The Carpetbagger Report

It would certainly be an exaggeration to describe today as a “Super Tuesday,” but with four primaries and 370 pledged delegates at stake, today is the biggest day on the Democratic nominating calendar since the actual Super Tuesday a month ago. Gaming out the various scenarios is tricky, not only because the results are unpredictable, […]

Given that lobbyists are already running practically his entire campaign operation, John McCain probably didn’t need yet another corporate lobbyist taking on a key campaign role. And yet, he has a new one anyway. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has engaged a leading GOP lobbyist to coordinate his message and travel schedule with […]

Back in December, we learned the painful story of Jamie Leigh Jones, who says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad. Jones filed a lawsuit, arguing that she had been raped by “several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally.” Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination […]

The Intelligence Oversight Board probably isn’t one of the better known executive branch agencies, but that’s largely because it has an important job that’s done almost exclusively in secret — the IOB helps police the government’s surveillance activities. If the White House goes too far, the IOB is responsible for reining the president back. So, […]

I can appreciate, when the pressure’s on in a competitive primary, there must be a temptation for a presidential candidate to say literally anything to stop a rival. But if for no other reason than the strength of the party, that temptation has to be kept in check. I’m afraid Hillary Clinton may have forgotten […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * Discouraging: “Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that the U.S. economy is essentially in a recession even if it hasn’t met the technical definition of one yet. Buffett said in an interview with cable network CNBC the reports he gets from the retail businesses his holding company owns show a […]

I can appreciate presidential candidates trying to establish a friendly rapport with political reporters, but this kind of charm offensive, for those who apparently have already been charmed, seems a little excessive. Instead of appealing for votes on the campaign trail, Sen. John McCain spent the weekend playing host at his rustic Arizona home — […]

Lately, a major point of discussion, especially over the last couple of weeks, is whether the media favors one candidate over another. I’m generally an agnostic on the question, at least as it relates to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I’m far more inclined, however, to suggest news outlets go ridiculously easy on John McCain, […]

There still hasn’t been a single stand-alone article about this in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Still, slowly but surely, John McCain’s John Hagee problem is becoming a political controversy the presumptive Republican nominee is unsure how to handle. Yesterday, on CNN, DNC Chairman Howard Dean went on the offensive, questioning why […]

Following up on an item from the weekend, the Washington Post, for reasons that defy comprehension, published a 1,700-word thought piece yesterday on women in America being dumb, shallow, and generally kind of pathetic. The author, Charlotte Allen, made her spectacularly dumb case with the kind of nonsense one might expect from a misogynistic child […]