During the 2004 campaign, there were occasional rumors about Bush replacing Cheney on the GOP ticket. The gossip was usually hard to take seriously and was generally ignored. But this week, the speculation came roaring back, due in large part to Cheney’s inexplicable handling of last weekend’s hunting accident. Unlike the 2004 rumors, this week’s […]
In July 2004, the Bush-Cheney campaign caused quite a flap in the religious community by asking church goers to turn over church directories to the campaign and distribute partisan materials in their churches. The move was denounced throughout the Christian community — even the Southern Baptists said it was “appalling.” A month later the Republican […]
A few of the Republican senators who’ve caved to an “all-out White House lobbying campaign” and reversed course on Bush’s warrantless-search program have made some revealing comments the past few days. It points to their fundamental misunderstanding of the role of accountability in the political process. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), for example, was one of […]
The common consensus is that Cheney-Shot-A-Guy-Gate has just about run its course — some media outlets have literally declared the story “over” — but that’s all the more reason the AP deserves kudos for a piece this morning highlighting some of the nagging “discrepancies” in the story. * Assigning blame: The first instinct for the […]
First up from this week’s God machine is a story that seems like a joke, but it completely real. Remember the absurdity of the “war on Christmas”? Apparently, some culture warriors are equally concerned about the “war on Valentine’s Day.” A group of parents in the Katy Independent School District, near Houston, Texas, literally went […]
Guest Post by Morbo We all make mistakes. Accidents happen. When I was learning to drive, I made the ever-popular rookie driver error of hitting the gas pedal when I should have hit the brake and ran over a mailbox. No one was hurt, but my dad was so rattled he decided to send me […]
Guest Post by Morbo I hate to bore readers with what may appear to be provincial stories about politics in my adopted home state of Maryland, but here’s one you might find interesting: Maryland’s comptroller is a decrepit, embarrassing has-been ex-governor who pretends to be a Democrat named William Donald Schaefer. On Feb. 15, Schaefer […]
On Monday, Scott McClellan featured a White House press corps that was angry and aggressive. McClellan made his case, as best he could, but reporters were clearly under the impression that the Bush gang was hiding something. Just one day later, McClellan announced that the story was now done. Reporters should ask no more questions […]
I think I can hear Karl Rove removing Chuck Hagel from the White House Christmas-card list right about … now. Hagel also got in a gibe at Vice President Dick Cheney’s accidental shooting of a hunting partner last weekend. Referring to Cheney’s repeated draft deferrals during the Vietnam War, Hagel said, “If he’d been in […]
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: * As if Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) didn’t have enough to worry about with a possible Abramoff-related indictment looming, now he has a new problem: a primary challenger back home. James Brodbelt Harris, […]