Good people can disagree about affirmative action. It’s controversial, complicated, and often misapplied. While Carpetbagger is wholeheartedly a supporter of affirmative action policies in workplaces and universities, I understand that opponents are not necessarily racists. But, while I can appreciate differences of opinion on this issue, recent hypocrisy from Republicans is intolerable. Earlier this year, […]
In case you missed it over the weekend, several papers ran stories detailing the reaction from Republicans in Congress to President Bush’s attempt to sell them out over domestic security funding. To review, Bush told the nation’s governors a couple of weeks ago that he really wanted to increase funding to the states to help […]
The transformation is complete. The Republican Party, once positioned as the fiscally responsible party that didn’t want the federal government spending more than it took in, has successfully turned 180 degrees. Mitch Daniels, director of President Bush’s Office of Management and Budget, more or less made the party’s change official on Friday when he said […]
If you’re like Carpetbagger, you consider Sunday the week’s best night for TV. Two things caught my attention that I thought deserved comment. First, 60 Minutes debuted the much-hyped “point-counterpoint” debate between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. If you missed it, CBS has kindly put the whole segment online. This wasn’t a real debate, of […]
In the wake of the Democrats’ poor showing in the 2002 elections, just about everybody had ideas as to why Democratic candidates failed and suggestions as to what the party could do to prevent such a debacle from happening again. The one point that was emphasized by nearly everyone was that Democrats could no longer […]
When President Bush was inaugurated, the fiscal health of the country couldn’t have been much better. Economic growth was strong, unemployment was low, and budget deficits were a thing of the past as the nation enjoyed the highest surpluses in history. An enormous national debt of $3.4 trillion, built up through the 1980s, was on […]
There’s no kind way to say what is now painfully obvious: the Bush administration has no diplomatic skills to speak of. What’s worse, all indications are that White House officials are not unaware of this fact, they’re indifferent towards it. Paul Krugman, in yesterday’s New York Times, detailed the latest in a too-terribly-long line of […]
Sometimes, it’s a little too easy to criticize Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for being, how do I put this gently, a lunatic. Cataloging all of his bizarre theories, hateful rhetoric, and dangerous ideas could easily be a full-time job, so I usually just brush off his outbursts and hope that someone else is keeping track […]
The Washington Post seems irritated that Sen. John Kerry’s wife, who has gone by Teresa Heinz for years, is now going by Teresa Heinz Kerry. In an editorial today, the paper calls the change an “election conversion.” The editorial follows up on the Boston Globe’s disproportionate coverage a month ago when the senator’s wife made […]
Because last night’s White House press conference didn’t break any new ground, I was tempted not to comment much on it this morning. But a few things did jump out at me that I thought I’d rant about. First, I’m glad the president actually held the press conference and did so in prime time. Just […]