I’m still not prepared to believe Republicans in Congress, or the White House, would accept some semblance of fiscal sanity, but there are signs that the unthinkable is suddenly not outside the realm of possibility. Cracks are appearing in Republicans’ once-solid opposition to tax increases, as the White House and Congress confront budget pressures from […]
This may be a publicity stunt to appear pious in the minds of voters, but Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) wrote a letter to the White House last week that captured the lunacy that dominates conservative thinking in the House lately. First, a little background. There’s a Ten Commandments display in front of the Gibson County […]
While Bush’s 2006 budget, and its proposed cuts, have drawn the ire of many, one of the most interesting responses has come from Republican governors in response to the White House’s desire to cut Medicaid. Governors of both parties are uniting to oppose President Bush’s proposed cuts to Medicaid while also pushing for much larger […]
It’s exceedingly rare for Bush to admit a mistake of any kind, but it sure sounded like the president was acknowledging an error late last week in a foreign interview when the issue of U.S.-Russia relations came up. Speaking to the Itar-Tass news agency during a brief White House interview as he prepared for his […]
In the unlikely event you haven’t already seen it, you owe it to yourself to see the new right-wing ad targeting the AARP for its opposition to privatization of Social Security. In all sincerity, I thought it was a joke liberal bloggers created to make the right look ridiculous. It turns out, the right doesn’t […]
On several recent occasions, John Edwards has been asked if he’ll follow Joe Lieberman’s example when deciding whether or not to run for president in 2008. The analogy, however, lacks a certain continuity. Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards will not talk about whether he plans to run for the White House in 2008, but […]
The newly-released Bush tapes paint the picture of a president who doesn’t really harbor sincere anti-gay animus. Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay people. “I think he wants me to attack homosexuals,” Mr. Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent […]
Michael Gerson, Bush’s chief speechwriter from his first term, has dismissed out of hand the very idea that the president uses carefully crafted religious language that secular audiences fail to recognize but nevertheless resonates with evangelical audiences. Gerson, a former journalist who studied theology at Wheaton College in Illinois and worked as an aide on […]
It’s been a bedrock of administration policy: we don’t negotiate with terrorists. Although Al Qaeda-linked groups recently executed two kidnapped civilian workers, the United States continues to maintain it will not negotiate with terrorists, whatever the price — even if violence against Americans and their allies gets worse. “I think there’s a likelihood [attacks could […]
John Kerry did his very best to make port security a major issue during the presidential campaign. It never generated the attention it deserved, but not for lack of merit. * The CIA says, “[t]he United States is more likely to be attacked with a weapon of mass destruction smuggled into the country aboard a […]