As we’ve discussed many times, one of the principal talking points for the right in response to the prosecutor purge scandal is “Clinton did it, too.” I won’t rehash the whole debate all over again, but the argument has been debunked — presidents replace the slate of U.S. Attorneys when they take office; what Bush […]
The White House Communications Office distributes a “Morning Update” email to reporters, filled with press clippings that are favorable to the administration. Today’s included an interesting headline on the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq: “Most Iraqis Believe Life Is Getting Better.” And where did this Bush-friendly article appear? In something called the Denver […]
As long-time readers may recall, I wrote a piece for the Washington Monthly last year about the fact that, for the first time in American history, three admitted adulterers (McCain, Giuliani, and Gingrich) were likely to run for president. That our two-timing trifecta belong to the Republican Party, the party that presents itself as the […]
I know I mentioned it recently, but the quote continues to be relevant. In 2000, then-Gov. Bush blamed Clinton and Gore directly for “hollowing out” the military. “If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, ‘Not ready for duty, sir.’” Of course, if Bush wanted to […]
We haven’t quite reached the impasse, but as Roll Call reports today (sub. only) it’s clearly coming right around the bend. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s effort to land presidential adviser Karl Rove as a witness runs headlong into the Bush White House’s well-established reluctance to subject high-level staffers or internal documents to Congressional scrutiny. But […]
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: * After a week or two of acrimony, Al Sharpton seems to have buried the hatchet with Barack Obama. The two made nice a five-minute phone call yesterday, which reportedly went well. “We […]
On the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, it’s hard to know where to start reflecting. The facts are all-too-familiar — the bloodshed, lies, the misjudgments, the exploitation, the deterioration. It’s nothing we haven’t mulled over before. Consider, however, Kadhim al-Jubouri’s perspective. His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with […]
Bush’s Justice Department is clearly feeling the heat of the prosecutor-purge scandal, but let’s also not forget that the agency is still in hot water over misuse of “national security letters” (NSLs). The letters were originally created in the 1970s for espionage and terrorism investigations, but were expanded under Bush, through the Patriot Act, to […]
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) isn’t playing games. The Democratic senator leading the inquiry into the dismissal of federal prosecutors insisted Sunday that Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush must testify publicly and under oath, setting up a confrontation between Congress and the White House, which has said it is […]
It looked for a while as if the Bush administration had already identified its scapegoat. Kyle Sampson, who was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff before resigning a week ago, looked as though he’d get the bulk of the blame — he helped orchestrate the purge and he neglected to share the information with […]