As a rule, Insight, which is an off-shoot of Sun Myung Moon’s far-right Washington Times, is not a reliable source for news. But for reasons I can’t figure out, the magazine keeps publishing strange items about internal turmoil at the Bush White House. The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress. “A coalition […]
In a nutshell, when Dems complain about how the Republican legislative/lobbying process works, this is what they’re complaining about. House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the […]
In a move that surprised no one, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination less than an hour ago. By a 10-8 party line vote with sometimes bitter partisan debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee today recommended that Samuel A. Alito Jr. be confirmed by the full Senate as associate justice of the […]
Gauging public opinion on Bush’s warrantless-search program has been tricky. The story broke over the holiday season when the public was less engaged and at least one oft-cited poll was worded so poorly, it didn’t offer anything of substance to anyone. The latest poll from USA Today/CNN/Gallup, however, not only offers useful data, it also […]
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: * When it comes to public attention vulnerable Republican incumbents, Rick Santorum’s race tends to be big news. But let’s also not forget the competitive race in Missouri, where incumbent Sen. Jim Talent […]
The president said something yesterday about the military with which I agree wholeheartedly. “It is really important for the United States of America to have an all-volunteer Army. The best way to keep people volunteering in the Army is to make sure they got good pay, good training, good equipment and good housing for their […]
A standard presidential talking point in defense of the war in Iraq is that it wasn’t Bush’s fault he launched an invasion. He frequently asserts, as he did in an address to the nation last month, that Saddam Hussein “was given an ultimatum — and he made his choice for war.” Bush repeats all the […]
Last summer, when the fight over the most conservative of Bush’s judicial nominees was reaching the boiling point, Republicans decided they didn’t like the phrase they had already come up with: the “nuclear option.” It started a protracted, mind-numbing discussion, and media hand wringing, over whether the tactic was the “nuclear option,” the “constitutional option,” […]
Trying to fact check every speech Bush delivers is too daunting a task for a humble blogger — a typical event includes far too much mendacity to bother. But since yesterday’s speech was supposed to be the president’s latest comprehensive defense of his warrantless-search program, it’s probably worth taking a moment to document the more […]
If the president is going to give a speech at a major university and open the floor to questions, it’s probably a good idea to prepare for a question or two about college financing. At yesterday’s event in Kansas, Bush faced his toughest question in a while — and couldn’t answer it. A student, Kansas […]