One of the pressing questions in the 2004 Democratic primaries was how best to deal with the 2002 votes of Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards on the Iraq war resolution. Would they acknowledge that the votes were a mistake? Would they apologize? Was this a litmus-test issue for voters? Should it be? When it […]
On Feb. 5, when the Senate was poised to consider a resolution opposed to the president’s escalation strategy, a Republican filibuster blocked the debate before the debate. Dems stuck together, and two Republicans (Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine) joined the majority against the filibuster. It was well short of the […]
For four years, supporters of the war have been dependent on a series of assumptions, all of which have been wrong. They assumed Saddam Hussein had WMD. They assumed the war would be quick and cheap. They assumed we’d be greeted as liberators. They assumed there would be no insurgency. And now these same supporters […]
About a year ago, we learned that Dick Cheney, whenever he travels, makes a series of specific demands for hotels where he’ll stay, including having all hotel-room TVs tuned to Fox News. But if you thought the VP was being a bit of a diva, wait until you see what Rudy Giuliani demands. In addition […]
Occasionally, an article is published that is so spectacularly stupid, you have to assume the writer was kidding. That, or someone wrote the piece under someone else’s name, as a way of trying to make them appear foolish. Jeffrey Lord, a former Reagan White House political director, has written just such a piece for The […]
Religious opponents of modern biology have been working to undermine evolution, with varying degrees of creativity, for about a century or so. Georgia State House Rep. Ben Bridges (R), however, thought he’d be extra clever by using the reality-based community’s arguments against them — if religion can’t legally be taught in public school science classes, […]
First up from the God Machine is a follow-up to last week’s item about the College of William and Mary, one of the nation’s oldest public universities, deciding to remove an 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the altar of an on-campus chapel. As we talked about, the public university wanted to make […]
For the last few years, the Pew Research Center has included an interesting question in its national political surveys: “Please tell me what one word best describes your impression of George W. Bush. Tell me just the one best word that describes him.” Those conducting the poll did not offer choices for respondents to choose […]
Guest Post by Morbo It seems that America has been dragged – or perhaps has simply lurched and stumbled – to a crossroads over the death penalty. As a recent article in The New York Times Magazine noted, the most common form of state-sponsored execution used these days — lethal injection — is now under […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * A year ago, in honor of President’s Day, former Gannett chief and USA Today founder Al Neuharth rejected the idea that Bush was the worst president of all time. Today, he changed his mind. “I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, […]