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: * The deadline for Wyoming Republicans who want to fill the late Sen. Craig Thomas’ (R) seat was yesterday, and 31 people submitted applications. Lynne Cheney, Dick’s wife, was not among them. Next […]
I know the conservative myth that PBS is some kind of hotbed for liberalism isn’t true, but to see the network go out of its way to prove its conservative bona fides is disconcerting. Two months ago, PBS gave Richard Perle a whole hour to repeat discredited neocon arguments about Iraq and the Middle East, […]
In the first presidential debate of 1984, Ronald Reagan was talking about his religious faith: “I don’t believe that I could carry on unless I had a belief in a higher authority and a belief that prayers are answered.” One of the reporters asking questions of Reagan and Mondale followed up by asking, “Given those […]
On several occasions, Slate has toyed with a fun little feature called the (fill in the blank)-o-meter. There was the Saddameter (tracking the likelihood of an Iraqi invasion), the Clintometer (gauging the likelihood of the Lewinsky scandal forcing Clinton from office), and the Miers-o-Meter (measuring the likelihood of Harriet Miers’ confirmation to the Supreme Court). […]
Following up on an item from yesterday afternoon, the interest in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s description of outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace continues to far exceed its significance. There have been some developments, though, that shed additional light on what was, and wasn’t, said. Greg Sargent obtained a recording of […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Greg Sargent spoke with several bloggers who were on the Harry Reid conference call in which he allegedly called Gen. Peter Pace “incompetent.” None of them recall the senator describing the general that way. * Massachusetts state lawmakers considered a measure today to put a constitutional gay-marriage ban on […]
Given the recent rhetoric in Republican circles about immigration policy, I found this story spectacularly amusing. The California Republican Party has decided no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions — state deputy political director — and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa, a program […]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a conference call with some liberal bloggers this week (I was not, for the record, on this call) and, according to a Politico report, the senator had some mild-but-unkind words for some high-profile U.S. generals. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of […]
Back on April 19, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified, under oath, that he had not spoken with “witnesses” in the U.S. Attorney scandal about the events surrounding the purge because it would have been inappropriate. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I haven’t talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven’t wanted to […]
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, a Bush appointee, was apparently receiving death threats while mulling whether to delay Scooter Libby’s 2 1/2-year sentence pending appeal. I guess he wasn’t intimidated. A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the CIA leak case, […]