While most of the attention from last week’s debacle in the House has focused on Pete Stark calling Scott McInnis a “fruitcake,” the real culprit was Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas. It was Thomas, after all, who substituted the pension bill at the last minute, refused to delay the vote to let Dems read […]
It’s Britain’s fault. Oh wait, no one’s buying that. It’s the CIA’s fault. No, that doesn’t work. It’s the Democrats’ fault. Scratch that; it doesn’t make any sense. It’s the media’s fault? That doesn’t sound right either. As of today, it’s Stephen Hadley’s fault. Hadley, Bush’s deputy national security adviser and #2 at the NSC […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Bill Pryor’s nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Senate floor this afternoon. The final vote was 10 to 9 — 10 Republicans voting for him and 9 Dems voting against him. Specter, the “undecided” vote, joined with the Republicans today, but refused to say […]
The Traditional Values Coalition, as religious right groups go, has always been something of a bottom feeder. As someone who’s watched the movement for years, I’ve always seen the TVC as more pathetic than dangerous. The group, led by the Rev. Lou Sheldon, an ultra-conservative Presbyterian minister, has a remarkable ability to turn out virulently […]
I saw, via Tapped, that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is planning to schedule hearings on six Bush judicial nominees for federal courts in Michigan despite opposition from both of Michigan’s senators — Carl Levin (D) and Debbie Stabenow (D). Why is this important? Because for years, senators could place indefinite holds called “blue slips” on […]
Last week I mentioned that the Bush administration was turning its political guns on Joseph Wilson, the former ambassador who discovered that the Niger/uranium claim was bogus after being sent to Africa last year by the CIA. Specifically, administration officials were focusing their criticism on Wilson by suggesting that his wife, whom they identified as […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee, after multiple delays, has scheduled a vote for today on Bill Pryor’s nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) still has not indicated how he’ll vote. As I’ve said before, his vote will ultimately decide if Pryor’s nomination dies in committee or moves to the Senate floor […]
As recently as a few months ago, it seemed many of the people who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 were feeling some remorse. While they thought that there’d be no substantive differences between a Bush presidency and a Gore presidency, some of these progressive Americans began to appreciate the folly of such an approach. […]
I mentioned yesterday that the House went a little wild on Friday with Capitol Police, the Sergeant-At-Arms, and one Republican scared of a 71-year-old Democrat who called him a “fruitcake.” To be sure, this was not the House’s finest hour. As Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) said, both sides made mistakes that were “destructive to the […]
Last week, Bush delivered one of his more unusual whoppers by saying, “[W]e gave [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power….” The whopper, of course, is the fact that Hussein did let U.N. weapons […]