The funny thing to me about Howard Dean hiring a telecommunications lobbyist to run his campaign is how consistent it would be with the old Dean. And by “old,” I mean the Dean that started his presidential campaign in the fall of 2002. A lot of people, even many of his current supporters, probably wouldn’t […]
Adding insult to injury, the Bush administration, whose record on job creation is the worst of any president since the Great Depression, will allow 375,000 people to lose their unemployment benefits this week. According to a devastating new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, it will be the largest number of unemployed […]
We may be nearing a resolution to the ongoing controversy surrounding CBS’s decision to reject MoveOn.org’s winning advertisement from the network’s Super Bowl commercial lineup. If anything, the controversy has been building all week, even drawing the attention of 27 members of Congress, who condemned CBS’s decision, labeling the network’s move an “affront to free […]
I’ve been following the fight against evolutionary biology for quite a while now and thought I was familiar with all of the critics’ tactics. But just when I thought I’d seen it all, they come up with a new one. First, biology’s opponents tried to ban lessons on evolution from the classroom. In 1968, the […]
Dan Pink’s New York Times op-ed on “Givers and Takers” has to be today’s must-read. Pink, a former speechwriter for Al Gore, challenges and thoroughly debunks the notions about the base support for Dems and the GOP nationwide. His conclusions may surprise a lot of people, but they shouldn’t. Givers, Pink explains, are those states […]
For about a year, I accepted the conventional wisdom and agreed with Terry McAuliffe about the benefits of a front-loaded nominating process. Let’s get our nominee figured out early on, so he or she won’t have to spend lots of money while getting hammered by other Dems. The sooner we can go mano-y-mano with Bush, […]
I noticed an AP report yesterday that, on its face, seemed like good news. The headline said, “U.S. Planning Afghan Spring Offensive.” Here are the first three graphs: A suicide car bomber blew himself up in a taxi next to British peacekeepers patrolling the Afghan capital Wednesday, killing one soldier and wounding four. It was […]
Eric Alterman brought up an exciting political opportunity yesterday: Senator Barney Frank. If John Kerry gets the Democratic nomination and ultimately wins the White House, there’d obviously be a vacancy in the Senate. Apparently, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of my favorite House members, is prepared to make a run for Kerry’s seat. If for […]
As important as Iowa and New Hampshire are in the nominating process, next Tuesday’s seven contests — Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina — will have an even bigger impact on picking the Dem nominee. Iowa and New Hampshire offered candidates a total of 67 potential delegates. Feb. 3 primaries, […]
I’ve never really understood the wisdom of term limits. I suppose the idea is that experienced public officials should be replaced, as often as possible, with less experienced ones to avoid some ambiguous sense of “entrenched” leadership. Or something like that. Anyway, my sense is that term limit supporters usually target high-level political offices such […]