Uncategorized
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Karen Hughes gets “under God” wrong
A lot of people don’t realize that “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance during the 1950s. But it’s pretty embarrassing that Karen Hughes, our illustrious Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, is telling opposition leaders in Egypt that the phrase is part of the Constitution (via It Affects You by way
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The disturbing hype of Teach for America
The New York Times reports that absurd numbers of college grads are applying to Teach for America — “12 percent of Yale’s graduates, 11 percent of Dartmouth’s and 8 percent of Harvard’s and Princeton’s” and “a record 17,350 recent college graduates” overall last year. That sounds great, but the problem is that the program isn’t
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Harriet Miers: Biggest hack ever?
Harriet Miers is a classic Bush nominee: the stealth loyalist. She’s probably better than, say, Janice Rogers Brown, but what she told David Frum is just ridiculous: In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most
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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