Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey reignited interest in Bush’s warrantless wiretap program and the propriety of Alberto Gonzales serving as Attorney General, but his stunning testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee a couple of weeks ago could only go into so much detail. Eventually, the committee ran out of time. So, Comey agreed to […]
Wednesday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Details are still very sketchy, but the AP reports, ” Hundreds of Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who attack Turkey from bases there, Turkish security officials said…. The senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to […]
Gonzales inadvertently answers an important question
Shortly after James Comey’s wild story about the showdown in John Ashcroft’s hospital room first captured the attention of the political world, the Center for American Progress’ Peter Swire, the Clinton Administration’s Chief Counselor for Privacy from 1999 to early 2001, noticed a problem: Alberto Gonzales may have lied under oath about it. In a […]
Ailes compares Fox News to al Qaeda
Fox News chief Roger Ailes is still a little peeved about Democrats treating his partisan network as a Republican propaganda outlet. (via Cliff Schecter) [Ailes] had some choice words for Democratic candidates who have decided not to debate on Fox. “The candidates that can’t face Fox, can’t face Al Qaeda,” said Mr. Ailes. “And that’s […]
Maybe the administration just doesn’t get democracy promotion
I recently saw a good interview with Reza Aslan, in which he described the inherent problems with the Bush administration reaching out to reformers in Tehran. “This is the dirty little secret about Iran, that it is the most vibrant, the most robust, and the most successful democracy in the whole of the Middle East […]
‘Iraq’s government is teetering on the edge’
During last night’s debate, a woman asked the candidates, “[W]hat are we going to do to make sure they have a government in place before we do pull our troops out and they’re able to help themselves?” It was hardly an unreasonable question (though none of the candidates really answered it). The White House, if […]
Do they think we won’t remember?
In last night’s debate, the very first question went to Mitt Romney, who was asked whether it was “a mistake for us to invade Iraq.” After some odd hedging, Romney argued: “[If] Saddam Hussein had opened up his country to IAEA inspectors, and they’d come in and they’d found that there were no weapons of […]
Restoring Habeas
Given this week’s court ruling on Guantanamo detainees, opponents of the Military Commissions Act are on the move. A day after two military judges ruled against the Bush administration’s system for trying terrorism detainees, Democrats seized on the rulings on Tuesday as evidence that Congress should restore the right of those held at Guantanamo Bay, […]
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: * Immediately after last night’s GOP debate, nascent presidential hopeful Fred Thompson appeared on Fox News to offer his analysis of his competitors (yes, it was breathtakingly unethical journalism). The former senator used […]
Conflating all our enemies into one
About a month ago, in the first Republican presidential candidates’ debate, Mitt Romney tried to explain how he perceives threats to the U.S. from the Middle East: “This is about Shi’a and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the worldwide jihadist effort to try and […]