Two things have been abundantly clear about Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for quite a while: 1) he’s one of the House’s less-sane members; and 2) he really hates immigration. But even I was surprised to see just how far King is willing to go on both points. While the military “quagmire” in Iraq was said […]
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: * It was close, but Democratic challenger Larry Kissell conceded the undecided House race in North Carolina’s 8th district yesterday, giving Rep. Robin Hayes (R) another term. Out of the 121,523 votes cast, […]
The day after the elections, at a White House press conference, a reporter asked the president which parts of the Democratic agenda, if any, he could support. Bush only mentioned one issue specifically: “[O]ne of these three characters asked me about minimum wage. I said, there’s an area where I believe we can make some […]
Speechwriter-turned-pundit David Frum delivered a commentary on NPR yesterday that you’d swear was a parody if he weren’t so serious about it. (via Tapped) Imagine if the Republicans had retained their Congressional majority and the first thing they did was suggest big new subsidies for, say, the oil industry. Would there no public outrage? But […]
Just to follow up on the previous post, it’s probably worth remembering that no matter what anyone, anywhere, says, the president still believes “stay the course” is the only way to go. You could be forgiven for thinking there was something big in the works. President Bush is holding a three-way summit in the Middle […]
The nation has been waiting for far too long for someone in a position of power to offer a coherent plan for the future in Iraq. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, the outgoing GOP congressional majority … none of them even pretend to have a strategy anymore. Never fear, we’re told, the [tag]Iraq Study Group[/tag] will save […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * It’s hard to believe how ridiculous the Pentagon’s new war-spending plan is. * Right-wing blogs were apoplectic yesterday, but the AP is standing behind its story about Shiite militiamen who dragged six worshippers from a Sunni mosque, doused them with kerosene, and set them on fire. * To his […]
There are a few Republican lawmakers whom I feel like I can respect, despite policy disagreements. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) is one of them. In a sense, he’s the McCain that John McCain pretends to be but isn’t — Hagel is a decorated veteran who isn’t afraid to criticize his party or his party’s president. […]
And here I thought Iraq couldn’t get any less stable. It can. A bloc of Iraqi lawmakers and cabinet ministers allied with militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr launched a boycott of their government duties Wednesday to protest Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to attend a summit in Jordan with President Bush. “We announce the suspension of […]
There should have been a nasty, knock-down-drag-out fight within the Republican Party after the election results came in. By any reasonable measure, 2006 was a total disaster for the GOP — the party lost the House, the Senate, the majority of governors, and 11 state legislative chambers. Given the fiasco, I was kind of looking […]