Scooter Libby told a grand jury that he first learned about Valerie Plame on July 10, 2003, during a chat with NBC’s Tim Russert. Ari Fleischer yesterday made it quite clear that Libby was lying. Ari Fleischer may turn out to be a stronger — and more credible — witness than he was a White […]
Monday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * If you haven’t already, be sure to check out The Real McCain, a new website created by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films to highlight the Arizona senator’s flip-flops, equivocations, and general lack of principles. My good friend Cliff Schecter will even be hosting a blog at the site, […]
Who works for Cheney?
David Kurtz suggested over the weekend that it’s “time to shine some light” on the Office of the Vice President. TPM Muckraker seems to have taken it as a direct challenge. Step one: figure out who works for Dick Cheney. They may be public employees, being paid by the public treasury, but finding out who […]
Note to Hadley: You guys hate the ISG
As recently as two weeks ago, White House officials were leaking word that the president decided on a new war policy in part by doing the opposite of what the Iraq Study Group suggested. The Bush gang was intent on “looking distinctive” from the ISG. As the Washington Post reported, “As described by participants in […]
The ‘ic’ factor
In the grand scheme of things, there are probably more important matters to get worked about than whether the president can bring himself to utter the words, “Democratic Party.” But so long as it’s an issue, consider what Bush said in last week’s State of the Union address, according to the official White House transcript. […]
A conservative take on the left’s ‘denial’
Over at my other gig, I highlight about a dozen conservative blog posts a day, some of which are written by smart, engaging people with whom I generally disagree (such as James Joyner), though most are from writers who I find offensive and distasteful. In all, I probably go through 30 or so conservative blogs […]
Henry Waxman has a few questions about Iraq contracts
You want congressional oversight hearings? Henry Waxman is going to deliver oversight hearings. With a Democrat now in the driver’s seat, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is set to hold Congress’s first in-depth hearings into charges of waste and fraud involving money spent on reconstruction in Iraq. Three days of hearings — the […]
The story behind the madrassa story
OK, one more post on the attempted smear of Barack Obama and the bogus claim that the senator was educated, at age six, in a terrorist-sympathizing madrassa. The story has been debunked, repeatedly, by news outlets large and small, and I’d assumed that there wasn’t much left to say. But the New York Times’ David […]
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: * Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is kicking off his presidential campaign today with the creation of an exploratory committee. “I think this is an opportunity to show the American dream is […]
‘I’m vice president and they’re not’
Over the weekend, Maureen Dowd unloaded on Dick Cheney. “Delusional doesn’t begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man,” Dowd said. “Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he’s right in the face of […]