It’s surprisingly easy to turn on the TV and find countless examples of why most coverage of the presidential campaign is utterly useless, but Greg Sargent found a particularly egregious example yesterday on Meet the Press. Yesterday’s show consisted of six media personalities discussing the presidential race. It was hardly gripping television — we, the […]
Friedman envisions Obama-Cheney ’08
Just when it seemed Thomas Friedman realized the destructive nature of Dick Cheney’s foreign-policy vision, the New York Times columnist suggested yesterday that the VP’s approach is not only healthy, but should play a role beyond 2008 if a Democrat succeeds Bush. Specifically, Friedman seems excited by the prospect of an “Obama-Cheney ticket.” (Friedman goes […]
John McCain, revisionist historian
Campaigning in New Hampshire today, John McCain, well aware of the Iraq war’s unpopularity, insisted that he’s been a critic of the administration’s approach for years. McCain also notes, especially for anti-war voters, that he was an early critic of the war strategy waged by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. “The strategy was going […]
Ted Olson makes a funny
Of all the ways to introduce Rudy Giuliani, this has to be the least sensible. From the Federalist Society’s 25th anniversary conference: Just a week after the indictment of former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, [former Solicitor General Ted Olson] said Giuliani had shown “the wisdom and humility to surround himself with talented, dedicated and energetic […]
Why Regan could be a dilemma for Rudy
On Wednesday, the New York Times added a twist to the humiliating story surrounding Rudy Giuliani and Bernie Kerik. Apparently, celebrity book publisher Judith Regan alleges in a new lawsuit that a News Corp. executive urged her to lie about her extramarital affair with Kerik in order to protect Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. It was […]
Another candidate with planted questions?
After the recent brouhaha over Hillary Clinton and some planted questions, most political observers had to concede that the practice is hardly unusual at the presidential level. The Clinton campaign got caught, and it was embarrassingly sloppy for the usually-flawless operation, but the reaction was muted thanks in part to the frequency with which this […]
Novak and Clinton and Obama … oh my
If the acrimony between the Clinton and Obama presidential campaigns was kindling, Robert Novak’s shamelessly unethical column was a match. If you’re just joining us, Novak reported yesterday that Hillary Clinton’s “agents” are gossiping in Democratic circles that the Clinton campaign has “scandalous information” about Obama, which they reportedly will not share. Of course, as […]
Bush’s man for the ‘Office of Legislative Statecraft’
Way back in 2004, the scandal labeled “Memogate” seemed like a pretty big deal. Republican staffers on the Hill accessed Dem computer servers and stole over 4,000 memos and documents. It was, for a short while, front-page news, and the Justice Department launched a formal criminal probe into the scandal. In time, the story faded […]
Not exactly a great judge of character
There are all kinds of important news items about Pakistan in the dailies this morning, including revelations about a heretofore secret U.S. program to secure the country’s nuclear weapons, a renewed interest in adding some oversight to the billions of dollars the Bush administration gives Pervez Musharraf for counter-terrorism efforts (which may not actually exist), […]
Conservative audiences ‘vexed’ by Giuliani’s abortion stand
Rudy Giuliani — the NARAL award-winning, Planned Parenthood-donating mayor who supports public funding of abortion — has spent the last several months arguing to conservatives that a) he hasn’t changed his position; but b) he’s actually not pro-choice. Some are even falling for it, going so far as to describe Giuliani as “pro-life.” More skeptical […]