I have no doubt that next week’s Howard Dean-Ralph Nader showdown at the National Press Club will make for excellent theater, but I really can’t figure out what the point of the exercise is. Dean and Nader are scheduled to conduct a 90-minute debate July 9 at the National Press Club in Washington, a forum […]
I never thought I’d see the day, but a well-known Republican has admitted that Bill Clinton’s presidency wasn’t as bad as conservatives make it out to be. Be still my heart. Former White House and Treasury official Bruce Bartlett, who worked for Reagan and H. W. Bush, had an op-ed in today’s New York Times […]
I know John McCain has solidified his hold as the Republican that Dems hate to love, but Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel has been almost as admirable in recent years. I probably disagree with Hagel on 90% of the major political issues of the day, but the things he’s saying about the other 10% are music to […]
For reasons that have never really been clear to me, the religious right has consistently opposed gambling in nearly all of its forms. And yet, a few of the movement’s biggest leaders have had some personal trouble with the issue over the years. Best-selling compiler Bob Bennett is widely known for his expensive gambling habits. […]
John Kerry deserves a lot of credit for handling his VP search discretely. After his own experiences in 2000, he realized the flaws in parading potential candidates around before the cameras in an effort to please various constituencies, and insisted his search be conducted with some diplomatic acumen. The frustrating part of this secrecy is, […]
Republican competence has been a myth for far too long. Josh Marshall did a fine job debunking it a couple of years ago, but new examples that undermine the myth, particularly as it relates to the Bush White House, just keep coming. For example, a competent presidential administration would probably be able to find thousands […]
Last week, Michael Kinsley had a terrific column explaining the use (and abuse) of “optimism” in campaigns. Yesterday, John Kerry did a nice job flipping it. As Kinsley put it, optimism seems to go hand-in-hand with incumbency. It’s a bit of a cheat for the incumbent to accuse his opponent of pessimism. By the very […]
Former U.S. administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer told Good Morning America a few hours ago that Iraq is “incomparably” better off today than it was a year ago. I respectfully disagree. In a few key areas — electricity, the judicial system and overall security — the Iraq that America handed back to its residents Monday […]
With so much going on, it’s easy to forget the Republican House, Republican Senate, and Republican White House can’t pass a federal budget. The budget was due over two months ago, but they still haven’t been able to get their collective act together. A deep rift in the Republican Party has left Congress unable to […]
The White House claims, incorrectly, that it has a plan to cut the deficit in half by 2008. It’s complete nonsense, but it suggests that even Bush, who has run up the largest budget deficits in the history of the world, would prefer quarter-trillion dollar shortfalls to half-trillion dollar shortfalls. I have a hunch Karl […]