I mentioned earlier this week that congressional Dems have decided that the current political climate looks pretty good, but to seal the deal, the party needs to present a positive policy agenda. Republicans have pretty thoroughly embarrassed themselves in recent years, the theory goes, and by specifically telling voters what Dems would do differently — […]
Guest Post by Morbo The Bush administration has just handed the Democrats another sure-fire issue, but I have to wonder if the Dems are paying enough attention to notice. The New York Times reports that a tax commission established by Bush has recommended new limits on home interest deductions. With a mandate to develop a […]
Guest Post by Morbo U.S. public health officials are so concerned about the possibility of an outbreak of Asian “bird flu” in this country that a few of them took the unusual step of leaking the Bush administration’s draft plan for dealing with such a catastrophe. Guess what? We aren’t ready. The 381-page draft plan, […]
Guest Post by Morbo I’ve always viewed the political rise of muscle-bound actor Arnold Schwarzenegger with alarm. The man based his campaign on vapid slogans from his bad action films, and California residents were unable to shake the stars out of their eyes and see that their hero was simply not qualified for the job. […]
Guest Post by Morbo A few months ago, signs advertising something called the “D.C. Festival” began appearing all over the Washington metro area. I was puzzled. The signs highlighted that the speaker would be Luis Palau but said little else. I know Palau is an evangelical television preacher — but the signs said nothing about […]
When Condoleezza Rice was under fire for misstating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in July 2003, Scott McClellan said Bush “has confidence” in Rice. When DCA George Tenet came under fire for mistaken intelligence about Iraq in February 2004, McClellan said Bush has “great confidence” in Tenet. When several lawmakers insisted that Donald Rumsfeld […]
Watergate came in Nixon’s second term; Iran-Contra struck in Reagan’s second term; and Lewinsky undermined Clinton’s second term. As Ron Brownstein noted the other day, “When you look through history, you really wonder why they spend so much money and time trying to get re-elected, because there’s a lot more unhappy stories.” The key to […]
How ridiculous was the White House’s scripted teleconference yesterday? Even Fox News Channel blasted the Bush gang. Via Dan Froomkin, here’s what Shepard Smith told FNC viewers last night: “At least one senior military official tells Fox News that he is livid over the handling of U.S. troops in Iraq before their talk by satellite […]
Who’ll be the first Republican senator to oppose Harriet Miers’ Supreme Court nomination? It seems to have come down to two leading candidates: Sens. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum (R-Pa.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Brownback has been the most likely person to seize the opportunity, and in a recent campaign swing in New Hampshire, he […]
Al Gore told reporters the other day that he had no intention of running for president again, but that’s not all he said. When asked how the United States would have been different if he had become president, though, he had harsh criticism for Bush’s policies. “We would not have invaded a country that didn’t […]