Richardson goes negative, hammers alleged Clinton ‘flip-flop’

It was never entirely fair, but for months, the conventional wisdom was that Bill Richardson was auditioning to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate. This came up, repeatedly, in large part because in several debates, when John Edwards and Barack Obama would try to highlight one perceived Clinton flaw or another, Richardson would immediately come to […]

Friday’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: * A new USAT/Gallup poll shows the Democratic primary race all tied up in New Hampshire: “In the poll, Clinton and Obama are tied at 32%-32%, with Edwards at 18%. No other candidate […]

Huckabee’s ‘preaching to the choir’ draws more conservative criticism

In her Wall Street Journal column last week, Peggy Noonan lamented the fact that religion was quickly becoming too important to Republican voters. “[T]here is a sense in Iowa now,” she wrote, “that faith has been heightened as a determining factor in how to vote, that such things as executive ability, professional history, temperament, character, […]

Goldberg joins Robertson in linking gays and Nazis

In the panoply of bizarre quotes from crazed TV preacher Pat Robertson, it’s hard not to appreciate the true lunacy from this gem from March 1990: “[Homosexuality] is a pathology. It is a sickness, and it needs to be treated…. Many of those people involved with Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals. […]

Tying the White House to the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal

Following up on yesterday’s item, there’s growing evidence that Bush’s Justice Department intentionally delayed prosecuting Republicans in the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal in order to delay anti-GOP headlines before the 2004 election. Just as importantly, there are new insights about the White House’s role in the same criminal controversy. On the morning of election day […]

McCain hires lawyer to handle scandal that may or may not exist

Yesterday saw one of the more unusual campaign controversies of the season, leading to reports that John McCain has hired a high-profile defense attorney to defend himself against charges that haven’t even been made. Let’s unpack this a bit. Drudge reported yesterday that the New York Times is poised to publish a “high-impact report involving […]

Romney parses the words ‘saw,’ ‘march,’ and ‘with’

I had no intention of returning to Mitt Romney’s Martin Luther King story yet again, but the former governor is just making this too easy. The last thing any presidential candidate needs, worse yet one with a history of dissembling, two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, is a flap that leads to embarrassing word-parsing, but […]

Thursday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * In a pleasant surprise, after a promised stonewall, the CIA and the Justice Department agreed yesterday to start sharing documents with Congress regarding the destruction of the torture tapes. The CIA also agreed to let the agency’s top lawyer, John Rizzo, testify about the matter before the House Intelligence […]

Still more obstructionism — GOP blocks vote on FEC nominees

This may seem like inside-pool, but it’s an interesting example of how congressional Republicans chose to do business these days. There are currently four vacancies on the Federal Election Commission, two of which are to be filled with Republicans, two of which to be filled by Dems. For one of the GOP’s selections, Bush tapped […]

Tancredo quits, endorses Romney

As expected, Tom Tancredo ended his quixotic presidential campaign today. What was less expected was his announcement that he would support rival Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Republican Tom Tancredo announced Thursday that he is dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Tancredo, a five-term congressman from Colorado, said he would endorse rival Mitt […]