The Carpetbagger Report

Guest Post by Morbo Sometimes a political party faces a congressional district that is firmly held by the opposition party with no chance of flipping. There are two ways to react to that: recruit someone to fall on his sword and lose with dignity or allow nature to take its course and have an apparent […]

Guest Post by Morbo A new book about Barack Obama’s faith is raising eyebrows — mainly because of its author. Stephen Mansfield’s The Faith of Barack Obama is due out in August. The Politico received an advance copy and reports that it’s a very positive portrayal of Obama and his religion. This surprised some people, […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * 100-year floods are only supposed to happen every 100 years: “For the second time in 15 years, Keith Aubuchon found himself packing his belongings and evacuating his home to escape a ‘100-year’ flood of the Mississippi River. He returned and remodeled his house after the flood of 1993. This […]

I can’t begin to imagine what he’s thinking. In fact, I know he knows better. The campaign’s statement, in its entirety: “Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy […]

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but it appears that John McCain’s immigration policy is dependent entirely on who he happens to be talking to at the time. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., met Wednesday evening with Hispanic Republicans in Chicago. In an Associated Press story about the meeting, one quote jumped out at me: “He’s […]

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan seemed all too pleased to stop by the House this morning to answer questions about the CIA/Plame leak scandal. It’s unlikely McClellan could annoy his ol’ White House buddies anymore than he already has, but he gave it a shot. A former spokesman for President Bush on Friday […]

There’s been quite a bit of talk this week about energy policy, but the media coverage has left one key detail out of the news altogether. We talked earlier this week about a press conference John McCain held, during which he was asked about renewable energy. McCain responded by ignoring the issue about which he’d […]

We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any better. The House Friday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government’s terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country. The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 […]

California petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency for waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions more forcefully than the federal government. EPA policy experts agreed that the state qualified for the waivers, but in the 11th hour, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, one of the Bush administration’s more humiliating hacks, intervened and denied the California’s request. Dems on […]

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: * Earlier this week, two Muslim women were asked “not to sit where they could be photographed” behind Barack Obama because “they were wearing traditional religious head coverings.” Yesterday, Obama called both Shimaa […]