Today’s shorter-than-usual installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * The AP noted today that Rudy Giuliani prefers restaurants to town-hall meetings: “The diner tour lets Giuliani play to his popularity and celebrity. It also lets him avoid tough questions in […]
Candidates’ outer-space interests take a turn towards the substantive
Lately, presidential candidates have been fielding some odd questions when it comes to space — space travel, space invaders, space conspiracies, etc. Bill Richardson talked recently about his intention, if elected, to open the classified files on the weather-balloon incident in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. Rudy Giuliani was asked a town-hall meeting whether he […]
Wounded-troops tally not even close to reality
The bad news is, over 30,000 American troops have been seriously injured during service in Iraq and Afghanistan, including over 4,000 soldiers and Marines with brain injuries. The far worse news is that those numbers aren’t even close to the actual casualty numbers. At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during […]
How Senate Republicans flubbed the AMT test
The Alternative Minimum Tax was created in the ’60s to prevent a handful of wealthy taxpayers from exploiting loopholes and not paying income taxes. It was not, however, indexed for inflation, which means the AMT is poised to hurt the middle-class. Everyone says they want to fix the AMT, but it’s expensive — costing up […]
GOP senator ‘underwhelmed’ by Bush’s Iraq knowledge
When the president speaks publicly about the war in Iraq, he often seems confused and uninformed. Maybe he speaks more intelligently in private? Maybe not. (via TP) At a luncheon in Chattanooga on Tuesday, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) spoke with 500 supporters about recent events, including recent discussions with the president about the war. Apparently, […]
Thanksgiving Day Mini-Report
Today’s shorter-than-usual edition of quick hits. * David Vitter has one big thing to be thankful for today: “A federal judge spared Sen. David Vitter an embarrassing appearance on the witness stand in a federal prostitution case when she abruptly canceled a hearing scheduled for next week. The Louisiana Republican was under subpoena to testify […]
Rove puts on his revisionist-historian hat
One of the more painful political moments of Bush’s presidency came in the immediate run up to the 2002 elections. Bush was desperate to pin Dems down in support of an Iraqi-invasion policy, and Dems were desperate not to appear “weak” in the first national election cycle after the 9/11 attacks. Republicans were shamelessly demagogic, […]
Republicans decry earmarks — while bringing home the pork
The whining from congressional Republicans about Democratic earmark-filled spending bills has rung hollow for quite a while. Given the spending of the GOP-majority years, it’s not as if Republicans have room to complain now. But complain they have. House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), for example, lambasted the “Democrats’ Labor-H Spending Nightmare” before Bush vetoed […]
Dems’ Iraq policy picks up high-profile military supporter
One assumes he’ll be branded a “phony soldier” by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, but the former commander of U.S. troops in Iraq is stepping up to endorse the congressional Democrats’ withdrawal policy. Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, is scheduled to speak on behalf […]
Thanksgiving Day political round-up
Today’s shorter-than-usual installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * The suspense is over: New Hampshire will host the first presidential primary on Jan. 8. With that in mind, Jonathan Martin notes the January schedule is finally set: Iowa caucuses on […]