Shifting gears from partisan politics to educational policy for a moment, the New York Times ran an item this morning on charter schools that warrants attention. For those not familiar with the charter school phenomenon, many reform-minded educational professionals began touting a new approach to public schooling in the early 1990s. The idea would be […]
After reviewing Howard Dean’s remarks on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, I’m finding myself increasingly confused about the governor’s opposition to war in Iraq. Then again, maybe it’s Dean who’s confused. Bob Schieffer was commenting on how Dean had “set himself apart” from other top tier candidates by opposing Bush’s plans for war. Dean […]
Forgive me for being a tad obsessed with this, but one really has to wonder what North Korea has to do before the Bush administration will pay attention to the crisis on the peninsula. As Carpetbagger has reported a few times, North Korea, which is already believed to already have a couple of nuclear weapons, […]
AP political reporter Will Lester uncovered today what is easily the worst election news Carpetbagger can contemplate: The Nader 2004 Draft Committee has opened offices in New York and San Francisco with plans under way for offices in Washington, New Hampshire and Iowa. Beating Bush will be a daunting challenge in 2004, despite his fiscal […]
Just days after imploring the Dean campaign to stop using Paul Wellstone’s famous applause line (“I represent the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic Party”) without attribution, Carpetbagger has learned from two sources that the good doctor has finally told an audience the source of the remark. In speaking at a Capitol Hill fundraiser this […]
With Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) announcing yesterday that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for president, the field remains at nine, at least for the immediate future. The announcement, however, led one of Carpetbagger’s loyal readers to send an email inquiring if the 2004 field of Dems is the largest group ever. As I […]
It’s one thing to say something that’s not true and hope you’ll get away with it. It’s another to get caught in a lie, but to go ahead and repeat it over and over again. Last week, Newsday discovered that the president had been citing a report that supported his tax cut plan, despite the […]
Last week, Carpetbagger marveled at the White House’s strong-arm, bullying tactics at the United Nations as the administration tried — in vain — to build support for its war in Iraq. At the time, I concluded that “diplomacy isn’t their strong point.” Today, I offer additional evidence to bolster the point. As everyone has reported, […]
Everyone’s heard the phrase about “lies, damn lies, and statistics,” but Isaac Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explains today how and why Bush’s tax plan falls comfortably into the “damn lies” category. In a must-read column in today’s LA Times, Shapiro explains that the Bush White House is […]
Something occurred to me while reading over the speech the president delivered on Wednesday night about Iraq: he didn’t take any questions. I understand that he was giving an address to a private group on private property, and under the circumstances, presidents don’t usually open the floor for a Q&A. But it got me thinking, […]