Friday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * CNN is reporting that Monica Goodling will formally resign from the Justice Department tomorrow. That makes quite a bit of sense — if she pleads the Fifth, the DoJ necessarily had to let her go. * Speaking of the purge, Alberto Gonzales appears to be moving in the wrong […]

Prioritizing civil rights protections — for whites

For literally decades, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has had a hiring committee, made up of veteran career lawyers, who screened thousands of resumes, interviewed candidates, and made recommendations that were rarely rejected. Attorneys who were hired to the Division were not only excellent lawyers, but had demonstrated a firm commitment and years of […]

CNN explains the Pelosi controversy

I’m sorry to keep harping on the media’s coverage of Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Syria, but I’m at a loss to explain how ridiculous the reporting has been, particularly among television journalists. Atrios flagged a quote this morning from CNN that I assumed he misheard. Alas, I checked the transcript and it was exactly right. […]

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Hackville) — Part II

Yesterday, we talked about how unbelievably wrong Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was in attacking fired U.S. Attorney Carol Lam. Hatch insisted on national television that Lam 1) was lax on immigration cases; 2) was a law professor; 3) had no prosecutorial experience; and 4) was a top aide for one of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns. […]

Threading the stem-cell needle? Not so much

We haven’t talked much about stem-cell policy lately, in large part because the issue (and medical research and hopes for potential life-saving treatments) is probably at a standstill until we get a new president in 21 months. There’s bi-partisan support for lifting Bush’s restrictions on federally-funded research, but there aren’t enough votes to override a […]

Supply-side economics becomes a ‘frequently misleading and meaningless buzzword’

Bruce Bartlett, author of “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” knows a bit about a supply-side economics — he helped invent it. About 30 years ago, he was the staff economist for then-Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), and helped craft a tax plan that was premised on the idea that […]

Entering the ‘No Restraint Zone’

I can’t very well call myself a blogger and not let readers know about Bill O’Reilly’s stunning meltdown on Fox News last night. (If you’re watching at work, turn the volume down; the screaming gets kind of loud.) I’ve seen O’Reilly get angry on the air, but this buried the needle on the rage-o-meter. In […]

Lauer loses legitimacy with lousy Pelosi criticism

When it comes to Speaker Pelosi and her bipartisan delegation to the Middle East this week, this has not been the mainstream media’s finest hour. Take Matt Lauer’s reporting from this morning’s Today Show. This morning, NBC’s Today Show ran a biased segment casting doubt on Pelosi’s Syria trip. Every single question asked by anchor […]

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: * Contributing to the growing buzz that senator-turned-actor Fred Thompson (R) is going to run for president, The Politico’s Mike Allen reported that the “Law & Order” star has “moved beyond pondering a […]

One of the 85 ‘loyal Bushies’ comes under scrutiny

Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D), seeking a second term, was considered relatively vulnerable by the Republican establishment. The GOP had successfully recruited then-Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) to be their gubernatorial candidate, they cleared the field so he could get the nomination, fundraising was brisk, and some early polling showed Green within striking distance. […]