Conservatives were launching a crusade against Newsweek, introducing House resolutions condemning the magazine and suggesting congressional boycotts in members’ offices, but that is so last week. Now, there’s a new target: Bill Maher. A congressman says comedian Bill Maher’s comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the “low-lying fruit” is possibly treasonous and […]
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: * Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro (R) said Monday she will seek statewide office in 2006, but no one’s sure which office. State GOP officials have described her as their “dream candidate” […]
When the president traveled to Wisconsin last week to tout Social Security privatization, reporters decided it wasn’t worth their time to even make the trip. In March, when Bush visited New Mexico for the same reason, Kiva Auditorium was sparsely attended, with hundreds of empty seats. In February, Bush went to New Hampshire for a […]
I hesitate to put this in print because I’m probably being hopelessly naïve, but I wonder if there’s a small upside to the worst part of yesterday’s deal over judicial nominees: campaign fodder. Maybe I’m just rationalizing — and I’m sure readers will let me know — but Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and Bill […]
The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll was taken before the deal was reached on the nuclear option, but since Bush is unlikely to get any credit for the compromise — if anything, he tried to undermine the negotiations — the surprisingly bad poll numbers remain noteworthy. President Bush’s job approval rating dropped to near its lowest […]
I’ve mentioned that Bill Frist is one of the big losers as a result of the deal struck by the Group of 14, but there’s another name that might challenge the Majority Leader at the top of that list: James Dobson. The man who believes he’s helping guide the Republican domestic agenda made a series […]
The “Group of 14” is taking a victory lap today and I can’t say I blame any of them. They struck a deal that seemed highly unlikely, they put a stop to the nuclear option crisis, and each of them is now a media darling. (The press inevitably fawns over anyone who supposedly bucks the […]
OK, so is the “Group of 14” deal that thwarted the nuclear option a good one or not? Who wins? Who loses? Blogging doesn’t lend itself well to subtleties and unforeseen variables, but I think it’s fair to call this arrangement a “mixed bag.” On the surface, Dems didn’t gain very much at all. They […]
Details are sketchy, and everything will be clearer in the morning, but it looks like an 11th hour compromise has been reached that will avoid the nuclear option. Senators from both parties reached a compromise Monday night to avoid a showdown on President Bush’s stalled judicial nominees and the Senate’s own filibuster rules. “We have […]
Harry Reid has taken some risks when it comes to the fight over the nuclear option, but he’s consistently been successful in a) making Bill Frist look bad; and b) getting his message out. Tonight, however, Reid will take his communications strategy to a new level. Reid’s office just sent out an alert explaining that […]