Dick Cheney, conservative war hawk and former Defense Secretary, had the opportunity to serve in the military during the war in Vietnam, but carefully avoided it. As he famously explained, “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.” I did not know, however, the lengths Cheney was willing to go to in order […]
Remember, in 1992, when James Carville discovered that a number of Bush-Quayle campaign materials were being made in Brazil? There was a fun scene about it in the documentary, “The War Room.” As luck would have it, history is repeating itself, and this time, it’s worse. Not only are some Bush-Cheney materials made overseas, but […]
Herbert Hoover’s name is supposed to conjure up images of the stock market crash, the Great Depression, and massive unemployment. With this in mind, the fact that George W. Bush has the worst record on job creation of any president since Hoover should make for a devastating political comparison. Alas, it appears that it’s an […]
Just about every major news outlet in the world is noting that today is the one-year anniversary of the U.S. launching an invasion of Iraq. I don’t have any unique insight to add, but I wanted to point out a few items you might want to check out. First, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and […]
It’s hard to even think, better yet write, about the Republicans’ approach to crafting a “budget.” But TNR’s Noam Scheiber had a good observation yesterday about the process that I wanted to pass along. Scheiber noticed this graph in a Washington Post article: The House budget resolution orders $13 billion in entitlement-spending cuts, significantly more […]
Putting a rest to rumors that one of the bigger networks will lure Jon Stewart away, Comedy Central announced yesterday that it had renewed the contract for Stewart and “The Daily Show” through 2008. “A lot of people like to get out when their show’s still going well,” Stewart said. “This gives me the opportunity […]
As if the Republicans’ new-found obsession with court-stripping and overturning Supreme Court rulings by two-thirds vote isn’t radical enough for you, Reps. Robert Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) have launched a new round in the GOP assault on an independent federal judiciary. It’s called the “Reaffirmation of American Independence Resolution” Goodlatte and Feeney are […]
One alert reader, whom I fondly call Chief Osceola, brought a funny one to my attention. John Hargrave created a project he calls “The Senator Prank,” in which he posed as a 10-year-old boy to ask each member of the Senate what their favorite jokes are. A bi-partisan group of 15 senators wrote the “kid” […]
This one needs a better name. Bribegate? That’s no good. I’m open to suggestion. No matter what you call it, the investigation into the illegal bribes offered to Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) on the House floor during the Medicare debate has reached the big time. The House Ethics Committee announced yesterday it will conduct a […]
Yesterday, I wrote about the battle for control of the Senate and how the Dems’ chances have improved in recent months. But that’s the Senate; how does the House look? No matter how predisposed one is to optimism, seeing a scenario in which we’ll get the House back is difficult, but not impossible. There are […]