The Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen suggest in an interesting piece today that the [tag]prosecutor[/tag] [tag]purge[/tag] scandal has helped “transform” Washington politics. Republicans are fretting, and Democrats are fantasizing, about what the debacle foretells for the next year and half. “We’ve only had subpoena power for the last six weeks and every tree that […]
Mark Benjamin reported in Salon this week about developments at Ft. Benning, Ga., where he found the military “deploying troops [to Iraq] with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.” It had […]
You know what Attorney General Alberto Gonzales really needs? Another scandal bringing his integrity and honesty into question. Oh wait, here’s one now. (thanks to S.W. for the tip) Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration’s warrantless domestic eavesdropping […]
As the prosecutor purge has transitioned from simmering controversy to full-fledged scandal, the one thing I’ve missed is White House Press Secretary Tony Snow’s unique brand of mendacity. While the president has been traveling throughout Latin America, Snow’s been with him. As a result, Snow has barely talked to the press corps since March 8. […]
The good news is the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a big batch of subpoenas this morning as part of the investigation into the prosecutor purge scandal. The bad news is some of the administration officials who need to appear before the committee weren’t on today’s list. The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday cleared the way for […]
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: * Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama yesterday offered tepid — but not full-throated — criticism of Gen. Pace’s attack on gays, prompting some criticism from the Human Rights Campaign. As a result, […]
I’ve been curious how conservatives would respond to this week’s Media Matters report about the conservative tilt of the Sunday-morning talk-shows. To quickly review, MM examined the guests of the Sunday shows — Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday — and found that they […]
Believe me, I had no intention of writing about this for the third consecutive day, but the right’s use of Clinton to downplay the prosecutor purge scandal has adapted. Some are still foolishly complaining about Clinton having hired new U.S. Attorneys upon taking office, but the more sophisticated far-right Bush supporters have decided to narrow […]
I think it’s fair to say that Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is livid over the prosecutor purge scandal. Democrats are now demanding additional documents, as well as testimony under oath from three top current and former White House officials: Mr. Rove; Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel; […]
I’ve never been altogether sold on the Watergate-era argument about the cover-up being worse than the crime — most of the time, the crime itself seems pretty bad — but it does speak to a certain political reality: screwing up seems easier to forgive than lying about screwing up. With this in mind, the WaPo […]