Dan Froomkin noted yesterday one of the many interesting revelations from the Scooter Libby trial this week, specifically pointing to part of the problem of the DC political culture. (via Atrios) If you’re a journalist, and a very senior White House official calls you up on the phone, what do you do? Do you try […]
Friday’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: * On CBS’s Early Show this morning, Harry Smith asked Al Gore if he could better create change on the issue of global warming from inside the White House. Gore said that he […]
Oregon doesn’t have a state climatologist
It’s amazing to me just how rough conservative blogs have had it lately. Every time the right’s blogs think they’re on to something big, they end up getting the story backwards and looking rather foolish. I’m starting to feel kind of bad for them. First there was Cliff May’s email from a Marine about Iraq […]
Tony Snow’s week
As much as I appreciated White House Press Secretary Tony Snow rejecting the Pelosi/plane nonsense as a “silly” story that is “unfair” to the House Speaker, the Baghdad Bob of White House officials hasn’t had a great week, at least as far as telling the truth is concerned. Let’s play a game — pick the […]
Maybe Pace and Gates weren’t clear enough
For weeks now, the principal conservative talking point against a congressional resolution criticizing Bush’s war escalation is that debate undermines the troops and emboldens the enemy. The argument has been embraced by everyone from Dick Cheney to John McCain to Bill Kristol. It is, unfortunately, demagoguery at its most insipid. War supporters can’t come up […]
Pentagon smacks around Doug Feith, OSP
The Office of Special Plans was one of those unique absurdities that only the Bush gang could come up with. The idea was fairly straightforward: administration officials wanted to start a war with Iraq, but didn’t have damning evidence to justify an invasion. Desperate, Dick Cheney and other top administration officials created the OSP to […]
Thursday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Unhinged activist Bill Donohue has already responded to the John Edwards blogger announcement, and needless to say, he’s not happy. In a press statement, Donohue said Edwards’ “goal is to loot the pockets of the Soros/Hollywood gang, and they — like him — aren’t offended by anti-Catholicism. Indeed, they […]
‘I don’t think 20,000 more troops is Democratic, I don’t think [it’s] Republican. I think it’s stupid’
On the Hill, conservative war supporters have a reflexive, knee-jerk reaction to any disapproval of the president’s policy — critics are weak and cowardly. It doesn’t matter whether the conservative avoided military service and the critic didn’t; Bush backers believe in “strength” and “courage,” and his detractors might as well be terrorist sympathizers. It’s why […]
Rice’s hazy memory on Iran
One of the most important under-reported news stories of the last few years is Iran’s 2003 efforts to reach out to the United States in order to strike some kind of peace deal. In June 2006, the WaPo’s Glenn Kessler reported on the document that the Bush administration chose not to take seriously. Just after […]
Pelosi, military jets, and the dumbest story of the month
I’ve been reluctant to write much about the “controversy” surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her use of military jets because the story is maddeningly dumb. I endorse Kevin Drum’s perspective wholeheartedly: “The continuing flap over Nancy Pelosi’s military jet accommodations is so knuckle-draggingly stupid that I can hardly stand to open the newspaper these […]