Today’s edition of quick hits. * Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) is back with a new Iraq bill that would mandate U.S. troop withdrawal begin in two months, following a vote in September. As Murtha sees it, the plan would take about a year to complete. “This is big time,” Murtha told reporters, explaining why he […]
Nutpicking: (verb) 1. the practice of trawling through open comment threads in order to find a few wackjobs who can be held up as evidence that liberals are nuts. About a week ago, Bill O’Reilly launched what might be the most high-profile nutpicking fight of all time, launching a massive offensive against JetBlue for its […]
Like Kevin, I found it hard to believe the LA Times’ Ron Brownstein is willing to take Rudy Giuliani’s “federalism” argument at face value. I thought it was a fairly transparent sham, but apparently, the former mayor has fooled at least one prominent political analyst at a major news outlet. Social issues such as gay […]
Far-right uber-activist Grover Norquist and his cohort now believe that the war in Iraq is likely to cost the GOP dearly in 2008, so they’ve crafted a plan to save the party from electoral ruin. As The Hill reported, “To assuage an angry public, the activists argue that the White House soon needs to articulate […]
At the end of the AP article on today’s House Judiciary Committee vote on contempt charges, the piece mentions this: The last time a full chamber of Congress voted on a contempt citation was 1983. The House voted 413-0 to cite former Environmental Protection Agency official Rita Lavelle for contempt of Congress for refusing to […]
As a rule, presidential campaigns that reshuffle senior staffers are also experiencing fairly significant trouble. This isn’t always the case — Howard Dean and John Kerry both excelled in 2004 after major staffing changes — but it’s generally a bad sign. Fred Thompson’s staff troubles, though, are even more noteworthy than most because of two […]
There are three steps for the House to bringing contempt charges against an individual: committee approval, a floor vote in the House, and a referral to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The House passed step one less than an hour ago. The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against […]
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 latest Clinton/Obama spat is still going strong, with Clinton insisting Obama was “irresponsible and frankly naïve” for his debate comment on international diplomacy, and Obama insisting about Clinton, “If you want […]
Just 11 days ago, the WaPo’s Christopher Lee noted, “If anything looked like a sure thing in the new Congress, it was that lawmakers would renew, and probably expand, the popular, decade-old State Children’s Health Insurance Program before it expires this year.” It’s a no-brainer, right? Who’s going to balk at an established, successful program […]
Back in April, the New York Sun ran one of the year’s more ridiculous editorials, calling on Dick Cheney to put aside his feelings and run for the GOP presidential nomination. The Sun called it a “fine idea,” arguing, “[Cheney] could help settle some of the arguments about the Bush years in favor of Mr. […]