Another high-profile Republican opponent of Bush’s plan

OK, to be fair, this opponent didn’t realize he was criticizing Bush’s plan at the time, but the end result is the same. The New Republic’s Ben Adler discovered this gem of a quote: “I think it’s a nutty idea to fool around with the Social Security system and run the risk of [hurting] the […]

Inviting more Armstrong Williams-like abuses

The back-and-forth between the Government Accountability Office and the Bush administration over publicly-funded propaganda has generated plenty of worthwhile attention, but a Senate staffer emailed me to point out a tidbit that seems to have been lost in the shuffle. We know, for example, that the GAO said that it’s illegal for the administration to […]

Hell hath no fury like a former House Ethics Committee chairman scorned

To follow up on yesterday’s item on Ethics Committee gridlock, guess who’s joined the Dems in wanting House Ethics reform? Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), the former chairman of the House ethics committee, said yesterday that he will co-sponsor a bill to repeal or revise changes that Republican leaders made to the committee’s procedure at the […]

Wednesday’s political round-up

My new daily feature about campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may nevertheless be of interest to political observers: * New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine’s (D) gubernatorial campaign is off to a good start — a new Quinnipiac University poll shows Corzine with double-digit leads over both of his […]

Server ‘issues’

As many of you have noticed, there been rather severe server “issues” today. I think we’re back on track. Sorry for the inconvenience. And now, back to the news….

DeLay’s hits just keep on comin’

I can appreciate that it’s growing difficult to keep track of all of Tom DeLay’s various crises/scandals. (Think Progress came up with a pretty helpful list.) While the past couple of weeks have raised questions about DeLay’s problems with congressional ethics, let’s shift gears again back to DeLay’s pending indictment for illegal fundraising in Texas. […]

Drawing inspiration from John ‘Bluto’ Blutarsky

In recent years, as decorum and restraint have faded from Congress, it may have occurred to you that Capitol Hill has taken on all of the dignity of an out-of-control fraternity house. As it turns out, there’s a good reason for that — Republicans are drawing inspiration from “Animal House.” Literally. Lawmakers who attended a […]

Coalition for Darfur

(Editor’s Note: The Carpetbagger Report, as reported last week, joined the Coalition for Darfur, a bi-partisan online initiative created to raise awareness and resources to address the crisis. This is the second in a series of posts from the Coalition.) Many seemed surprised when UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland recently updated the estimated […]

Re-redistricting attention shifts to Louisiana

It looked for a while like Illinois was the ideal choice for Dems to pursue a little DeLay-like re-redistricting, but state Dems put the kibosh on the idea last week. Shifting gears, the party needs another state in which Dems control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature. Next on the list: Louisiana. […]

We’re back to debating English as the official language

For all the talk I hear about how Republicans are succeeding because they’ve been able to craft new ideas and take on new issues, it’s amazing how often the GOP looks back to re-fight old battles for no reason. Last week, it was the reintroduction of an amendment on flag-burning. As if that early-90s fight […]