The Carpetbagger Report

There was an interesting exchange during yesterday’s White House press briefing that went largely unnoticed. A reporter asked Tony Snow, “Is Iraq the most important issue facing the U.S.?” Rather than answer with the obvious response (which is “yes”), Snow said, “[I]t’s hard to say…. Americans also have a lot of other domestic concerns.” Now, […]

Because I’ve been critical of the Washington Post’s John Solomon lately, particularly his odd front-page piece on John Edwards selling his house, I thought it only fair to note that Solomon defended his reporting during an online WaPo chat today. While I applaud Solomon for discussing his work with readers, I’m afraid his justifications were […]

Like Kevin Drum, I wasn’t expecting too many fireworks from Scooter Libby’s criminal trial. These showdowns are often anti-climatic, at least as far as dramatic you-can’t-handle-the-truth moments go, and while the evidence presented was sure to be fascinating, day-to-day developments would likely be fascinating only to the lawyers. Or so I thought. With jury selection […]

The Army Times reported this week on a development that hasn’t generated much attention outside the military press. (thanks to reader P.R. for the tip) Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said. The case workers for the Military Severely Injured Center serve as […]

The op-ed of the day, and in this case that’s not a complement, comes by way of former principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs Liz Cheney. You might be familiar with her father. Now, Cheney’s Washington Post piece has been widely trashed. Josh Marshall says is reads like it was “written […]

The Family Research Council, a religious right powerhouse spun off from Dobson’s Focus on the Family, hosted a “Blog for Life” event yesterday on the national Mall, marking the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. There were plenty of odd moments, including a speaker who displayed an article titled “Abortionist Accused of Eating Fetuses.” Another […]

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: * Roll Call reports today that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is likely to pick up a major endorsement this week, possibly as early as today, when former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) throws his […]

To help kick-off a new Capitol Hill newspaper, The Politico, Roger Simon interviewed John McCain (R-Ariz.) about his take on the war in Iraq. Given McCain’s countless recent comments on the subject, you’d assume this is well-tread ground, but Simon caught a few gems. With his presidential hopes tied to an administration whose Iraq policy […]

Just two weeks ago, in his national address announcing a troop escalation in Iraq, the president hinted that [tag]Iran[/tag] may be our next target. Specifically, Bush said, “Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces.” The wording may have been open to some interpretation, but […]

I promised a while back not to publish regular polls about the president — most of which simply reinforce the obvious fact that Bush is unpopular — unless he reached new lows. In this respect, I think the new CBS poll qualifies as noteworthy. Mr. Bush’s overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent, […]