In a move that should surprise no one, the CIA’s decision to destroy videos of “enhanced interrogation techniques” in action has prompted multiple investigations, including a preliminary probe from the Justice Department. The Justice Department and the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General said Saturday that they had launched a joint inquiry into the CIA’s […]
Rudy Giuliani, the thrice-married serial adulterer who supported abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, and a liberal immigration policy, can’t possibly win the GOP nomination. Neither can Mitt Romney, who’s flip-flopped on practically every issue under the sun, whose religious faith is a regrettable deal-breaker for many Republican voters, and whose support in the polls […]
Most of the polls out of Iowa from the last two weeks point to two general trends: Barack Obama inching towards the lead among Democrats, and Mike Huckabee inching past Mitt Romney among Republicans. With this in mind, the latest poll from Newsweek reinforces the prior, and exaggerates the latter. The most dramatic result to […]
It’s probably fair to say that Mike Huckabee has had a strange week. On the one hand, he’s been surging in the polls, picking up religious right endorsements, and is now considered the frontrunner in the Iowa caucuses. On the other hand, he’s been caught lying about the Wayne Dumond scandal, he’s proven that has […]
This week, it was hard to miss comparisons between Mitt Romney’s speech on religion in America and JFK’s historic 1960 speech on his support for church-state separation. Both speeches came from candidates facing discrimination, both were in Texas, and there was at least one picture of Romney striking a Kennedy-esque pose. Apparently, though, the political […]
In the president’s first term, John McCain was unusually responsible when it came to taxes. When Bush’s costly 2001 tax cuts went to the floor, McCain was one of two Senate Republicans to vote “no.” He said at the time, “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the […]
It’s as if politicians never learn. The old Watergate adage, “It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up” became a cliche precisely because of its political salience. And yet, even now, leading Republican presidential candidates seem oblivious to the lesson. In Rudy Giuliani’s case, the Shag Fund scandal continues to dog the former mayor, not just […]
Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush have more in common than just mendacious, authoritarian streaks; they also employ the same strategy when facing a scandal: ignore it and hope it goes away. Yesterday, for example, we learned about the latest in a series of lies regarding the Shag Fund controversy. In response to the revelations, […]
Yesterday we learned that the CIA had videos of its “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which it hid from lawmakers, federal investigators, a federal court, and the 9/11 Commission — and then intentionally destroyed to cover up its culpability. The agency treated the elimination of incriminating evidence as a rather routine decision, but the NYT reports today […]
First up from the God Machine this week is an aggressive push-back in some religious circles against “The Golden Compass,” a new children’s film starring Nicole Kidman, based on Philip Pullman’s “The Northern Lights,” an award-winning fantasy novel aimed at teenage readers. Apparently, Pullman, a professed agnostic, includes subtle anti-religious themes** in his “Dark Materials” […]