Last week, there was a stretch of several days in which new, damaging revelations about Rudy Giuliani’s Shag Fund scandal kept emerging. Seven years ago, the then-mayor charged NYC taxpayers for romantic rendezvous weekends with his mistress, his mistress’ security detail, and his mistress’ chores (NYPD walked her dog), and then hid the costs in […]
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 national AP/Ipsos poll reinforces other recent data showing Mike Huckabee on the upswing, and Fred Thompson moving in the other direction. The new poll shows Rudy Giuliani continuing to lead […]
After several weeks of nonsensical wrangling, the Senate passed a temporary fix that will prevent the alternative minimum tax (AMT) from hitting millions of middle-class Americans. That may sound like a good day’s work, but this entire process, and yesterday’s conclusion, has been unusually absurd, even by Republican standards. The WaPo’s story on this had […]
When Mitt Romney delivered his address yesterday on his perspective on religion in America, he had a fairly specific audience in mind. There’s a significant percentage of the Republican Party that opposes church-state separation, and is inherently skeptical towards Mormons, and Romney had the daunting task of trying to convince them that a) he’s with […]
Last week, at the debate for Republican presidential candidates, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) made the ridiculous claim that U.S. troops and their families are, by their very nature, conservative. “[M]ost Americans, most kids who leave that — that breakfast table and go and serve in the military and make that corporate decision with their family […]
For years, we’ve heard talk that George W. Bush believes God chose him to be president. The evidence to support this — the assertion, not the deity’s political preference — has always been a little thin, and I haven’t seen any actual Bush quotes to suggest he believes his presidency is the result of divine […]
Given the last seven years, expectations are already low for the administration that’s never seen justice it didn’t want to obstruct. But intentionally destroying evidence of a possible crime, in the midst of ongoing legal inquiries, suggests the Bush gang’s contempt for the rule of law can’t get much worse. The Central Intelligence Agency in […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Good news from the House floor: “The House approved the first increase in federal automobile fuel efficiency requirements in three decades Thursday as part of an energy bill that also repeals billions of dollars oil company tax breaks and encourages use of renewable fuels. The bill, passed by a […]
Last week was fairly devastating for Rudy Giuliani, at least as far as revelations go, when we learned over the span of several days that he charged NYC taxpayers for romantic rendezvous weekends with his mistress, his mistress’ security detail, and his mistress’ chores (NYPD walked her dog), and then hid the costs in obscure […]
As the estimable David Kurtz put it, this is “too much Freud from a guy named Dick.” Most striking were his virtually taunting remarks of two men he described as friends from his own days in the House: Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and John P. Murtha (Pa.). In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he […]