Last week, Georgia Republicans had to hit the breaks on its re-redistricting scheme when they realized different factions within the party had significantly different ideas about how the new map’s lines would be drawn. This week, those differences have been smoothed over and they’re moving full steam ahead. The long and the short of it […]
I suspect it’s hard enough to advise this president about matters of science, but John Marburger’s job probably got harder last week after he strayed from the official GOP line on evolutionary biology. As my friend Peter R. reminded me yesterday, Chris Mooney caught Bush’s science advisor offering a surprisingly candid assessment about politicized science […]
Last week, it seemed the White House and Senate Republicans had settled on a new strategy when it comes to controversial judicial nominees: start with the least offensive and see what happens. GOP sources said Judiciary Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has told colleagues he would like to select one of the least controversial nominees […]
I like to poke fun at California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as much as the next guy, but with this in mind, it’s only fair that I praise the guy when he gets one right. And over the weekend, Schwarzenegger was as right as he’s ever been. As my friends at AU noted, Schwarzenegger was on […]
For those who hadn’t heard, good news from the Supreme Court this morning. The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in Virginia and 18 other states. The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about […]
Because I’ve been doing my level best to count heads on the possibility of the Senate GOP successfully pulling off the “nuclear option,” I’ve been watching Arlen Specter closely. If the Republicans are going to get 51 votes on this, they’ll desperately need Specter. With this in mind, it’s been surprisingly entertaining to see the […]
Just to follow up for a moment on yesterday’s item on Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and his desire to launch a nuclear attack against Syria, there were a few things to add to the subject. First, I was anxious to see how much play this received in the mainstream media, if any, today. The news […]
They have the White House, both chambers of Congress, a majority of state governors, they dominate the judiciary, and they’re coming off an election in which things got better for them, not worse. That, coupled by a congenital proclivity towards being nice to one another in public (Reagan’s 11th Commandment), suggests all should be well […]
The New York Times ran an interesting item yesterday on the efforts of some religious conservatives to use revisionist history to advance their political agenda (i.e. — more government sponsorship of their theological beliefs). It holds special relevance in light of the Supreme Court’s work this week on state-endorsed Ten Commandments displays. The NYT piece […]
In 2001, Bush unveiled his “compromise” policy on stem-cell research, which amounted to severe restrictions on federally-funded research. From the start, it was a dishonest (and heartless) policy, predicated on researching more stem-cell “lines” than actually existed at the time. The entire cynical mess was incoherent, contradictory, and a slap to the face of anyone […]