[tag]John McCain[/tag] used to think that [tag]Grover Norquist[/tag] was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and he reconciled with Norquist. McCain used to think [tag]Jerry Falwell[/tag] was an agent of intolerance, but now candidate McCain has embraced Falwell. It’s an interesting pattern — and the […]
How worried are [tag]Republicans[/tag] about [tag]gas prices[/tag] becoming yet another election-year hurdle? According to a report in Roll Call today, they’re approaching panic. House and Senate GOP leaders will ask the [tag]Bush[/tag] administration to launch a formal investigation into the cause of soaring gas prices this week as part of a renewed push by Republicans […]
Rumor has it that [tag]Treasury[/tag] Secretary [tag]John Snow[/tag] will get the boot any day now. Part of the problem, apparently, is that the White House is reportedly “having trouble” finding someone qualified who wants the job. That’s not a good sign. Bush hasn’t had much luck with Treasury secretaries, historically one of the Big Four […]
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: * Vote totals in New Orleans’ mayoral race, released over the weekend, show that Mayor C. [tag]Ray Nagin[/tag] and his most prominent rival, Lt Gov. [tag]Mitch Landrieu[/tag], will meet in a May 20 […]
The Dems believe there will be fewer abortions if there’s greater access to contraception. [tag]Bob Novak[/tag] thinks Dems are guilty of “fuzzy abortion math.” The widely publicized claim by Senate [tag]Democrat[/tag]ic Leader [tag]Harry Reid[/tag] and Sen. [tag]Hillary Rodham Clinton[/tag] that state-funded contraception aid cuts down abortion as prevention of unwanted pregnancies is contradicted by figures […]
In January, [tag]House[/tag] [tag]GOP[/tag] leaders unveiled a proposal to [tag]reform[/tag] the way Congress does business and, at least on the surface, curtail the influence of [tag]lobbyists[/tag]. The plan was presented at the height of the [tag]Abramoff[/tag] scandal, and was meant to prove that Republicans were serious about cleaning up the mess on the Hill (which […]
[tag]Time[/tag] reports this week that new White House Chief of Staff [tag]Josh Bolten[/tag] has a plan to “reboot the second term.” It also notes that this has now happened “so many times (at least three, by Time’s count) that even their allies have lost track.” But this one’s different, the [tag]White House[/tag] says. This time, […]
To follow up on an item from Saturday, Tyler Drumheller, the former highest ranking CIA officer in Europe, was on 60 Minutes last night, explaining that the intelligence community gave the White House plenty of reliable intelligence about Iraq before the war, but the Bush gang blew it off because they didn’t want to hear […]
In case you missed it over the weekend, the WaPo reported that the CIA is responding to the Mary McCarthy leak on secret prisons by doing a little more digging — into partisan affiliations. The White House also has recently barraged the agency with questions about the political affiliations of some of its senior intelligence […]
Of all the public policy issues debated in this country, [tag]abortion[/tag] is by far the trickiest. There’s just not much room for compromise. If you believe a fertilized egg is a full-fledged human being with all the rights therein, abortion is murder. If you don’t, a government-imposed ban on the procedure takes away a woman’s […]