Bush probably won’t want to use the same speech this time

Just two days after Dick Cheney was in central Florida lying about Saddam-al Queda connections, Bush will be in Tampa today to highlight his national security credentials. The choice of venue seems like a fairly obvious choice: Bush will be speaking to troops at MacDill Air Force Base. The interesting part will be contrasting today’s […]

The White House still doesn’t want to talk about the Plame Game

Let’s see, where are we with the Plame Game today? The White House is under a criminal investigation, top vice presidential aides are leading suspects involving a possible felony, the President of the United States has sought outside counsel, and the VP (without telling anyone) sat down with investigators to talk about the crime. Slowly […]

First ketchup, now batter-coated fries

I know Bush wants to take up the Reagan mantle, but this is just asking for ridicule: Batter-coated french fries are a fresh vegetable, according to the Agriculture Department, which has a federal judge’s ruling to back it up. To be fair, the purpose of this classification is for frozen food commerce, not school lunches. […]

The attorney general who cried wolf

A funny thing happens when the attorney general loses any shred of credibility — his terrorist announcements generate more questions than concern. It’s about time. Yesterday, for example, John Ashcroft wanted the nation to know that a dangerous man who was prepared to launch a terrible attack has been indicted. Federal officials yesterday accused a […]

Yet another bad news day for Halliburton

I wouldn’t want to be working in Halliburton’s media relations office this week. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) did his part yesterday in keeping the Cheney-“coordinated’ contracts story in the news by calling for a special prosecutor to look into the vice president’s possible role in the deal. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft should appoint a […]

‘I’m running for president because…’

I’m pretty tired of hearing the talking heads complain that John Kerry hasn’t fully articulated his reasons for running for president, but I imagine Kerry is particularly sick of it. To his credit, I think he has a clever idea to help quash these questions altogether — he’s telling them explicitly. Armed with a five-word […]

GOP memo-theft scandal is percolating along

It took a little longer than I had hoped, but the Justice Department is finally moving on the GOP memo-theft scandal. As you no doubt recall, GOP staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee stole thousands of documents from the committee’s Dems that showed how Dems worked to block a handful of Bush judicial nominees. Last […]

Another voucher ‘experiment’ isn’t working out as planned

Earlier this year, Congress passed the first federally-funded private school voucher program in history. Under the $14-million plan, students in the District of Columbia could apply for $7,500-vouchers to pay for tuition at religious and other private schools. Proponents of the plan rolled out the usual arguments: inner-city parents are desperately clamoring for these vouchers […]

Reagan’s family doesn’t much care for the Bush comparison

Speaking of Reagan, the Bush White House and the GOP are making every effort to tie the current president to the “Reagan legacy,” but criticism of the comparison is coming from an interesting place: Reagan’s family. The New York Times had a good article today noting the obvious hostily from Nancy Reagan, Patti Davis, and […]

Poll shows little support for Reagan on currency

After a full week of overly effusive praise, I expected polls to show increased support for Reagan appearing on U.S. currency, as many congressional Republicans are proposing. It turns out, as my friend Poppy noticed, that the opposite is true. Ronald Reagan may be missed, but the idea of honoring him on currently occupied currency […]