It took six years, but the WaPo finally got its hands on the heretofore secret meetings Dick Cheney held as part of his energy task-force in 2001. In news that will surprise absolutely no one, it turns out the VP listened to the energy industry when shaping the administration’s policy. One of the first visitors, […]
Corn counters crazy Kristol
Over the weekend, William Kristol wrote a transparently ridiculous WaPo column praising Bush’s presidency. He began his love letter, “I suppose I’ll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W. Bush’s presidency will probably be a successful one.” And sure enough, Kristol was ridiculed relentlessly by those who’ve been […]
No comparison
Following up on yesterday’s item, in which we talked about Bill O’Reilly labeling DailyKos “one of the worst examples of hatred America has to offer,” and vowing to boycott JetBlue for its sponsorship of YearlyKos, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign issued an interesting statement this morning in a Kos diary. From Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson […]
Timing too good to believe
What a remarkable coincidence. Just as the Senate begins debating Iraq policy, the White House releases a National Intelligence Estimate it falsely believes helps the president’s position, and then (careful not to step on the NIE headlines) announces a major terrorist capture. And wouldn’t you know it, the terrorist is on-message, too. The highest-ranking Iraqi […]
Reid ratchets up the stakes
About an hour ago, Senate Republicans successfully blocked the Reed-Levin amendment from coming to the floor, following a 52-47 vote. A majority of the Senate wanted to approve the measure, but like all of the other possible Democratic amendments, the GOP insisted it could not allow up-or-down votes. So, apparently, Harry Reid has decided to […]
Wednesday’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: * Elizabeth Edwards caused a surprisingly big stir yesterday, when Salon ran a long interview with John Edwards’ wife about the campaign. Elizabeth raised eyebrows with her comments explaining why her husband would […]
Unreliable WINOs
A couple of days ago, Greg Sargent came up with a description for those Republican senators who express deep, heartfelt reservations about the president’s Iraq policy, only to vote against every possible measure intended to change that policy: WINOs — Waverers in Name Only. It’s hard not to like it; the description clearly fits Sens. […]
Townsend spins in circles
Yesterday, White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend held a press briefing, ostensibly to tell reporters about the new National Intelligence Estimate, but more accurately, to put the Bush gang’s spin on the devastating report. There was one exchange that was particularly important (TPM has a clip). CNN’s Ed Henry, to his credit, pointed out […]
Making us less safe
By all indications, the White House released the declassified National Intelligence Estimate report yesterday for political gain. The Bush gang swears the timing was coincidental, but there’s no reason to give the president the benefit of the doubt — the White House could have released the report at any time. Team Bush decided to wait […]
Senate pulls an all-nighter
Well, how’d things go in the Senate’s overnight debate? As far as I can tell, the unusual debate was largely successful. Reports about procedural hurdles that would short-circuit the debate proved to be false, and lawmakers got down to business. Democrats rolled out cots and ordered pizzas as they settled in for a marathon Senate […]