You might think Attorney General John Ashcroft’s obvious hostility for civil liberties might make him ineligible for an award dealing with free speech. But you’d be mistaken. The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has selected Ashcroft, among 10 others, as one of the top public officials for stifling free speech. According […]
I know this flap is just the result of a silly clerical error, but I found it amusing and thought I’d share. As Al Kamen wrote in today’s Washington Post, a high-school student near Pittsburgh was writing a paper for an American history class about the Electoral College. He wrote to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush […]
In the months leading up to war, and when the fighting in Iraq began, it seemed any critic who spoke out against the invasion or to question the Bush administration’s intentions was the target of intense scorn. Politicians, actors, musicians, and journalists had their patriotism called into question and their principles attacked as “un-American.” With […]
Just days before the war in Iraq began, one of Carpetbagger’s favorite writers, Robert Wright, made a list of concerns about the ensuing invasion, describing some as “valid” and others “dubious.” Wright, who I would call a war skeptic, dismissed a number of the left’s major fears — that the war would be long, that […]
As Republican members of Congress go, you can’t get more moderate than Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. And as the debate over the size of this year’s tax cut has led to some of the most intense Republican bickering in years, Snowe has found herself where she always seems to end up — right in the […]
Before the war in Iraq even began, the White House had announced that post-war Iraq would be reconstructed by private U.S. companies that won lucrative government contracts. In fact, before a single bomb was dropped or a single shot fired, the Agency for International Development “invited” several corporations to bid on a $1 billion engineering […]
“You have no case.” That’s what Vice President Dick Cheney’s lawyers heard yesterday from a federal appeals court as they fought to keep secret who Cheney’s energy policy task force met with in 2001. This always struck me as the great White House scandal that couldn’t make any traction. In 2001, Cheney was responsible for […]
Two things were true during the 2000 presidential campaign: the U.S. was enjoying the largest surpluses in the nation’s history and George W. Bush didn’t want to return to the days when America ran deficits. Way back then, Bush claimed that we “owe it to our children” to have a balanced budget. Just as importantly, […]
Bob Graham was making his first campaign swing through New Hampshire yesterday. It’s about time; his rivals for the Democratic nomination have been making dozens of trips to the state for months. During his trip, Graham started chatting with some folks on a lunch break in downtown Manchester. Graham was introducing himself to one woman, […]
Since January, none of the major polling firms or media outlets have done national surveys on the Democratic presidential primary field. With news of the war in Iraq dominating the news, and Democratic candidates campaigning less, there simply hasn’t been much need. This week, however, a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll was released showing the […]