No U.S. president, from either party, has ever tried to wage a full-scale war and pass a large tax cut at the same time. It’s just never happened. Lincoln raised taxes to pay for the Civil War. McKinley raised taxes to finance the Spanish-American War. Wilson raised the top income tax rate from 7% to […]
Thanks to an alert reader, let’s call him MW, for letting me know about the text of Robin Cook’s brilliant speech to the British Parliament yesterday. In it, Cook explains why he cannot, in good conscience, serve in Tony Blair’s government as it stands with the U.S. on war with Iraq. I know most of […]
If you watched President Bush on TV last night, you heard many of the same messages we’ve all heard for several months (except for that part about exile; that was new). In mentioning U.N. Resolution 1441, Bush said, again, that the “Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, finding Iraq in material breach of its obligations, […]
Though writing about politics, elections, and the conventional wisdom while the nation is on the brink of war is difficult, I’m left thinking if The Note can do it, then I can too. While Democratic presidential candidates are clearly not united on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein or the utility of the soon-to-be war, […]
I may be the only one bothered by this, but Howard Kurtz raised a troubling incident in his column today in the Washington Post. As Kurtz explained, the Post’s Jonathan Weisman, a business reporter, spoke with a White House economist who was hesitant to speak on the record. To accommodate the economists’ concerns, Weisman sent […]
Which Dick Cheney is right about post-war control in Iraq? You’ve got two to choose from. First there’s 1991 Dick Cheney (via Tapped): “If you’re going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to Baghdad. Once you’ve got Baghdad, it’s not clear what you will do with it. It’s […]
Following up on yesterday’s post about the White House lacking consistency in its approach to foreign affairs, an article in today’s Washington Post includes a few graphs highlighting this point on Iraq. The piece notes that the administration has “come full circle” in what it says is the goal in Iraq. First, the White House […]
I’d really recommend James Mann’s article in today’s Washington Post about Bush’s approach to dealing with America’s allies. It highlights a number of interesting points that observers of international affairs consider in evaluating the administration’s trouble with diplomacy, which Mann describes as “a major intellectual failure” of the White House. The crux of the piece […]
In June 1992, Bill Clinton was in the midst of a tough primary for the Democratic nomination for president as he prepared to give an important speech to the NAACP. In the week leading up to the event, a rapper named Sister Souljah made national headlines for saying, “If black people kill black people every […]
In case you missed it, Bob Graham faced his first political challenge of his young life as a presidential candidate this week. I think he passed the test just fine. The filibuster against Miguel Estrada’s nomination the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has been dividing the Senate for a few weeks now. […]