It’s nice to see one subject of a Republican sex-scandal rally to the aid of another. Embattled Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) is getting support from fellow Republicans who say he should not resign over a public sex scandal — including from someone who can speak from experience. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho was among […]
Mukasey’s mysterious call gets murkier
Two weeks ago, Attorney General Michael Mukasey was talking up the Bush administration’s surveillance efforts, and raised a few eyebrows when he got choked up while discussing 9/11 and telecom immunity. The real controversy, though, stems from the comments Mukasey made right before he got emotional. Officials “shouldn’t need a warrant when somebody with a […]
Remember the Lieberman ‘hack attack’?
Way back in August 2006, the day before Connecticut’s Democratic Senate primary between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont, the Lieberman campaign’s website went down. It prompted something of a media frenzy and ugly accusations from Lieberman about his “political opponents” being responsible for the “attack.” (Lieberman’s campaign manager told reporters, “If Ned Lamont has a […]
McCain’s century-long problem — redux
One gets the distinct impression that these guys are not familiar with the phrase, “Never let ’em see you sweat.” Republicans are not only concerned about John McCain having said — more than once — that he’s willing to maintain a U.S. troop presence in Iraq for 100 years, they’re apparently in a near panic […]
The central front in the ‘war on terror’?
Is al Qaeda a greater threat to U.S. interests in Iraq, or in the Afghan-Pakistan border region? In one of the more interesting exchanges of yesterday’s hearings on the Hill, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden asked Ambassador Ryan Crocker that question, got an honest response, and set the Bush administration’s talking points back […]
Tuesday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Another development that makes al-Sadr stronger and Maliki weaker: “Iraq’s top Shiite religious leaders have told anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr not to disband his Mehdi Army, an al-Sadr spokesman said Monday amid fresh fighting in the militia’s Baghdad strongholds. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded Sunday that the cleric […]
Jay Rockefeller, Obama’s attack dog?
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is, as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a fairly prominent supporter of Barack Obama. With that role, I generally expect him to say nice things about Obama, and tout his national security agenda. Seeing him go after John McCain like this, however, was a little unexpected. Rockefeller, who supports Barack […]
‘Military vote’ hardly in the bag for Republicans
It wasn’t a scientific poll, and it’s just one report about a relatively small number of U.S. troops, but this ABC News report nevertheless suggests that the “military vote,” if there is such a thing, is up for grabs in this election. Of particular interest, ABC spoke to the troops about their political preferences immediately […]
New top Clinton strategist seeks to avoid ‘a thermonuclear climax’
Once the dust settles on the presidential campaign, some smart person will write an interesting article about Democratic voters who like Hillary Clinton a lot more than Hillary Clinton’s campaign strategy. More often than not, I tend to find myself in this category — I respect and trust her as a leader, but frequently find […]
Lieberman’s unusual take on ‘the facts’
Yglesias noted this afternoon that Joe Lieberman is “probably beyond shark-jumping at this point.” That’s no doubt true. (For me, Lieberman’s point of no return came in 2004, when he questioned the U.S. apology for Abu Ghraib torture because, “[T]hose who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized.”) But the […]