Not only has the Bush White House strongly resisted a bipartisan congressional effort to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Plan to include 4 million uninsured American children, now our “compassionate conservative” president is forcing states to limit access for kids, too. The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s […]
Monday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Interesting timing: “The White House revealed today that General David Petraeus’ testimony before Congress on progress in Iraq has now been scheduled — and the chosen date just happens to be September 11, the sixth anniversary of the attacks. Why the timing? The White House said today that it’s […]
Leahy to White House: ‘Time is up’
The Senate Judiciary Committee requested information from the Bush gang on the legal basis for the president’s warrantless-surveillance program. The White House stalled. The Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas; the White House delayed. Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) was accommodating, extending the deadline for materials a few times. Today was the “final” deadline. Leahy told the […]
He’s far better with a script
On Friday afternoon, CNN’s John King chatted with one-of-these-days presidential hopeful Fred Thompson at the Iowa State Fair. The actor-senator-lobbyist — who was mocked for wearing Gucci loafers to the fair — seemed a little confused about his position on gay marriage. KING: You met this morning privately with some conservative activists in this state, […]
Still confused about Social Security
Following up on this morning’s item, Noam Scheiber notes this amusing exchange between Karl Rove and Fox News’ Chris Wallace. WALLACE: But, Mr. Rove, there was tremendous opposition from your own party on immigration reform and, frankly, not much support on Social Security reform. ROVE: Well, look. On Social Security it’s a tough issue. This […]
‘The Terrorism Index’
The Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy, an influential journal published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, launched an interesting project a year ago. CAP and FP asked 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts, from both sides of the aisle, for their perspectives on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Iraq, and counter-terrorism. […]
Watching a bad chess player
With his announcement last week that he’s stepping down from the White House, Karl Rove has been the center of the political world’s attention (again). The surprising part, however, is that Rove using his time in the spotlight to blast Hillary Clinton quite a bit. Master GOP strategist Karl Rove won’t let up in his […]
The democracy-promotion scam
I’ve never fully understood how anyone paying attention to current events could seriously believe the Bush White House is committed to an assertive policy of democracy promotion. Last month, David Brooks called it Bush’s “Big Idea,” on which the president cannot, and will not, give up. This has always been rather silly. Bringing God’s gift […]
Lieberman already picking the next target
Sen. Joe Lieberman, not content with two wars, is already picking his preferred target for a third. From his latest op-ed in (where else?) the Wall Street Journal: The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq — but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda’s road […]
Monday’s political round-up
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: * WaPo: “Democrats and Republicans are mounting a fierce battle to shape voter impressions of Congress during August’s political lull, convinced that they must define the story line of the 2008 congressional election […]