Not many: Public allegiance to the Republican Party has plunged during George W. Bush’s presidency, as attitudes have edged away from some of the conservative values that fueled GOP political victories, a major survey has found. The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found a "dramatic shift" in political party identification since 2002, … Read More
The Sympathy Surge
Leave to the vile right-wing radio morons to suggest that John Edwards is using his wife’s battle with cancer for political ends and to garnish votes. Rush Limbaugh, who suggested a few months ago that Michael J. Fox was exaggerated his disease for political effect, said yesterday about the Edwards press conference: Now, this suggests to me that, look, let’s … Read More
Snowjob
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, 10/6/06: Members of Congress have their own oversight obligations. They may proceed as they wish. They’re a separate and co-equal branch of government and I’m not going to tell them what they can and can’t do. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, yesterday: There’s another principle, which is Congress doesn’t have the legislative — … Read More
Finally Finally Finally, The U.S. Attorney Firing Scandal Has A Sexual Angle
Arizona U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was one of the 8 U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush Administration. The Arizona Republic story raises the question of why he was fired: Two weeks after Arizona U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was ordered to give up his post, he sent an e-mail to a top Justice Department official asking how to handle questions that … Read More
Document Diving & Latest On Purgegate
A lot of people following the U.S. Attorney Firing Kerfuffle are doing a lot of document diving — i.e., going through the documents and emails released this week by the DOJ (over 3,000 pages) to look BEHIND what the news will tell you tomorrow. Time doesn’t permit me to review documents myself, but for those interested, the documents are now … Read More
Setting The Bar Waaaaay Low
Real Clear Politics, defending Rudy Giuliani from Giuliani’s critics: Look at this way: Has any credible person or group come forward to claim that Giuliani’s handling of 9/11 and its aftermath on the whole left New York worse off? Setting aside the charges of one aggrieved group (and the firefighters are a big one, admittedly), who is claiming New York … Read More
Breaking: Satire Is Pronounced Obsolete
From The Claremont Institute For The Study Of Statemanship and Political Philosophy
More “Purgegate” Fallout
God, I hate myself for using the -gate suffix. But I don’t know what to call it right now (does anybody?) Anyway, WaPo has a nice op-ed which stops just shy of calling for Gonzales’s head. My favorite bits: "I am fully committed, as the administration’s fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in … Read More
Gonzales Uses The Passive Deflective Voice
"Mistakes were made", he says, in reference to the US Attorney firing scandal. Weasel words, if I ever heard them. Of course, in the same press conference, Gonzales says he stands by the firings. But he also fired the guy who did the firings, his chief of staff. So, all in all, it’s a little hard to parse. If I … Read More
Prosecutor Firing Scandal Widens
Background here. [UPDATE: An even better background — in the form of a timeline] And this past week, Attorney General Gonzales denied that there was any political involvement relating to the firings of the U.S. Attorneys. But today we learn differently: The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who … Read More
Hoist, Petard — You Know How It Goes
AP: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group. "The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James … Read More
The GOP Race For President Is Going To Be Freakin’ Awesome!
Here’s the current GOP frontrunner dressed up as a woman and smooching Donald Trump: Any comment, family values people?
Polar Bears And Soviet-Style Directives
The efforts of the Bush Adminstration to keep everyone "on message" (no matter how absurd that message is) are Stalineqsue: Internal memorandums circulated in the Alaskan division of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service appear to require government biologists or other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic not to discuss climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they … Read More
The Search For An Obama Scandal Grows
Really, is this the worst the media can dig up? Two weeks before the US senator from Illinois launched his presidential campaign, he paid parking tickets he received while attending Harvard Law School, officials said yesterday. Obama received 17 parking tickets in Cambridge between 1988 and 1991, according to the city’s Traffic, Parking & Transportation Department. Of those tickets, he … Read More
Pardon Libby? Not Under The Bush Guildelines
Bush was among the many critics of Clinton’s policy regarding pardons. So much so, in fact, that when Bush came into office, he re-established the guidelines under which a convicted person can be entitled to receiving a pardon. Newsweek has an eye-opening report, suggesting that under the Bush guildelines, the possibility of a pardon for Libby is a "non-starter": But … Read More