I freely admit that I’m no expert on foreign affairs, but over the last year or so I feel like I’ve been able to get a sense of Rumsfeld’s neo-con philosophy and how it applies to the use of military force. Yet, I’ve never really grasped the meta-goals the agenda hoped to achieve. It didn’t […]
Yesterday, ABC News’ indispensable daily report, The Note, playfully tried to prod the presidential campaigns into disclosing figures for first quarter fundraising. As of about 24 hours ago, none of them were budging. The totals are of great interest to political insiders, even more important that early poll numbers, because it reflects an ability to […]
The Democrats’ fight against the White House over funding for domestic security reached new levels yesterday. The Dems obviously see this as a political vulnerability for Bush and have decided to make this a central part of the 2004 campaign. Of course, Bush is really making the case for them. As Jonathan Chait explained in […]
Yesterday I mentioned the Hatfield-McCoy like relations between the State and Defense Departments in the Bush administration. Today’s papers have ample evidence that the infighting and bickering among Republicans, inside the White House and out, is getting worse, not better. One conservative Republican political strategist told the New York Times yesterday, “I don’t understand what […]
It may seem a little early to be thinking about the 2004 Senate elections, but in Carpetbagger Land, it’s always campaign season. In particular, I was thinking today about Pennsylvania. Arlen Specter has always been something of an eccentric Senator. He’s the only Jewish Republican in the Senate, for example, and he hasn’t been afraid […]
The Vatican announced this week that the Church believes countries that sanction gay marriages are inhabited by people with “profoundly disordered minds.” It’s always nice to see leaders of the Roman Catholic Church embracing modern, progressive ideas about the changing nature of families. The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family released a glossary this week […]
I really have to take my hat off to Ron Brownstein today for coming up with one of my favorite analogies in recent memory. Brownstein was following up on the budget debate from last week, in which Senate moderates successfully pared down Bush’s tax cut plan, and restored a modicum of sanity to the budget. […]
Fred Hiatt has an interesting column in the Washington Post this morning about Bush’s critics arguing overlooking the fact that Clinton took several of the same steps when it came to international relations as his successor. As Hiatt explained, critics argue that “Bush had doomed his chances by arrogantly thumbing his nose at the International […]
As many of you know, Carpetbagger has more than a passing interest in Gov. Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. This is a big week for Dean for America, and even though it’s early spring and there’s a war going on, this very week will be of critical importance for Dean in the coming months. First, today […]
You had to know this was coming. As I’ve mentioned from time to time, there are substantive, qualitative differences within the Bush administration about foreign policy. I don’t mean disagreements about how many troops to send to Iraq, or how best to punish our allies have declined to participate in the war. I mean different […]