I’m convinced this is the best of both worlds. Dems don’t actually want Dick “Go F— Yourself” Cheney off the Bush ticket; the president could replace him with some qualified person who voters may like and respect. But Dems do want the rumors about Cheney’s departure to reinforce his unpopularity and undermine BC04’s broader message. […]
I’m surprisingly relieved that Mike Ditka isn’t running for the Senate. It’s not that I was concerned he’d be a good candidate; I was just afraid he’d win. When running a campaign against a celebrity with no experience, knowledge, or political skills, everything that matters is thrown out the window. The race is suddenly and […]
To follow up on yesterday’s NYT item on a one-page summary of prewar intelligence in Iraq prepared for Bush — which the White House is refusing to share with the Senate Intelligence Committee — Slate’s Fred Kaplan had a great take on why the document is so important. To be sure, the document would, at […]
Maybe Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) should just stop hosting press conferences altogether. He’s clearly not having any luck with them. Last month, the conservative Republican senator held a Capitol Hill event to showcase accident victims who had been treated with their own stem cells. Brownback ended up asking the injured young women to stand up […]
This seems to be a pattern. Since Bush’s inauguration, there have been consistent instances in which federal agencies, which are supposed to be objective and impartial, have been used for political gain by Bush partisans. Tom DeLay, for example, used civil servants at Bush’s Treasury Department to work up an attack of John Kerry’s tax […]
Speaking of the White House being excessively secretive with materials, the New York Times had a good report today about an intelligence briefing Bush doesn’t want us to see. In light of all the blame directed at the CIA over faulty (read: wrong) intelligence about Iraq, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) thought it’d be interesting to […]
For some inexplicable reason, the Bush campaign seems intent on seeing a tape of a New York fundraiser Kerry held last week. Apparently, Whoopi Goldberg used some profanity and BC04 is worked up about it. Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman repeated his request that the Kerry campaign release a tape of a concert fund-raiser last […]
Josh Marshall noted a disturbing (to put it mildly) quote from Oklahoma Senate candidate and former House Rep. Tom Coburn (R). “I favor the death penalty,” Coburn told the AP last week, “for abortionists and other people who take life.” That’s right, we may soon have a Republican senator who wants to execute physicians for […]
Immediately after John Edwards was named John Kerry’s running mate, the Republicans released an opposition research report noting every negative thing they could think of about Edwards, his beliefs, and his record. As I noted last week, some of the attacks bordered on the bizarre. For instance, the GOP attacked Edwards for opting out of […]
A few months ago, some Republican on Capitol Hill thought he had a brilliant idea. Lawmakers, with significant support from the White House, would push a vote on a constitutional amendment on gay marriage. It was a strategy that had everything the GOP could hope for: it would focus political attention on social issues (and […]