The press corps breathes a sigh of relief as Ari Fleischer announces he’s leaving the White House in July. I haven’t seen Scott McClellan, his potential replacement, at work behind the podium, but it’d be hard for him to be much worse.
Category: Politics (2002-2004)
Warm up the Gavel, Judge Rehnquist.
Well, it’s official. To noone’s surprise, Dubya is running for reelection, with help from his veteran phalanx of media-savvy message manipulators, who know when it’s time to dress down Real Americans (Last link via Raza.) What will the campaign theme be, I wonder? Bush: He’s not French. Or Bush – Because There’s Still Oil in Alaska. There’s probably some support behind Vote for George W. Bush…(we’ll know if you don’t.) Or how about Dubya…We Might Actually Win for Real This Time?
Deficit, Schmeficit.
Cheney breaks the tie as the Senate GOP pass the third-largest tax cut in history, one that includes a three-year moratorium on dividend taxes. Dems Zell Miller and Ben Nelson (and eventually Evan Bayh) joined the Republicans in passing the cut. (Republicans McCain, Chafee, and Snowe were opposed.) Of course, this tax giveaway for the rich does nothing to address the largest budget deficit in history…but that’s a problem for Dubya’s successors, isn’t it? And children don’t vote anyway.
“New” Dems, Old Insults.
If you can judge a man by his enemies, then Howard Dean picked up a key endorsement last week. Via Scully by e-mail, Al From’s Democratic Leadership Council – one of Al Gore‘s main water-carriers in 2000 and an organization which counts Joe Lieberman and Bob Graham among its members – decides to attack Howard Dean as an “elitist.” What garbage…The DLC is going to have find a better way of dealing with their left flank than simply casting old GOP insults their way. It’s exactly this type of Republican-lite thinking endlessly promoted by From’s organization that made Ralph Nader the spoiler in 2000. Don’t think it couldn’t happen again. Update: Perhaps Clinton will straighten ’em out, although it sounds like he’s just reading from the Lieberman-Graham playbook instead. Update 2: Independent James Jeffords criticizes the DLC remarks, calling it “incredible to hear such charges coming from Democrats.” Not as incredible as it once was, I’m afraid.
Primary Colors.
In a cover story for TIME, Joe Klein gives his take on the Democratic field. I don’t agree with everything he has to say (for example, giving Dubya a pass on Iraq), but it’s worth reading nonetheless.
Bait and Switch.
Republicans inadvertently stall the Dubya tax cut by putting the wrong number on the bill, thus blunting the force of the President’s arm-twisting US tour. It’s the little things that get ya.
Wages of Fear.
In keeping with his right-on-terror campaign strategy, Senator Bob Graham accuses Dubya of a 9/11 coverup. While I don’t particularly care for Graham’s brand of fear-mongering, he’s got a point this time around…that congressional report should be made public, and particularly if the centerpiece of Dubya’s re-election campaign will involve waving the bloody shirt as planned.
Trent Lott’s Boy on the Bench.
Historian Sean Wilentz delves into the segregationist past of Charles Pickering, who is currently Dubya and Senator Cat-killer’s judicial nominee of choice.
Ho-Ho and the Stiff.
The NYT surveys the Kerry-Dean primary battlefield, and allows Dean to sound off on his grumpy debate performance.
A Sucker Born Every Minute.
The President and his cabinet take the Dubya dividend debacle dog-and-pony show on the road. But be careful if they come to your town – as per usual when Dubya and the economy are mentioned in the same sentence, you may just find yourself working overtime. Update: Proving once again the power of the Big Lie, Dubya accuses tax cut critics of “class warfare.” And in a joint statement, Montgomery Burns, Scrooge McDuck, and the Monopoly Guy asked, “Can’t we all just get along?”