Month: September 2005
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DeLay evidence production watch
I’m officially starting a countdown until Tom DeLay backs up the claim that the Democratic leadership is conspiring with Ronnie Earle (reported in the New York Times today), which he conveniently failed to substantiate under questioning from Wolf Blitzer yesterday: DELAY: Ronnie Earle has been district attorney in Travis County since 1976. In 1976 there
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Who voted for Roberts?
The Wall Street Journal editorial page breaks down the Roberts confirmation vote: John Roberts was sworn in yesterday as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. No surprises there. The confirmation vote was 78-22, with all 55 Republicans, 22 Democrats, and Independent Jim Jeffords voting “aye.” He’ll take up his gavel on Monday, when
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Presidential vs. Congressional approval
Harvard’s Barry Burden has posted an interesting graphic tracking presidential and Congressional approval during Bush’s time as president: In analyzing the data, he finds that presidential approval influences Congressional approval, but not the reverse. This result is based on only 56 months of data from one presidency, but it’s an interesting finding. The most obvious
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Conservative discontent with Bush grows
David Brooks: Sometimes in my dark moments, I think [George W. Bush] is “The Manchurian Candidate” designed to discredit all the ideas I believe in. David Frum: This has been a very bad month for the Bush presidency, maybe the worst to date: Hurricane Katrina, bad news from Iraq and grumbling from within the president’s
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What is Ezra Klein talking about?
Jacob Weisberg has written an annoying piece about fighting povery in the aftermath of Katrina that is straight out of Slate’s “everything you know is wrong!” handbook. Rather than fighting attempts to turn the disaster zone into a conservative utopia of low taxes and weak regulations, Weisberg says that liberals should go along with Bush:
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Where did Bush’s swagger go?
According to the Washington Post, President Bush is “suddenly finds himself struggling to reclaim his swagger”: Most of all, White House aides want to reestablish Bush’s swagger — the projection of competence and confidence in the White House that has carried the administration through tough times since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Bush likes to
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Teaching intelligent design is not a matter of “freedom”
This quote from yesterday’s New York Times story on the Dover intelligent design case made me crazy: For Mrs. Hied, a meter reader, and her husband, Michael, an office manager for a local bus and transport company, the Dover school board’s argument – that teaching intelligent design is a free-speech issue – has a strong
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Larry Sabato goes hip hop
The ubiquitous Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia (a political scientist) has released a new article that his staff has incongruously titled “Protect Ya Neck: The 2006 Races for Senate and Governor” — who knew Sabato was down with the Wu-Tang?
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What is Brendan Miniter talking about?
Brendan Miniter, an assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com, makes an absurd claim in a column today: Republicans were sent to Washington in the 1950s to repeal the New Deal. Voters sent them packing when it became clear they were big spenders. In the 1990s Republicans were sent to Washington to repeal the Great Society. If they
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WSJ supply side follies vol. XXXVIII
A Wall Street Journal editorial today (subscription required) again suggests that tax cuts increase revenue: Our primary concern with the Katrina spend-fest is that it puts the economy at risk by putting pro-growth tax cuts in harm’s way. If the 2003 capital gains, dividend and income tax rate cuts are cancelled, as virtually the entirety