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: * A huge new poll from the New York Times is chock full of interesting data, including widespread ennui among Republicans. 40% of GOP voters expect a Dem presidential candidate to win next […]
Last night, during a report on Scooter Libby’s predicament, Andrea Mitchell told MSNBC’s audience that White House officials are “going to try to really tamp this down and appeal to the polling which indicates that most people think, in fact, that he should be pardoned. Scooter Libby should be pardoned.” I’m not quite sure where […]
After seeing a variety of media reports on Dick Cheney’s speech to AIPAC yesterday, I made the mistake of actually reading through the whole transcript. The Vice President was in rare form, even rolling out a new speech built around what Cheney described as four “myths.” 1. “Iraq has nothing to do with the global […]
I continue to wait patiently for a rational explanation as to why the government denies gays the right to serve in the military. To his enormous credit, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put aside the nonsense and identified the actual reason for the unjustified discrimination. “I do not believe the […]
The prosecutor purge scandal is now cooking with gas. There’s no way around it: these guys are busted. Given what we’ve learned this morning, the house of cards White House and Justice Department officials built is crumbling. The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Last week, the White House agreed to support a Democratic bill that would require Senate confirmation for U.S. Attorney replacements. Apparently, Senate Republicans didn’t get the memo — Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) still “intends to object” to the bill. Whether that means he’ll filibuster the measure remains to be […]
About a year ago, [tag]Media Matters[/tag] released a fascinating report called, “If It’s Sunday, It’s Conservative.” MM found that the Sunday-morning [tag]talk shows[/tag] on ABC, CBS, and NBC, which play a huge role in shaping the conventional wisdom and prevailing political opinions, feature more conservative voices than liberal, “in some cases, dramatically so.” What’s more, […]
Six weeks ago, Sen. Chuck [tag]Schumer[/tag] (D-N.Y.) seemed to immediately appreciate the significance of the prosecutor purge scandal. He told reporters, “What happened here doesn’t sound like business as usual,” Schumer said. “Even the hiring and firing of our top federal prosecutors has become infused and corrupted with political, rather than prudent, considerations.” He vowed […]
The NYT’s David Brooks seems to have caused a bit of a stir with his latest column, which laments what he sees as the death of neoliberalism, “a movement which, at least temporarily, remade the Democratic Party, redefined American journalism and didn’t really die until now.” As Brooks sees it, neoliberals changed politics, apparently in […]
You did a heckuva job, Kiley. The Army forced its surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, to retire, officials said Monday, making him the third high-level official to lose his job over poor outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Kiley, who headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, submitted […]