It’s Friday afternoon, so I guess we should have known the Bush White House would be pulling some offensive stunt. This one is beyond the pale, even for him. In another affront to a constitutional system which he obviously holds in contempt, Bush bypassed the Senate — again — to install Alabama Attorney General William […]
When the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) announced its support for Howard Dean in the fall, I thought it was a major step towards Dean winning the nomination. When AFSCME bailed on Dean a couple of weeks ago, it was a clear sign the campaign was finished. AFSCME, led by Gerald […]
It’s kind of sad, really. The Bush White House, which once promised to usher in an “era of responsibility,” goes to great lengths to place blame on just about everyone for Bush’s mistakes. At the top of the list, of course, is the Republicans’ catch-all for the nation’s ills: Bill Clinton. The latest in the […]
James Webb, a Vietnam veteran and the secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, wrote an op-ed for USA Today that’s getting a lot of attention. It deserves it. The point of Webb’s essay is pondering how the “military vote,” particularly that of veterans, will go in 2004. It’s no trivial matter. Republicans have […]
Ralph Nader will officially announce his intentions for the election on Sunday’s Meet the Press. Of course, potential candidates rarely go on the show to announce they’re not running, so the smart money is on him declaring his candidacy.
Roll Call’s Stu Rothenberg has been enjoying the same parlor game I have: picking Dems for Kerry’s ticket. He recognizes the three most obvious names — Edwards, Clark, and Gephardt — but concludes that there’s already plenty of speculation about them, so “there’s not much point wasting time on them.” Fair enough. And Rothenberg completely […]
The widely-respected Pew Research Center released a very interesting survey yesterday, reinforcing what many of us have been saying for months: the nominating process is helping the Dems, not hurting them. So far, the presidential primary campaign has been very good for the Democratic Party. Public interest in the race has been relatively high. Nearly […]
I’m inclined to agree with Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) on extremely rare occasions, but I happen to like their proposal to alter the current line of presidential succession. I know; I can’t believe it either. Lott and Cornyn are arguing that the current line suffers from serious flaws, most notably including […]
I noticed that three blog heavyweights — Mark Kleiman, Eugene Volokh, and Glenn Reynolds — have commented on the comparison between Roy Moore’s Ten Commandments crusade in Alabama and Gavin Newsom’s gay marriage initiative in San Francisco. In light of my ongoing interest in Moore, I wanted to weigh in. At first blush, the comparison […]
Every couple of years, we hear about a new demographic that will be critical in the next election. Soccer moms and office-park dads were all-the-rage, but lately, NASCAR dads have been enjoying plenty of attention. The whole point of labeling these groups is to isolate constituencies that are willing to back either party’s candidates. You’ll […]