Conservatives want Americans to fear a national health care system. Conservatives also want Americans to fear Muslims. What better way to demagogue two birds with one stone than to connect the two in a transparently ridiculous discussion on Fox News? [Yesterday] on Fox News’s Your World With Neil Cavuto, National Review Online columnist Jerry Bowyer […]
Thursday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Convicted felon Scooter Libby cut a check today at the U.S. District Court for $250,400 — $250,000 as part of his criminal sentence that Bush didn’t clear away, and $400 for a special assessment. (A picture of the cashier’s check made it to Smoking Gun.) * If he had […]
It depends on what the meaning of ‘equal justice’ is
Sometimes, these guys take all the fun out of it by making it too easy. From today’s White House press briefing, with fourth-string spokesperson Scott Stenzel: Q: Scott, is Scooter Libby getting more than equal justice under the law? Is he getting special treatment? STANZEL: Well, I guess I don’t know what you mean by […]
And then there were six
As recently as a few months ago, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) was just another part of Team GOP when it came to the war. He voted with the party to give Bush anything and everything the White House wanted, he criticized Dems’ proposals, he refused to ask questions, and he spurned any efforts at administrative […]
When in doubt, ‘Clinton did it, too!’
Unable to defend the president’s conduct in the Libby scandal, the White House has embraced the well-established Clinton Misdirection Policy with both arms. The White House on Thursday made fun of former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for criticizing President Bush’s decision to erase the prison sentence of former aide I. […]
Contrarian Kinsley strikes again
Michael Kinsley plays to type today with an NYT op-ed that tries to excuse Scooter Libby’s sins. [W]hen Mr. Libby was questioned by federal investigators pursuing the leaks, he too was caught in a perjury trap. He could either tell the truth, thereby implicating colleagues and very possibly himself, in leaking classified security information (the […]
‘Sicko’ strikes a chord
Cory Doctorow featured this interesting, first-hand account of a guy who saw “Sicko” in a suburban mall in Dallas. I can’t vouch for its authenticity, but if it’s true, it’s the kind of story that will cause some heartburn for insurance company executives. When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. […]
‘Thompson was a mole for the White House’
Fred Thompson’s political resume is a little on the thin side. He was a senator who developed a reputation for avoiding hard work; he was a high-priced corporate lobbyist, though that probably won’t help much on the campaign trail; he was an assistant U.S. Attorney almost 40 years ago; and in 1973, he was minority […]
Thursday’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: * Former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) will endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign today. It’s not entirely clear what kind of impact it will have, but Gephardt has enjoyed significant union backing […]
Snow speaks
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has an op-ed in USA Today presenting a defense for the president’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence. He didn’t get a lot of space — 382 words isn’t much — but before a White House spokesperson publishes a piece like this in a national newspaper, it has to […]