three words — “from the beginning” — but Bill Clinton managed to cause quite a stir yesterday while campaigning on behalf of his wife’s presidential campaign. During a campaign swing for his wife, former President Bill Clinton said flatly yesterday that he opposed the war in Iraq “from the beginning” — a […]

Tuesday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * The photo-op is off to a good start: “Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to immediately resume long-stalled talks toward a deal by the end of next year that would create an independent Palestinian state, using a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference to launch their first negotiations in seven years… […]

Giuliani cozies up to convicted moneyman

Way back in June, Time’s David Von Drehle asked an interesting question: “How many alleged criminals can a law-and-order candidate be associated with before it starts to hurt?” The question, of course, was in reference to Rudy Giuliani, after Thomas Ravenel, the chairman of Giuliani’s presidential campaign in South Carolina, was indicted on cocaine distribution […]

Romney ‘clarifies’ his support for religious discrimination

Following up on an earlier item, the Christian Science Monitor ran a report today from diplomat Mansoor Ijaz who recently asked Mitt Romney whether he would consider a Muslim-American for a cabinet post. Concluding that Muslims are too small a religious minority to qualify for a cabinet post, Romney said he would not. The report […]

Zogby Interactive and the ‘I Knew It’ poll

Most political observers know to stop reading when they see the phrase, “According to a poll from Zogby Interactive…” and yet, yesterday, I couldn’t believe the commotion caused by a poll that obviously didn’t make any sense. About 24 hours ago, Zogby Interactive released a national poll showing John Edwards and Barack Obama leading each […]