Following up on an item from a few weeks ago, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), perhaps hoping to smooth over some of his troubles with conservatives after his recent sex scandal, threw some pork-barrel spending at a bizarre Louisiana creationist group. Yesterday, following some fairly intense lobbying, the earmark was pulled. Vitter’s plan was pretty ridiculous. […]
After Alberto Gonzales’ humiliating and painful tenure as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, I was beginning to get my hopes up about Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey. Right off the bat on Wednesday, he rejected the infamous Bybee memo, and compared U.S. torture policies to Nazi Germany. The rest of the day was nearly as […]
A poll in Iowa this week showed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) a close third, right behind Fred Thompson and only seven points back from Mitt Romney, who’s in the lead. A day later, another Iowa poll also showed Huckabee in third, and closing in on second. The notion that Huckabee, who also fared […]
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: * Ambinder: “‘Much needed’ and ‘long-awaited,’ Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has hired veteran Democratic strategist John Del Cecato to handle a newly created rapid response portfolio…. [T]he volume of ‘attacks’ and the degree […]
It gets tiresome, but war supporters continue misstate the point of the Bush administration’s “surge” policy. It’s not complicated: as the president himself explained, a U.S. escalation of forces would create conditions that made political reconciliation possible. And how’s that political progress coming along? It’s not. Attempts by American-led reconstruction teams to forge political reconciliation, […]
Yesterday morning, the WaPo noted that Senate Dems had reached a deal with the White House on a revised domestic-surveillance bill, which gives Bush what he wanted most: retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who cooperated in secret with the NSA to violate customers’ privacy rights, apparently in violation of the law. Last night, the Senate […]
One need not be a political junkie to see that House Republicans are in a tough spot, and their short-term prospects appear bleak. The GOP’s House committee has $1.6 million in the bank, but is $4 million in debt. The polls look one-sided in the Dems’ favor. The party has struggled to stop retirements and […]
If you blinked you missed it, but on late Wednesday afternoon, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) tried to stir up yet another outrage against MoveOn.org. The group, along with coalition partners, unveiled the S-CHIP ad featuring 2-year-old Bethany Wilkerson. MoveOn announced that the ad would run in districts of lawmakers who voted against the […]
In the 1990s, the Christian Coalition would hold an annual event, called the “Road to Victory,” every October. Officially a “non-partisan” event hosted by a tax-exempt non-profit, the gatherings featured thousands of right-wing, vaguely-theocratic activists who came from across the country, expecting Republican officials and candidates to pledge their allegiance to the religious right’s cause. […]
Yesterday’s edition of quick hits. * So, around 2:50 eastern yesterday afternoon, I noticed that my site was down. Then I noticed that my host’s site was down, and every site on its servers. Fine, I thought, it happens. But in the ensuing hours, it never came back. I could access everything except sites from […]