Karl Rove has not yet been indicted. We don’t know if he will be indicted. We don’t even know for sure if he’ll resign — or even be pardoned — if charges are brought against him. But if we didn’t engage in a little baseless speculation about what the political world would be like if […]
Recent polling data suggests only about a third of Americans approve of how the Republican-dominated Congress is doing its job, the lowest in a decade. A new NBC poll shows voters preferring a Dem-run Congress by a fairly wide margin. All the while, the Republican establishment seems to be drowning before our very eyes under […]
Every activist group, regardless of ideology, has some kind of schtick. Some prefer working on TV ad campaigns, others like lobbying, others prefer press manipulation. The American Family Association, unfortunately, only has one move: boycotts. It’s getting embarrassing. As a rule, the AFA boycotts are counterproductive. A few months ago, for example, the group announced […]
The Weekly Standard’s Jeffrey Bell and William Kristol wrote a fairly predictable piece on the Republican culture of corruption in general, and the Plame scandal in specific, and not surprisingly, dismissed all the substantive charges out of hand. The amusing part, however, was their rejection of the Plame matter through the “everybody does it’” defense. […]
I realize this is an era for more creative forms of political propaganda. The president can’t even talk to troops during a war without turning the event into an infomercial. But when the pharmaceutical industry gets involved in commissioning a novel to scare Americans, you know things have gotten out of hand. In a tale […]
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: * In Ohio’s Senate race, it looks like Dems will not be able to steer clear of a primary fight. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) is in and has begun building a base of […]
In response to charges that Harriet Miers has razor-thin qualifications for the nation’s highest court, the Bush gang has repeatedly emphasized her role in helping select the president’s other judicial nominees. This is supposed to make the right feel better (Miers deserves some credit for right-wing judges on the federal bench), while also proving to […]
The president originally said he’d fire anyone on his staff who was involved with leaking Valerie Plame’s identity. He later changed his mind, saying he’s fire anyone convicted of a crime. If Rove is indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald, will Bush keep his original pledge? It looks like Rove won’t put his boss in a position […]
Last week, as pressure mounted about what kind of secrets Karl Rove told James Dobson about Harriet Miers, Dobson took to the airwaves to explain that Miers’ position on Roe v. Wade was not part of his confidential briefing. Dobson said he “would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers views Roe v. Wade,” […]
It looked bad for Armstrong Williams when he signed a contract with Bush’s Education Department to tout the president’s policies. It looked worse when the Government Accountability Office concluded that the contracts constituted illegal “covert propaganda.” But it looks like things are about to get even worse for this right-wing pundit. The Education Department has […]