Given the clarity of Article II, Sec. 2 of the Constitution, and the fairly obvious role Congress is supposed to have in approving treaties, there really shouldn’t be any question about lawmakers’ role in approving a new security agreement struck between the White House and the Maliki government. But this is Bush we’re talking about, […]
It’s been a while since we’ve heard any new Halliburton-related outrages, so I suppose we were due. The latest is evidence that Halliburton subsidiary KBR used a creative Cayman Islands-based scheme to avoid paying employment taxes. (thanks to reader E.S. for the tip) Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation’s top Iraq war contractor and until […]
Over the last 10 days, Hillary Clinton raised a few eyebrows when she compared Barack Obama to George W. Bush and Karl Rove. Now, her campaign has raised the stakes a little more. A Clinton campaign spokesman Thursday compared Barack Obama’s recent criticism of the New York senator to the actions of Whitewater prosecutor Ken […]
Fortunately, no one was hurt, but it appears that someone detonated a small explosive device outside a military recruiting station in Times Square early this morning. Nearly as interesting was how ideologues chose to exploit the incident for political gain. A small explosion damaged a U.S. military recruiting station but caused no injuries in New […]
There have been several interesting stories of late offering behind-the-scenes looks at the turmoil inside Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. It’s the ultimate in inside-baseball — the typical voter surely couldn’t care less about staffers’ infighting — but for political observers who follow this stuff, we’ve learned plenty of late about Clinton aides who’ve practically come […]
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: * For my money, the biggest problem in Democratic presidential politics isn’t whether Clinton and Obama will destroy one another, but rather, what’s going to happen with Florida and Michigan: “The governors of […]
Last night, Bob Dole told Larry King that he recognizes John McCain’s temperament problem, but he “always sort of rationalized that because the poor guy had been locked up” as a prisoner of war during Vietnam. McCain’s temper, Dole said, is “not a problem anymore.” It didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement. There have been […]
CNN’s Anderson Cooper has an item about John McCain’s wife that doesn’t sound especially objective or neutral. The headline reads, “Can Cindy McCain really be that perfect?” Seriously. (I’m trying to imagine the conservative apoplexy if an on-air CNN personality ran an item with the headline, “Can Michelle Obama really be that perfect?”) She’s always […]
OK, I’ve just about given up. John McCain actively sought the support of an anti-Catholic, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-woman, and anti-Semitic televangelist, and despite widespread condemnations from a variety of circles, reporters simply won’t cover the story or push McCain for an explanation. As Andrew Sullivan put it, John Hagee is “a white Farrakhan, but the […]
Just when I thought I’d gotten a handle on the so-called “NAFTA-gate” story, it takes an unexpected turn. Some Canadian news outlets reported last week that Barack Obama’s campaign had reached out to Canadian officials, telling them to effectively ignore Obama’s concerns about NAFTA, claiming the rhetoric was just political posturing. Those reports turned out […]