Almost immediately after it became obvious that Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and other Bush confidants needed to testify in the prosecutor purge investigation, there was a standoff. Congressional Dems wanted Rove & Co. to appear before the Judiciary Committee(s), to answer questions. The White House wanted them to be “interviewed,” in private, with no transcript […]
Monday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Congressional Dems will meet tonight to discuss exactly what their latest Iraq war spending bill is going to include (or not include). * If the AP is right — and rumors about Dem plans often aren’t — the bill is going to be pretty ugly. “In grudging concessions to […]
Gonzales stands up to Bush? Please
I know I noted this over the weekend over at TPM, but a) a lot of folks don’t read on weekends; b) I think it’s an important point; and c) TPM doesn’t have comments and I like to give you guys a chance to weigh in. The AP had an interesting item Saturday, highlighting Attorney […]
Where’d the American Center for Voting Rights go?
When it came to pushing a “voter fraud” scandal that didn’t exist, the administration worked diligently to politicize federal law enforcement. But it wasn’t entirely alone — outside the government, the Bush gang also received support from the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR), which was established, ostensibly to root out election fraud. At least […]
Unhinged McCain apologizes for one outburst, starts another
On Friday, during a back-room discussion on the new immigration-reform package, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) started shouting at Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who dared to disagree with him on the legislation. Apparently, McCain accused Cornyn of raising petty objections, and Cornyn accused McCain of having dropped in without taking part in the negotiations. “F**k you! […]
Bush won’t budge on his buddy
By any reasonable measure, the walls are collapsing around Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He’s been exposed as an incompetent liar, turning his job as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer into little more than a cog in Karl Rove’s political machine. In the Senate, 10 members of the president’s own party agree that it’s time for […]
‘Fred Thompson’s Little Red Truck’
That former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) is moving forward with a presidential bid is hardly open to question anymore. Today, he hired a campaign manager (a former top aide to H.W. Bush), which is usually a reliable precursor to an announcement. With this in mind, we can now expect the onslaught of little-red-truck stories. A […]
Diane Sawyer revels in the irony
I have not yet had the pleasure of reading Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason, but given the excerpts I’ve seen, the former Vice President laments the breakdown of public discourse, and holds the traditional national media largely responsible for the problems. At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. […]
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: * As much as I’m disinterested in national polls for 2008, I nevertheless think polls from the early primary states are fairly significant, because voters in the first handful of states will help […]
Meet Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz
This didn’t get much attention over the weekend, which is a shame because it’s a pretty important story. A military jury recommended Friday that a Navy lawyer be discharged and imprisoned for six months for sending a human rights attorney the names of 550 Guantanamo Bay detainees. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz was convicted Thursday of […]