As much as I’d like to believe that the White House staff is in touch with reality, they keep giving me reasons to believe otherwise. Take Press Secretary Tony Snow, for example. Snow appeared on Hugh Hewitt’s radio talk show yesterday, and insisted that the Bush administration has been fighting a “new media war” for […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * In the surest sign yet that Barack Obama is very serious about running for president, the Illinois senator is reportedly expected to hire David Plouffe, a former executive director of the DCCC, […]
I admit at the outset that I did not hear the president’s remarks at Fort Benning, Georgia, yesterday. Bush was reportedly looking for a “friendly audience and a patriotic backdrop” to help sell his “new” escalation policy, and the president who can hardly resist using troops as props probably thought this trip to a military […]
I suppose I should give Peggy Noonan credit for writing half of a good column. In today’s Wall Street Journal, the former Reagan speechwriter expresses deep disappointment in the president, his “new” policy, and this week’s speech on troop escalation in Iraq. She quoted a like-minded reporter who said, “So this is it? The grand […]
Earlier this week, it looked like congressional Dems would finally get some long-sought after answers about the Bush administration’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle. In particular, there’s a still-secret videoconference held shortly after Katrina hit New Orleans in which Michael Brown allegedly warned presidential aides that 90% of the city was being “displaced,” a […]
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on the Hill yesterday that he planned to launch a filibuster against any Democratic attempt to pass a non-binding resolution expressing disapproval of Bush’s escalation plan. Note to McConnell: bring it on. First, from a political perspective, Dems would like nothing more than to see Republicans going […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The good news is the House easily passed a measure to undo the White House’s restrictive policy on funding stem-cell research, 253-174. The bad news is Bush has vowed to veto the measure, and today’s margin puts supporters short of a two-thirds majority needed for an override. * If […]
Last month, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) bemoaned the notion of lawmakers working more hours on the Hill. Families, he said, are more important. Kingston told the WaPo, in response to a Dem proposal to extend the congressional work week to five days, “Keeping us up here eats away at families. Marriages suffer. The Democrats could […]
About a month ago, we talked about how the Government Accountability Office tracks the number of per-months attacks in Iraq, based on Pentagon data. Unfortunately, the latest GAO reports have been incomplete — leaving out the reported attacks from September, October, and November. The funny part was, the GAO had the numbers, but couldn’t publish […]
Over the last year or so, one of the more effective Democratic criticisms of the handling of the war is GOP support for an “open-ended” conflict. Dems would propose a timeline; Republicans would say that was “cutting and running.” Dems would propose genuine benchmarks; Republicans would say that’s “cutting and running,” too. But if war […]