Conyers subpoenas Justice Department for withheld docs

Yesterday, congressional Democrats started pressuring the Justice Department about a series of key documents pertaining to the prosecutor purge scandal, which the DoJ hasn’t turned over. Specifically, lawmakers want internal rankings that the Justice Department made of all 93 U.S. attorneys, employment charts that Monica Goodling put together for those deciding who to fire, and […]

Bush invites lawmakers to listen to how right he is

The White House is probably aware of the public relations benefits involved with chatting with one’s rivals. When it comes to the war in Iraq, House and Senate Democratic leaders, perhaps foolishly, have indicated many times that they’re willing to broker some kind of compromise with the White House over funding. Dems don’t want a […]

Surprise, surprise — Broder has an unrealistic compromise to offer

The Washington Post’s David Broder wrote half of a good column today about the war in Iraq. It’s the other half that’s the problem. Broder seems to understand the broader dynamic quite well — Dems are right about the war, they’re right about withdrawal, and the public firmly stands behind them in this political fight. […]

Tuesday’s political round-up

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: * In case there was any doubt about the status of the scheduled debate co-hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News, Hillary Clinton joined John Edwards and Barack Obama in […]

Political Paranoia 101

Sometimes, politicians accused of corruption do hysterical things. Take Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R), for example. Gibbons, who was a Republican House member up until last year, is facing a federal criminal investigation for alleged bribes. By any reasonable measure, what we know of the controversy looks pretty bad for the new Nevada governor. Here’s […]

Talk about your ‘absentee landlords’

About a month ago, the Justice Department was scrambling to come up with a coherent excuse for having fired former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. They came up with a weak accusation: Iglesias was guilty of “absentee landlordism,” because he had to take 40 days of annual duty in the naval reserve. (The excuse […]

All of a sudden, Bush’s foreign policy does nuance

There was a fairly startling news item over the weekend that didn’t get quite enough attention. Apparently, the Bush administration is willing to give up on its own North Korea policy, and allow Kim Jung Il to make prohibited arms deals. Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict […]

How to celebrate the fall of Saddam

Apparently, different people chose to honor the fourth anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s downfall in different ways. First, there’s the White House’s way. As Iraq observed the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein yesterday, the lead item on the White House Web site, under the heading “LATEST NEWS,” was a photograph of Clifford the […]

Monday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * Remember when we were counting on Moqtada al-Sadr and his forces to lay low while U.S. troops tried to bring some semblance of stability to Iraq? Never mind: “[I]n a message sent to an anti-American demonstration today in Najaf, Sadr urged Iraqi security forces to stop working with American […]

Edwards, Obama effectively scuttle Fox News/CBC debate

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute can’t say it wasn’t warned. Democratic activists and officials implored the CBC Institute not to partner with Fox News for a debate with the Democratic presidential candidates. The CBC Institute struck the deal anyway — assuming that they needed candidates, not activists, to pull off a successful event. As of […]