DRAWING CONCLUSIONS….I try to limit my consumption of Fox News programming to reading transcripts–and only then on a very infrequent basis. But even in fairly harmless written form, Bill O’Reilly’s rant on Wednesday about “anti-Christian bias” managed to raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels. According to O’Reilly, liberals who assume that Harriet Miers is […]
Amy Sullivan
Amy Sullivan is a Chicago-based journalist who has written about religion, politics, and culture as a senior editor for Time, National Journal, and Yahoo. She was an editor at the Washington Monthly from 2004 to 2006.
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
oh, no! not that!
OH NO! NOT THAT!….Stanley Kurtz, who has generally been defending Harriet Miers over in the despairing sea of gnashing teeth that is the National Review’s Corner this week, reports that he’s found some disturbing news that may change his mind about the Supreme Court nominee: “[She] was a key figure behind the establishment of a […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
more musing on miers
MORE MUSING ON MIERS….As Kevin pointed out, conservative reaction to the Miers pick is broadly negative. But it’s split into two camps: those who question whether she is “conservative enough” and those who question whether she is qualified. It’s the latter point that really matters, and it’s one reason why I didn’t make a peep […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
So it’s to be Harriet
SO IT’S TO BE HARRIET….“Bush names Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.” Harriet Miers is a woman who has excelled in endeavors that require networking and shoulder-rubbing and no actual proof of legal expertise. (General counsel? Lest we forget, Mike Brown’s first job at FEMA was as general counsel.) Already I’ve received a robo-email from […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
choosing to lose
CHOOSING TO LOSE….Watching last week as news began to trickle out about which senators would vote which way on Roberts, I was struck by the fact that the pro-life Harry Reid was voting “no” while the pro-choice Lincoln Chafee was, perhaps unsurprisingly, voting “yes.” Choice groups–who strongly oppose Roberts–are pleased by Reid’s decision. And yet […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
damage control
DAMAGE CONTROL….From Monday’s New York Times: Under the command of President Bush’s two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Left Behind
LEFT BEHIND….Don’t miss Joan Walsh on Salon today, putting into words the frustration so many of us have struggled to articulate. These are desperately poor people who’ve been deliberately left behind, in so many senses of the word ? left behind by society, shut up in housing projects and hideous poverty, and now truly left […]
Posted inMagazine
Mitt Romney’s Evangelical Problem
There’s only one problem. Romney is a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Mormonism was never an issue when Orrin Hatch ran for president, but Hatch was never talked up with even a smidgen of the seriousness that accompanies the Massachusetts governor. Yet each Romney profile plays down […]
Posted inMagazine
Mall Rats
Suddenly, a light bulb went on over my head. Isn’t that the same mall where Linda Tripp lured Monica Lewinsky into an FBI trap and started the ball rolling on impeachment? Maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe not. I did a little research, and it turns out that the mall has been the […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
no questions novak
NO QUESTIONS NOVAK….My two cents on Novak: It’s really impossible to overstate the extent to which Novak has been coddled and protected for decades by the perfect set-up. He answers to no one–not to an editor (his column is syndicated–if papers don’t like it, all they can do is drop it), not to a producer […]
