March 03, 2008
Fair warning to Hillaryites
Yes, we've been observing a unilateral cease-fire. But if you keep lying about our candidate, we might just have to start telling the truth about yours. And that wouldn't be fun for anyone, would it?
November 08, 2006
The Sequence
Now that the bubbles are starting to go flat on the campaign champagne, Democrats need to start thinking--and quick--about what their agenda is and what sequence it ought to be dealt with.
Wish I'd said that
"Who's going to call Bush and tell him what happened?" [chi chiamerà George Bush, per dirgli cosa succede?] --Beppe Severgnini, in Corriere...
An informed electorate
If I got this right, Bush knowingly lied about his plans to ditch Rumsfeld because an election was looming. The idea, I guess, is that the republic is stronger when voters don't know what's going on, or am I missing something? Another vessel staying the course right onto the rocks. Dang....
November 07, 2006
Final Thoughts Before Bed
Mark informs me that absentee ballots have already been counted in VA. So...if that's true, then I'm much more optimistic for Webb. There's an automatic recount in VA if the final result is under 1%, so Dems still need to send every lawyer in a 1000 mile radius into the state. But if this is the case, then a truly...
October 27, 2006
Another district tilting D
This blog has adopted the VA 10th district race as one of our favorite turnover opportunities, only partly because both Mark's and my public policy programs would benefit by damaging the competition at Georgetown, and electing its dean to congress would definitely do that, hee hee. Today's insider poop is that the DCCC, which listed it as an "emerging race"...
October 15, 2006
The professional pol--Part One
Mark's observation about McCain's sudden non-appearance for Tom Reynolds shows Arizona's senior senator at his most canny. The question is at what point he becomes too clever-by-half. Remember that the only thing that McCain cares about is winning the Republican nomination. Under normal circumstances, that would mean pulling out all the stops. But two things counsel against that here: 1)...
October 05, 2006
Hit 'em again, again, again!
Harder, harder!
Harold Ford to Republicans: "I'm not going to take a lecture on morality from a party that took hush money from a child predator."
August 13, 2006
Edsall on Lieberman's defeat
Tom Edsall thinks that Lieberman's loss shows that upscale Democrats don't care enough about the views of lunchbucket Democrats. I disagree.
August 12, 2006
Kausism
Just below, Mark sticks his shiv into Mickey Kaus. I'm with him. Despite the fact that I agree with Kaus on particular issues (I was with him, basically, on welfare reform, and I'm certainly on Kaus' side where education reform is concerned), he seems stuck in a time warp, where everything still looks like 1991. If it were still 1991,...
Josh Marshall is Right
Hopefully this is the first of what will be an avalanche of previously Joe-sympathetic Democrats calling on him to drop out of the race. Lieberman is damaging the Democratic party, and if the Republicans manage to get a decent candidate in the race, even our chances of winning the CT Senate seat. Once again, Lieberman is running against the Democratic...
June 08, 2006
Hell Freezes Over Dept.
Today's Adam Nagourney article about the GOP victory in Duke Cunningham's old district was excellent. This is one of those articles that really did call for balance, because both sides are furiously spinning it but neither is right. It's clearly a disappointment for Democrats, who hoped to steal one deep in Republican country, but hardly anything to cheer about for...
June 05, 2006
California down-ballot recommendations
Suffering from election fatigue? I don't blame you. But let the folks at RBC help you out. Besides, there are some interesting races here: Lieutenant Governor: Jackie Speier. No, it doesn't make any sense for the LG and Governor not to be on a ticket. But we're stuck with it. Fortunately enough, there's actually an excellent candidate to vote for:...
May 30, 2006
Angelides for Governor
This is a no-brainer. They're the campaign talking points, but they are true: when everyone else was afraid of the Governator, Angelides was the only statewide figure taking him on, and arguing that borrow-and-spend is not the responsible way to run a government. He's saying the same thing now, and, yes, that means raising some taxes. But that's what it...
May 15, 2006
Two quick questions on immigration
1) What precisely is it that the military can do that the Border Patrol cannot do to protect the border? 2) It has been five years since 9/11--why doesn't the Border Patrol have the capability to do it? Actually, the President's speech demonstrates the perfection of Sir Humphrey Appleby's syllgism on political crisis decision-making: 1) We must do something. 2)...
May 08, 2006
Senatorial Polls
By contrast to the evidence below, polls on Senatorial popularity are almost mind-numbingly positive. Only 3 Senators have a net negative popularity rating: Rick Santorum (-14); Conrad Burns (-13); Jim Bunning (-1). Only 11 Senators have net positive popularity ratings of 5 or under: Jon Kyl (3); Wayne Allard (1); Mel Martinez (0); Debbie Stabenow (2); Mark Dayton (2); Jim...
Polls, Polls, Polls
A great source of information to get a sense of the variation in the president's approval can be found here. I'm not terribly impressed by overall, national polls at this point, especially as George Bush is not, and will not, be on the ballot in 2006. But looking for states that voted for the president in 2004 that are now...
May 02, 2006
Charlie Cook: Republicans face an "intensity gap"
The usual partisan intensity pattern — Democrats do best among adults, less well among registered voters, and even less well than that among likely voters— has reversed. The Democrats' edge among "very likely" voters on the generic Congressional ballot is now up to 18% Charlie Cook's bottom line: "There is no reason not to expect that the political environment will be as hostile to Republicans this fall as it was to Democrats in 1994, when a rout cost them control of both chambers of Congress."
February 20, 2006
Can the Republicans Defend America?--Part II
It's bad enough that the administration has caused a manpower crisis in the United States armed forces. After it has created a completely incompetent bureaucracy unable to defend the country, it now has decided to outsource homeland security to the United Arab Emirates--a country not likely to see its interests as dovetailing with the United States. No matter, says DHS...
February 17, 2006
Can the Republicans Defend America?
In the New York Times today, Wellesley professor Kelly Greenhill notes something that should be repeated ad nauseam by every Democrat, in every election, at every opportunity. She writes: DESPITE claims to the contrary by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Army is facing a manpower crisis. The evidence can be found in two separate reports released last month — one...
February 12, 2006
What drives the California Republican Party?
Arnold Schwarzenegger's sudden and severe problems with the California Republican Party seem to be quite puzzling. The Governor's people scrambling to make sure that he doesn't face a right-wing primary appointment, and party activists are threatening to withhold their support. The reason is Schwarzenegger's appointment of Susan Kennedy, a long-time Democrat, as his chief of staff. The conservative California Republican...
February 05, 2006
A political framework for security discourse
Democrats seem to me paralyzed by two fears. The first is that a really tough stand against the administration's incompetence, arrogance, and fecklessness about Iraq and terrorism will expose them to accusations of being either weak or irresponsible about national security, with Republicans saying (in effect), "you're only safe with us" . The second is the more general fear of...
November 25, 2005
Straws in the political wind
Three scattered pieces of data suggesting that conservatives are getting less interested in politics and liberals more interested.
Warning: Paul Hackett
Crooks and Liars helpfully posts Paul Hackett's recent Hardball interview. View it, and you'll see why Hackett has impressed so many, especially in the netroots: he is intelligent and articulate, and avoids just regurgitating talking points. Either he or Sherrod Brown would make an outstanding US Senator from Ohio. But Hackett's got a problem that he had better correct quickly....
November 12, 2005
