About two weeks ago, the Washington Note reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped by Grover Norquist’s weekly “Wednesday Meeting,” at which conservative leaders, thinkers, and operatives get together to plot and scheme. Apparently, Rice’s attendance was unusual. A “major” Republican operative told Steve Clemons, “Someone like Condi Rice doesn’t go to Grover Norquist’s […]
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) probably thought, or at least hoped, that his sex scandal was largely behind him. We learned last year, of course, that Vitter had used the services of the “D.C. Madam” — including making arrangements while casting votes in Congress — despite being married and running on a conservative “family-values” platform. Vitter’s […]
In anticipation of Gen. David Petraeus’ congressional testimony, which begins tomorrow, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) boasted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today about how right they think they are. Indeed, Lieberman and Graham, two of the less restrained cheerleaders of the Bush policy in Iraq, appear comfortable taking a victory […]
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: * A new CNN poll in Pennsylvania shows Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama by seven, 49% top 42%. The last CNN poll showed Clinton up by 11, and is the latest in a […]
A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post noted a possible silver lining to the Democrats’ longer-than-expected fight for the nomination: a boost in the number of registered Democratic voters, spurred by an exciting primary fight. Pennsylvania’s Department of State noted, for example, that Dems have now topped 4 million registered voters, “the first time […]
With the Democratic presidential candidates focused, not surprisingly, on their own efforts to secure the party’s nomination, there’s been quite a bit of talk in Democratic circles about independent efforts to take on John McCain before he has a specific opponent. It sounded like a pretty good idea, but the execution has been problematic. Ben […]
It’s not only painful to think we’ll have seven more months of this kind of media coverage of the McCain campaign, it’s worth remembering that unprofessional reporting like this can help dictate the outcome an election. To briefly recap, John McCain visited his old high school in northern Virginia last week, for what was clearly […]
The professional demise of Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s pollster and top campaign strategist, has been predicted, expected, and demanded for several months now, but to no avail. Despite having lost the support of key Clinton supporters and staffers, despite questionable advice and tactics, and despite fairly obvious conflicts of interest, Penn maintained the confidence of […]
Glenn makes an observation that warrants repeating, far and wide. In the past two weeks, the following events transpired. A Department of Justice memo, authored by John Yoo, was released which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. It was revealed that the Bush administration declared the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be inapplicable […]
A couple of weeks ago, a growing number of political insiders were noting the similarities between John Kerry’s comment four years ago about voting for a spending bill before he voted against it, and John McCain’s remarks about his willingness to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years. Mark Salter, a […]