The season has not been kind to confidential, internal campaign memos for Republican presidential candidates. Last month, Rudy Giuliani’s 140-page playbook was leaked to some New York reporters. This month, the oppo memo Mitt Romney’s campaign team put together on its own candidate landed at the Boston Globe. Here are some views of Mitt Romney […]
Falwell sees climate conspiracy with Satan, liberals, and The Weather Channel
TV preacher Jerry Falwell has been denying global warming for years, but this week, he was a little more specific about his perspective. The religious right leader sees a conspiracy, working to convince people to accept a myth. Who’s involved with the scheme? Al Gore, liberal politicians, the media, “radical Hollywood,” … and The Weather […]
NRCC still wants terrorist suspect’s money
To update a story we were following closely last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee still doesn’t want to give up the contributions it received from an accused terrorist, even though its Senate counterpart has done the right thing. For those of you just joining us, here’s a quick review. Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari […]
Tuesday’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 if the nominating process needed another big state to move up its presidential primary, New Jersey came one step closer to following California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois yesterday. A state Assembly […]
Solomon strikes again
The Washington Post ran a 1,300-word front-page expose today detailing a family foundation the Clintons created to donate generously to charities for several years. The tone of the article suggested that there’s a real controversy here, so I read the piece to gauge its seriousness. It lacked a certain something — namely any suggestion of […]
Conservative smear machine targets Gore (again)
Let’s see, Al Gore just won an Academy Award, he’s up for a Nobel Peace Prize, and he’s sought after as a possible presidential candidate, so I suppose it stands to reason that the right started feeling antsy. Naturally, this led the predictable smear machine to kick into gear. Yesterday, the Tennessee Center for Policy […]
Note to Rice: stay away from the historical analogies
In September, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested that opponents of the war are the moral equivalent of those who would tolerate slavery in 19th century America. She wasn’t kidding. “I’m sure there are people who thought it was a mistake to fight the Civil War to its end and to insist that the emancipation […]
First Lady plays media critic again
As a rule, Laura Bush’s policy opinions are irrelevant. It’s not personal, it’s just that she’s not an elected official, she has no obvious power to speak of, and her comments are rarely of any consequence. But that doesn’t stop her from popping off quite a bit. Take her appearance on Larry King’s show last […]
Cheney targeted in Afghanistan
The Vice President was unhurt but nevertheless targeted by a Taliban suicide bomber. A suicide bomber killed at least 14 people and wounded about a dozen more outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was […]
Monday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The United Nations has heard the Bush administration’s evidence against a Middle Eastern foe, and finds it unpersuasive. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s happened twice — now and four years ago. * TP: “When Senate leaders first announced their intention to revoke the 2002 Iraq war authorization, […]