For the better part of two years, we’ve known a few things with some confidence about the Plame Game scandal. White House sources told Bob Novak that Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA. Newsday quoted Novak in July 2003 saying, “I didn’t dig it out. It was given to me. They thought […]
Before getting into today’s news, I’d like to take a moment to apologize for the technical difficulties the site has been experiencing lately. I’m aware of the sporadic outages and breakdowns, particularly this week, and I appreciate readers’ patience in dealing with the problems. I’m pleased to report that the site changed servers last night […]
The general rule on scandals in Washington is that the accused can survive politically so long as his or her own party stays together. With this in mind, I’m wondering which Republicans, if any, will break ranks and condemn Karl Rove, perhaps even calling for his resignation. Technically, I suppose Jim Holt is first. “I […]
New Jersey’s Frank Lautenberg (D) got the ball rolling with this earlier in the week, but I really believe going after Karl Rove’s security clearance is a wise and reasonable strategy. Based on what we know, there’s no reason Rove should have access to classified information. Yesterday, Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) and every Dem on […]
The good news is the federal budget deficit will only be a third of a trillion dollars this year, the third highest in American history. It’s “good” because it was projected to be much higher. The bad news is the Bush gang looks at the improved budget and believes their policies have worked and everything’s […]
I think Ken Mehlman’s message about Republicans and race is a good start. But that’s all it is, and it only goes half way to acknowledging a much broader problem. It was called “the southern strategy,” started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue — […]
Since the Bush administration already uses tax dollars to subsidize public school curricula that teaches kids that HIV can be spread through sweat and tears, I guess it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the same administration would create a website with bogus information about sexual health. It’s par for the course with this gang. […]
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: * A new SurveyUSA poll released this week once again lists support for each of the nation’s 50 governors. North Dakota’s John Hoeven (R) is on top with a 74% approval rating, while […]
This week, we’ve learned the greatest enemy the Republicans can think of is Joseph Wilson. The GOP talking points issued earlier this week included six principal arguments, literally all of which sought to undermine Wilson’s credibility. Now, however, it seems the right-wing machine is shifting gears towards a new enemy: Time’s Matt Cooper. From a […]
For reasons that I’ve never fully understood, the president has excelled in recent years as someone people trust. Even when voters don’t agree with him on an issue, the idea goes, Bush is at least credible and consistent. A “say what you mean, mean what you say” type. This has never made any sense, but […]