Today’s edition of quick hits. * Good news this morning in the House: “Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Majority Leader, postponed a press conference announcing new reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers banded together and said they would fight any legislation that did not include a set of eight principles […]
Harpers’ Scott Horton sets the stage nicely for a Republican scandal that we’ll be hearing quite a bit more about. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” remarked a nationally known print journalist in a conversation three weeks ago. “Everything I’ve been told by the convicted defendants checks out as the gospel truth. And everything […]
Still new to the job, Adm. Michael Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has already made an interesting rhetorical shift. Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) and has prohibited using it “in any future […]
With the debate over U.S. torture policy back on the front page, the president took a few moments this morning to address the controversy. He made four general points. * First, Bush is detaining bad guys: “[W]hen we find somebody who may have information regarding an — a potential attack on America, you bet we’re […]
For a five-year-old scandal, it’s amazing just how many important unanswered questions there are surrounding the Republicans’ New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal. For those just joining us, in 2002, New Hampshire was home to a very competitive U.S. Senate race between Jeanne Shaheen (D) and John Sununu (R). The morning voters headed to the polls, Democratic […]
With the Republican Party struggling, and the conservative movement rudderless, a 1970s-era conservative group is about to shake the dust off and get back into the game. Fed up with neocons, theocons and convict cons, a group of former aides to Ronald Reagan want to reanimate the Republican Party by reviving the organization that brought […]
Just two weeks ago, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric said her former employer, NBC, discouraged her from challenging the Bush administration. “I think there was a lot of undercurrent of pressure not to rock the boat for a variety of reasons, where it was corporate reasons or other considerations,” she said. Yesterday, Hardball host […]
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: * According to Rasmussen, 27% of Republican voters say they’d vote for a conservative third-party candidate over pro-choice Rudy Giuliani. If GOP primary voters hear about this and believe it, Giuliani’s electability argument […]
Perhaps more than any policy decision this year, the president’s decision to veto expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) was spectacularly dumb. It was bad politics, bad policy, and based on bad reasoning. Lawmakers from both parties, governors from both parties, medical professionals, and children’s’ advocates all agree that Bush’s nonsensical decision […]
By one count, the president has publicly vowed to “solve problems, not pass them on to future presidents and future generations” almost 250 times. The AP’s Jennifer Loven found quite a few examples of Bush actually choosing to do the opposite. Excerpts from her lengthy list: * The economy is relatively sound and deficits are […]