Guest Post by Morbo Although there has been much speculation about the health of Chief Justice John Roberts, I’m more worried about another member of the high court. Every day I wake up worrying that I’ll unfold the paper and see a headline reading, “Supreme Court Justice Stevens Announces Retirement.” John Paul Stevens is 87 […]
Friday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * I’ve been reading tons of great items from all over about fascinating events at YearlyKos today, but in light of the conference, the Republican National Committee, which can level as ugly a smear as anyone in the business, has decided to turn its guns on DailyKos with a new […]
Maliki gives up on timetables
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki in November 2006: [Maliki] told ABC News today that he is moving to disarm militias in Iraq, and expects his forces to be ready to take over from the U.S. command in June, 2007. “I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready, to receive this command […]
‘The Carry’
Paul Krugman’s column today reminded me of a subject I haven’t written nearly enough about: tax rates on hedge-fund managers’ income. (I know it sounds dull, but it’s really not.) It’s a major topic of discussion in Congress right now, which is kind of a shame because the answer should be obvious. As Krugman noted, […]
Bush to Congress: cancel those travel plans…
At an event at the FBI building this morning, the president, who wants even more power under FISA, started giving Congress the hard sell. “The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, has provided the Congress with a narrow and targeted piece of legislation that will close the gaps in intelligence. In other words, he’s working […]
What’s so ‘perilous’?
Far-right commentator Neal Boortz was one of the lucky handful of Republican activists who was invited to the White House for a private, off-the-record audience with the president this week. Like the rest of the attendees, Boortz honored the agreement and didn’t report on what, specifically, was said in the meeting, but he dutifully explained […]
Boehner tends to his flock
Brad Plumer said something interesting today that caught my eye: “[House Minority Leader] John Boehner seems to be surprisingly adept at keeping his caucus in line these days.” Plumer was talking about the House GOP voting together on S-CHIP expansion, but it got me thinking: the Republicans have been surprisingly united lately, haven’t they? * […]
Romney and Hezbollah and healthcare … oh my
The hyper-conservative World Net Daily has caused a bit of a stir on the right today with this report. Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney has cited the social welfare network of the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group as a role model the U.S. should copy to help promote “goodness” and “freedom” around the world. Sections […]
Friday’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: * John Edwards thinks he’s found a weak point in Hillary Clinton’s armor: Fox News. “Edwards criticized [Clinton] for taking more than $20,000 in donations from News Corp. officials, arguing that the company’s […]
An odd way to boost ‘morale’
By this point, we know all about the partisan, political briefings the White House conducted in government buildings for government employees, despite clear prohibitions by the Hatch Act. The briefings were about as subtle as a sledgehammer — administration officials needed to know which congressional races were most important, so they could in turn misuse […]