On his exploratory website, Fred Thompson boasts that he “gained national attention” as the “hard-charging counsel” who took the “lead” in revealing the audio-taping system in Nixon’s Oval Office. In effect, to hear the actor/lobbyist/lawyer tell it, the Watergate scandal turned on the clever work of a young Fred Thompson. It all sounds quite impressive […]
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: * Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) was surprisingly cagey about his future plans, including a possible presidential campaign, on Meet the Press yesterday. Hagel said he doesn’t “intend” to leave the GOP to run […]
Bush to Congress: You’ll get nothing and you’ll like it
Well, I can’t imagine anyone is surprised by this stonewalling. President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides in connection with the firings of federal prosecutors. The White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available […]
‘America is still the land of opportunity to the whole world’
Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria recently noted that the United States has to deal with far fewer instances of domestic terrorism in part because American Muslims “are generally middle class, moderate and well assimilated. They believe in America and the American Dream.” McClatchy’s Matthew Schofield followed up on this point with a terrific piece exploring why the […]
Rove speaks
Karl Rove gave a predictably unapologetic presentation at the Aspen Ideas Festival at the Aspen Institute over the weekend, but given that Rove is rarely confronted with these questions, his responses were nevertheless noteworthy. For example, Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson, who interviewed Rove, asked about Iraq, “Who is the enemy?” [Rove] said that 80 […]
‘An end point for the debate, not a starting point’
The NYT has an intriguing item on the front page today about a Bush administration that appears to be slowly realizing that its current war policy is unsustainable. GOP lawmakers are scared out of their minds, troop deployments effectively run out in April, the electorate is outraged, and there appears to be a growing sense […]
‘I’m not sure Bush had a choice’
One of the curious ambiguities of the commutation controversy is what role, if any, Dick Cheney played in the process. As the recent Washington Post series made clear, not much happens in this White House without the VP’s direct involvement (i.e., dictation), but what did Cheney do about keeping his former chief of staff out […]
Calling Fitzgerald to testify?
Well, this ought to be interesting. From this morning’s Face the Nation: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.): One thing, and I’ve spoken to [Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat] Leahy about this, that we’re thinking about doing is calling Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, before us. You know, he’s not allowed to talk about what happened before the […]
‘Directing’ Taylor to ignore a congressional subpoena
In light of the letter from Sara Taylor’s lawyer to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Atrios asks a question I’ve been mulling over myself. What possible authority does the White House have to try to prevent a former employee from testifying about something? How can they White House “not let her” testify? Obviously if she doesn’t […]
An acute case of ‘Bush fatigue’
When the president commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence, the conventional wisdom told us that the White House was anxious to score a few points with the far-right GOP base, which has slowly distanced itself from Bush over the last several months. Byron York suggests today the commutation, if it was a political ploy, didn’t work. […]