National Republicans
Joe Lieberman
Last night, I turned on the television to see what was happening in Joe Lieberman’s Senate race in Connecticut. What I ran into was a pair of talking heads: A Republican and a Democrat. The Republican said: Lieberman’s defeat proves the Democrats support terrorism. And the Democrat retorted: The war in Iraq has nothing to…
Read MoreHad Enough?
Three reasons to say yes: President Bush on Tuesday, July 25: “Obviously, the violence in Baghdad is still terrible, and therefore there needs to be more troops.” The stem cell veto. Nothing here but a know-nothing sop to the Christian Right, about all the base Bush has left. Parental notification bill. How many underage girls…
Read MoreDole-drums
National Republicans are learning what North Carolina Democrats have long known about Liddy Dole: empty suit. Senator Dole was the target of front-page griping from Republicans in The New York Times Sunday. They say her performance as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee has been lackluster at best, disastrous at worst. Sounds just like…
Read MoreThe Presidential Election
The DemocratsThe Democratic presidential race starts out as two separate elections which take place at the same time during the first Democratic primaries. The first election is for the leadership – to be the standard bearer – of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. The other for the leadership of the ‘New Democrats’ or…
Read MoreThe Fall Elections
Republican prospects in the elections this fall are looking pretty glum. The President’s popularity has fallen, even some Republicans are having doubts about the war in Iraq, and about the only voters who agree with President Bush on immigration reform are people who will never vote for him – or any other Republican. The Democrats’…
Read MoreAmerica’s Debt to George Bush
When George W. Bush – the “compassionate conservative” – became President, the national debt was $5.6 trillion. Today it is $8.3 trillion. That is $2.7 trillion in additional debt. That is a 48 percent increase. By the way, if you’re having trouble grasping how much a trillion is: It’s a million millions. Click to Read…
Read MoreFlags and Whipping Boys for the 4th
Here are two appropriate topics for my Fourth of July post: flag-burning and The New York Times. The two have this in common: They are the Republicans’ latest ploy to avoid an election disaster in November. Since W can’t catch Osama, pacify Iraq or convince Americans he has a plan to win the war, he…
Read MoreRalph Reed’s Moral Money
I remember Ralph Reed as a baby-faced, holier-than-thou aide to Jesse Helms in the 1984 Hunt-Helms Senate race. Reed went on to run Pat Robertson’s Moral Majority. Now he’s running for lieutenant governor of Georgia. In the meantime, it appears he rang up some big profits from a suspect source. A bipartisan Senate report has…
Read MoreThe Emerging Republican Minority
Republicans in Washington claim their border-state hearings on illegal immigrants this summer are not a ploy to kill a reform bill. I believe them. The hearings are a ploy to win the November elections. Immigration demagogy is Step Two of the Republican Survival Handbook this fall. (Step One is accusing Democrats of wanting to lose…
Read MoreRepublicans Find a Lifeline
Close counts in horseshoes, not politics. But it doesn’t bode well for immigrants. That’s my reading of the special election for Duke Cunningham’s congressional seat, left vacant when the Dukester admitted to some impressive bribe-taking. When the Republican candidate got in real trouble, he waved the bloody flag: keep out the immigrants. He even attacked…
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