Widespread disappointment within the Republican ranks over their field of presidential candidates took a bizarre turn a couple of months ago when several leading conservative voices said the party should give up on the 12 or so politicians who want the nomination — and go after a general who doesn’t. Everyone from the New York […]
The NYT had an interesting historical item over the weekend over the kind of power grab that might even give Dick Cheney pause. A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected […]
As she departs the White House, and steps down as Bush’s chief terrorism adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend stopped to tell the NYT how disappointed she is with the political climate in DC. Promoted to domestic security adviser in 2004, she became a loyalist and said she was leaving wearied by the acrimony that hangs over […]
Slowly but surely, Bill Richardson’s campaign has made it more and more difficult to respect his agenda. As if his frequent talk about a silly Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution weren’t annoying enough, over the weekend, Richardson endorsed “holistic and spiritual” medicine in his healthcare plan. Responding to a question Saturday at a living-room […]
If anyone from Bush’s inner circle is going to defend Mike Huckabee’s Christian-centered presidential campaign, you’d think it would be Peter Wehner. Not only is Wehner, the former White House director of strategic initiatives, a self-described evangelical Christian conservative, but he also helped oversee Bush’s faith-based office. It’s not like the separation of church and […]
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 Boston Globe poll of New Hampshire voters released yesterday included some eyebrow-raising numbers in both primaries. Among Republicans, while Mitt Romney has had a comfortable lead in the state, his margin […]
There’s shameless right-wing pandering, and then there’s this level of shameless right-wing pandering. Janice Easley’s fury over illegal immigration boiled over Saturday as she confronted Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson at the Music Man Square museum. She said she recalled a film about Mexicans who wanted to take over California and New Mexico. Calling illegal […]
The Bush administration seems to have a disconcerting habit of sending huge sums of U.S. tax dollars to the Middle East, without checks or accountability of any kind, and then suddenly discovering they have no idea where our money ended up. One of the more notable examples is Pakistan. The LAT reported last month that […]
It’s very likely that the four most telling words in the English language are, “Sen. James Inhofe argued….” At that point, the listener can either comfortably stop listening, knowing that any words that follow are complete nonsense, or should keep listening only to learn what nonsense can be rejected out of hand. Late last week, […]
Time magazine’s Joe Klein devotes his column this week to delivering what he calls “Teddy” Awards — inspired by a Theodore Roosevelt quote about those who “strive valiantly,” at the risk of failing “while daring greatly” — for political courage. To be sure, this can be one of those hard-to-define qualities. JFK wrote a whole […]