Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Top Republican officials, including Karl Rove, pushed hard to get Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy to leave the Dems and join the GOP, and yesterday, he did. The plan is apparently to have […]
‘It’s the hypocrisy that people can’t stand’
When it comes to sex scandals, the past year has been less than kind to conservatives. There’s no reason to go into too many prurient details, but the list isn’t getting any smaller: former Rep. Mark Foley (engaged in explicit IM chats with congressional pages), megachurch evangelist Ted Haggard (lied about being gay), Republican Sen. […]
The ‘largest ring of fraud and kickbacks’ in Iraq to date
When Gen. David Petraeus was tasked with training and equipping Iraqi forces in 2004, he made it clear that he had little patience for bureaucracy. He wanted to get Iraqis prepared and ready to work independently, and getting lost in paperwork and accounting would only get in the way of more important goals. There was […]
Craig’s Conundrum, Day Two
Well, we’ve learned quite a bit about Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-Idaho) arrest since late yesterday afternoon, and all of it suggests the senator is in a very unfortunate place. For example, Craig was not only charged with soliciting sex in an airport men’s room; he pleaded guilty. Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, was […]
A ‘fresh chance’?
Two major dailies — the LAT and the NYT — both offer an odd, half-glass-full take on Bush’s presidency, now that his scandalous Attorney General has finally agreed to step down. While the obvious angle is to note that Bush is a lame-duck who’s lost all of his loyal friends, the NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg […]
Monday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The latest on Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) being arrested for lewd conduct in an airport men’s room. * Politico: “The abrupt departure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales won’t stop congressional Democrats from pursuing investigations into his tenure at the Justice Department.” * For quite a while this afternoon, CNN.com […]
Sen. Craig (R-Idaho) arrested
There have been rumors swirling for years about Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-Idaho) personal life, subcription-only Roll Call reports this afternoon that the rumors might very well be true. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according […]
‘Void of almost all redemptive qualities’
Andrew Cohen, the editor and chief legal analyst for CBS News, has been making the case for Alberto Gonzales’ removal from office for quite a while, and today Cohen presents an indictment against the Attorney General for anyone who may need a primer on why Gonzales was such a destructive embarrassment. When historians look back […]
The Motor City Madman
As a rule, writing about Ted Nugent is a bit like writing about Ann Coulter — they’re both ridiculous clowns who say stupid things to get attention. My better instincts tell me to ignore them. But once in a while, there’s a reason to highlight their stupidity. Take Ted Nugent’s latest outburst, for example. “I […]
Khalilzad describes what could have been
When “No End in Sight,” a gripping, fascinating documentary, first hit theaters a few weeks ago, it quickly got caught up on the debate surrounding the “incompetence dodge.” The film does a fantastic job of highlighting the breathtaking mistakes the Bush administration made during the first few years of the war in Iraq, which some […]