The Attention it Deserves

(Editor’s Note: The Carpetbagger Report, as regular readers know, has joined the Coalition for Darfur, a bi-partisan online initiative created to raise awareness and resources to address the crisis. This is the tenth in a series of posts from the Coalition.) The Coalition for Darfur has two goals: to get bloggers writing about Darfur and […]

Dobson still pulling the Senate’s strings

To understand why the Senate fight over judicial nominees went from imminent compromise to inescapable confrontation in less than 12 hours, look no further than James Dobson. Bush doesn’t do nuance, and Dobson doesn’t do compromise. Worried by reports of a possible compromise, conservative groups that want to eliminate the filibuster in advance of a […]

DeLay’s troubles at home — redux

Yesterday, Tom DeLay received what appeared to be encouraging news from his home district — the Republican Party of Harris County still likes him. The county party’s Executive Committee, which comprises the Republican precinct chairs, unanimously approved a resolution in support of DeLay at its quarterly meeting Monday night. About half of the more than […]

Even if we include withdrawn nominees, Republicans still have a ways to go

The game has been fairly predictable at this point. Republicans will argue that Dems have blocked 10 Bush judicial nominees … and Dems respond that Republicans blocked over 60 Clinton judicial nominees. Republicans then argue that Dem filibusters are unprecedented … and Dems respond by pointing out 17 other judicial filibusters, most of which came […]

Wednesday’s political round-up

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 Vermont, Rep. Bernie Sanders’ Senate campaign has barely started and he’s already crushing his likely opponents. Businessman Richard Tarrant, who announced last week that he will run, trails Sanders, 62% to […]

Ridge says those pre-election terror alerts weren’t necessary after all

It seems like quite a coincidence. The Bush White House, anxious for a second term and intent on making the election about national security, would intermittently announce new terror-alert warnings to the public, each time leading to a bump in the president’s approval rating. Sure enough, the president won and we haven’t heard another terror-alert […]

Chan Chandler’s fall from grace

The Rev. Chan Chandler, who endorsed Bush from his pulpit last fall and purged his church of Democrats just over a week ago, has resigned. I’m wondering, however, what exactly prompted his departure. A Baptist preacher accused of running out nine congregants who disagreed with his Republican politics resigned Tuesday, two days after calling the […]

Guess who else hates the nuclear option?

If I were to tell you that a certain high-profile political figure described the nuclear option as “a radical, radical departure from our history and from our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government,” you’d probably assume it was some angry Democrat, right? But it wasn’t a Dem. It […]

Does Santorum really want to go there?

Trailing in the polls, Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum and his GOP allies are getting a little antsy. So when Republicans discovered some dirt about a Bob Casey contributor, they thought it might help turn things around. They thought wrong. Casey took $2,100 from famed low-budget film producer Roger Corman, whose work includes such blockbusters […]

It had to be Florida

About a month ago, I shared my theory that all of the world’s ails relate, in some cases directly, to the state of Florida (where I was born and raised). After the Elian Gonzalez controversy, the 2000 election debacle, the original anthrax letters, the flying lessons for the 9/11 terrorists, and the Terri Schiavo matter, […]