MSNBC: WASHINGTON – The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush’s former legal counselor, Harriet Miers. The 22-17 vote, which would sanction the pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors, advanced the citations to the full House. The full House … Read More
Gonzales Follies
Hearing, watching or reading Gonzales’ tragically comical performance yesterday is painful. TPM Muckraker has a good Youtubed roundup. The best part, everyone seems to agree, is this exchange with Sen. Schumer. Schumer is pointing out how Gonzales in his previous testimony — um — basically lied to the committee. Watch how Gonzales, the Attorney General of the United States — … Read More
Constitutional Showdown
It’s brewing: The House Judiciary Committee announced yesterday that it will press toward a constitutional showdown with the Bush administration over the U.S. attorney firings scandal, even as embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales vowed to stay on and "fix the problems" that have damaged the reputation and morale of the Justice Department. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the … Read More
Obstructionist GOP
In 2004, Americans elected a Democratic majority in Congress. What was the GOP response? To tie up bills, filibuster, and engage in other parliamentarian tactics to prevent reforms from even coming to a vote. How bad is it? Really bad. At the present pace, the Republicans will be three times more obstructionist than any Congress in recent history. Margaret Talev … Read More
The Imperial Presidency And War Powers
This op-ed in the New York Times gets it right, both morally and historically: The nation is heading toward a constitutional showdown over the Iraq war. Congress is moving closer to passing a bill to limit or end the war, but President Bush insists Congress doesn’t have the power to do it. “I don’t think Congress ought to be running … Read More
BREAKING NEWS: Hillary Clinton Has Boobs!
Apparently, the folks at the Washington Post are intrigued by the fact that — well, here’s the opening sentence of this hard-hitting news piece: There was cleavage on display Wednesday afternoon on C-SPAN2. It belonged to Sen. Hillary Clinton. You would think that the article would segue into something, oh, I dunno, relevant to oh, I dunno, something. But no. … Read More
Republican Sinking Ship
A Fox News Poll — that’s Fox News, kids — looks at presidential ’08 matchups (pdf format) The news? No matter who the Republicans nominate (Guiliani, Thompson, Romney, McCain), they STILL get beat in the general elections by Clinton or Obama. I like that.
Pray There Are No International Incidents Tomorrow
USAToday tells us that Bush is undergoing a 2-1/2 hours colonoscopy tomorrow, and during that time, Lord Voldemort Dick Cheney will be "Acting President". I can see it now — Saturday headline: Bush briefly transfers Presidential power to Cheney. Sunday headline: The U.S. starts bombing Tehran.
Neocon Jokes
Reformed Iraq War supporter and Log Cabin Republican Andrew Sullivan made a neocon joke yesterday — now he’s started a stampede. Some of my favorites: Q. How many neocons does it take to screw in a light bulb? A. Neocons don’t bother with light bulbs. They declare a War on Darkness and set the house on fire. ******************************************** Q. How … Read More
Sex Education For Kindergarteners
Our national media is so bad. I mean, it is atrociously bad. Check out this ABC News headline: Sex Ed for Kindergarteners ‘Right Thing to Do,’ Says Obama The story begins: ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the … Read More
The Top GOP Contender Is….
None of the Above. That’s right. For Republicans, "None of the Above/Don’t Know" comes in at 23%, beating out Rudy Guiliani (21%), Fred Thompson (19%), John McCain (15%), Mitt Romney (11%), and the rest of the pack. None of the Above surged in the polls — it was only 14% last month. For Democrats, "None of the Above/Don’t Know" comes … Read More
Another Day, Another GOP Sex Scandal
What is it — like, thre days in a row now? This one is homegrown though. It involves North Carolina Rep. David Almond, who immediately resigned yesterday. The North Carolina House Republicans are trying to keep his transgression a secret, but they did force him to resign. An insurance agent, Almond was serving his second term in the House. Impeccable … Read More
Is Bush Committing A Felony?
Bush has order his former counsel Harriet Miers to not respond to the Congressional subpoena. You can’t do that. You can show up in response to the subpoena and claim some sort of executive privilege (see Taylor, Sara), or you can show up and lie (see, Gonzales, Alberto). But you just can’t order someone to not show up, because that’s … Read More
Yet Another GOP Sex Scandal
What IS it with these people? Just days after the "family values" senator from Louisiana, Sen. Vitter, got caught frequenting prostitutes, we now learn that a Repubican state representative from Florida has been paying to get blowjobs in Florida restrooms. Wait, not paying to get them; he was caught offering to give them in exchange for twenty bucks. He tried … Read More
I Caught About 30 Seconds Of The Bush Press Conference On Iraq
Man, does our president smirk a lot! And he smirks on all the wrong words. "Sectarian violence" — he smirked on that phrase. "Send more troops" — he smirked on that phrase. It’s really kind of creepy. But according to MSNBC, the White House report on Iraq cites success on 8 goals, failure on 8, mixed effort on 2, which … Read More