I’ll have more tomorrow morning on the Iraq Benchmark Report after I have a chance to read it in more detail overnight, but in the meantime, I think this portion of James Joyner’s summary is just about right. So, essentially, despite [al Qaeda in Iraq] comprising something like five percent of the insurgency, we have […]
As expected, former White House counsel Harriet Miers ignored a congressional subpoena today, after her former colleagues told her she didn’t have to follow the law. The House Judiciary Committee had set up a chair for Miers’, which sat empty when the hearing was called to order. As expected, former White House counsel Harriet Miers […]
In looking at Bush’s press conference today, Part 1 looked at the president’s remarks on Iraq, and Part 2 looked at Scooter Libby, so now let’s look at Bush and al Qaeda. It’s worth noting from the outset that Bush mentioned al Qaeda by name 31 times during today’s hour-long press conference. That’s … what’s […]
In part one of the review of Bush’s press conference, we talked about Iraq. Now let’s look at the only exchange from the hour-long event that didn’t deal with the Middle East. Q: You spoke very soberly and seriously in your statement about how you weighed different legal questions in coming to your decision on […]
Have I mentioned lately how much I love presidential press conferences? Today, Bush appeared for an hour in the fancy-schmancy new briefing room, though the actual Q&A was about half that (the president read a lengthy statement at the outset about the latest White House report on “progress” in Iraq). Nevertheless, there were some noteworthy […]
We learned over the weekend that the pro-choice National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. reportedly hired Thompson to lobby the H.W. Bush White House in 1991. Specifically, the group paid Thompson quite a bit of money to push the White House to ease restrictions that barred abortion counseling at clinics that received federal money. […]
This almost certainly sound like a minor campaign flap, but let’s take a moment to consider the bigger picture. About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone. Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was […]
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 International Association of Fire Fighters unveiled their video yesterday about Rudy Giuliani, called “Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend,” which hammers the former NYC mayor’s handling of the crisis on 9/11. It’s online […]
Last week, the WaPo’s David Ignatius wrote a vague column about the need for Americans to unify around a sense of unity when it comes to national security. I suggested that he might want to be a little more specific next time. I’m afraid today’s piece wasn’t much better. The Iraq debate in Washington this […]
For several years, all the talk from the White House about al Qaeda has been unwaveringly positive. We have the terrorists “on the run.” We’ve detained or killed “more than three quarters of al Queda’s key members and associates.” We’re winning; they’re losing. We’re getting stronger; they’re getting weaker. It all sounds very encouraging, except […]