Stunning news out of Pakistan this morning: Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said. “At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto’s party who was at […]
On Monday, the American Research Group released a very surprising new poll out of Iowa, which has caused quite a stir in the political world this week. The ARG results showed the Democratic presidential race shaping up this way: Clinton 34% (last week 29%) Edwards 20% (last week 18%) Obama 19% (last week 25%) Biden […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * AP: “President Bush, still voicing concern about special project spending by Congress, signed a $555 billion bill Wednesday that funds the Iraq war well into 2008 and keeps government agencies running through next September. Bush’s signed the massive spending bill as he flew on Air Force One to his […]
As it does every year at this time, Gallup released its annual survey on the most admired men and women in the country. Given the political climate, this year’s results were a little more noteworthy than usual. First up, the men. President Bush wins as the most admired man this year in spite of his […]
In some ways, it seems the scandal surrounding the Bush administration and the fired U.S. Attorneys has run its course. To be sure, the seriousness of the controversy was never really in doubt, at least for the reality-based community. The unthinkable became all too real: the Bush gang used federal prosecutors “to help the Republican […]
I think it’s safe to say the culture of life is not exactly thriving in the state of Texas. This year’s death penalty bombshells — a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade — have masked what may be the most significant and lasting […]
Over the summer, Dick Cheney solidified his legendary reputation for lunacy when he and the OVP aides rationalized his opposition to executive-branch oversight rules by deciding that he’s not really part of the executive branch. It stemmed from a bizarre fight the White House had with the National Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office, a fairly […]
A few weeks ago, at a debate for Republican presidential candidates, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) made the ridiculous claim that U.S. troops and their families are, by their very nature, conservative. “[M]ost Americans, most kids who leave that — that breakfast table and go and serve in the military and make that corporate decision with […]
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: * Christian conservatives have catapulted Mike Huckabee to the top of the polls in Iowa, but he has apparently not yet sealed the deal: “Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee would seem to be the […]
In one of the more transparently ridiculous campaign ads of the 2006 cycle, the National Black Republican Association ran radio ads in Baltimore insisting that Democrats were responsible for Jim Crow laws, the KKK, and releasing vicious dogs and fire hoses on civil-rights activists. The ad told its African-American audience, “Republicans freed us from slavery […]