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By T Cooper and Adam Mansbach
$11.64
By Richard Rhodes
$28.95
$40
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AP Photo / Kevork Djansezian
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By Kasia Anderson — Watch out, philandering politicos: Larry Flynt is hot on your heels. The Hustler impresario is as tenacious as an irate pit bull in his latest crusade to expose hypocrisy on Capitol Hill, and his efforts have already borne fruit in the form of Louisiana Sen. David Vitter’s confession that he patronized “D.C. Madam” Debra Jean Palfrey’s escort service in 2001—and, according to Flynt, that exposé may well be just one of many to come.
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So much for “supporting our troops”: A bipartisan proposal sponsored by two combat veterans to give exhausted U.S. troops more time between their military deployments overseas was defeated by Republicans in the Senate, the first vote of a two-week congressional debate on Iraq.
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By Marie Cocco — Iraq has, for years since our supposed victory, been in a spiral of death and political despair that the American military cannot stop. Despite the daily reports of carnage, Republican senators pushed to stay the course. Now with re-election campaigns underway, suddenly even Republicans are seeing the light ... kind of.
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By Eugene Robinson — As the White House sound-bite machine presses to remain resolute to ensure “success in Iraq,” the author wonders whether “the Decider” has any concept of what we’re staying the course for at this point in the war.
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AP Photo / Bill Haber
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So a Republican senator from the Deep South (Sen. David Vitter, pictured) who loves to tell other people if and how they should have sex, has been exposed as a former client of a prominent D.C. madam? You say this ardent defender of the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman has “asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling”?
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AP Photo / Anja Niedringhaus
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Although Lt. Gen. David Petraeus thinks the U.S. troop “surge” is finally starting to show some positive results, it may be too late to bolster the enthusiasm of several key Republicans in Congress who have joined their Democratic colleagues in challenging President Bush’s position on the Iraq war—which, along with the war in Afghanistan, is costing America $12 billion a month.
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Cronyism may reach ever greater heights in the “Scooter” Libby case, as it seems that President Bush—after commuting the former Cheney aide’s sentence Monday—may consider pardoning him.
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Antonio Villaraigosa (pictured above with USC Annenberg’s Dean Geoffrey Cowan) convened at Creative Artists Agency’s swank new Beverly Hills HQ Tuesday for a conference on bipartisan politics, and this perhaps scripted meeting of high-wattage minds (and personalities) produced some thought-provoking—and surprising—conversations and announcements.
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David Bohrer / The White House
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By Robert Scheer — The picture released by the White House last week of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, cradling their newborn grandson Samuel David Cheney represents an opportunity for future progress in human rights—if they choose to embrace it with as much care as they do baby Samuel.
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AP Photo/Cheryl Senter
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Reiterating his belief that U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq “as rapidly as possible,” Newt Gingrich told “Good Morning America” anchor Diane Sawyer on Monday that there is a “great possibility” that he’ll announce his candidacy for president in late September.
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Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is standing firm on his pro-choice platform as he owns up to his $900 donation to reproductive health organization Planned Parenthood in the 1990s. The former New York City mayor spoke Tuesday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, telling the right-wing pundit his donation was “consistent with” his politics.
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By Bill Boyarsky — Truthdig’s seasoned political reporter sizes up the Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race, noting how their tributes to Ronald Reagan remind him of Walt Disney’s animatronic reconstruction of Abraham Lincoln.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Democrats must force Republican members of Congress—again and again—to justify their refusal to get tough with Bush over Iraq.
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Here’s another clip of Fox’s right-wing answer to “The Daily Show.” As the clip’s YouTube poster wrote of the show’s creators: “Conservatives again prove they are adept at torture.”
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By Marie Cocco — Congressional Republicans have an opportunity to be both pragmatic and idealistic by abandoning the president on the war.
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gothamgazette.com
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Likely presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s campaign has soured before it even began, after a strategic black book went missing. The document outlines the former New York mayor’s fund-raising plans, as well as his weaknesses, offering an edge to prospective opponents.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Sen. Barack Obama’s standing ovation at Pastor Rick Warren’s church demonstrates why the Illinois senator is one of the hottest commodities in 2008 presidential politics.
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AlterNet has the emmes on a poll of Jewish Americans that showed a surprisingly high (26.4%) Republican turnout: ” ‘[The poll] bypassed Jews who never attend synagogue or do not associate with a major movement.’ Or: half of America’s Jewish population.”
Posted on Nov 29, 2006
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projo.com
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Rhode Island’s Sen. Lincoln Chafee says he may leave the Republican Party after losing in Tuesday’s election despite voting against the war in Iraq.
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Bush still doesn’t seem to realize that millions of Americans voted to signal their displeasure with the GOP for abandoning the poor and middle class.
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By Ellen Goodman — This year, voters valued their ability to shoot down draconian abortion laws, to raise the minimum wage and to send an unequivocal message to the warmongers in the White House.
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If nothing else, a Democratic victory at the polls would mark a return to governance by people guided by facts, not emotions.
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By Jabari Asim — Va. Sen. George Allen, who has a history of racist behavior, incomprehensibly wants us to believe that his opponent is no better—because he has written novels whose characters use racist language.
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Flickr / Ohioprogressive
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Democrats are hoping ballot initiatives in favor of stem cell research and raising the minimum wage will help drive voter turnout in the upcoming election. Republicans pioneered the initiative strategy, but this time around the electorate seems to be suffering from gay marriage fatigue.
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365gay.com
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Republicans across the country have seized the threat of gay marriage in a desperate attempt to hold on to Congress. Now that the “security” issue no longer offers the boost it once did, the GOP is counting on homophobia to drive voter turnout.
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The president’s attempt to whitewash “stay the course” from the nation’s collective memory is emblematic of the bankruptcy of his administration’s policy on Iraq.
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Rolling Stone
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Rolling Stone examines the tragedy and absurdity of the legislature under Bush. Also, don’t miss its picks for the 10 worst Congress members in America.
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slate.com
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said if Republican candidates want to win in November, they should get voters to focus on issues other than the Iraq war. (h/t: AMERICAblog)
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George Bush has dealt with the failure of his “stay the course” strategy by pretending it never existed, but will other candidates who once abused the phrase follow suit? And will the media hold them accountable?
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During a tense interview with NPR, Karl Rove defended his claim that the GOP will hold on to both houses of Congress and accused host Robert Siegel of bias. (h/t: Crooks and Liars)
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The MSNBC host uses a recent GOP ad and a copy of Webster’s Dictionary to buttress his argument that the Republican Party is the largest terrorist organization in the country.
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The number of independent voters has grown steadily in recent years, particularly in the Southwest. Politicians have had a difficult time appealing to the less predictable group, which includes everyone from ex-libertarians to young people who think of political parties as irrelevant.
Update: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows independents favor Democrats by 2 to 1.
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In case you lost track, Stephen Colbert offers this rundown of Republican debacles. From phantom WMDs to Mark Foley, the “Report” host highlights the greatest hits of GOP mania.
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flickr/Coffee Monster
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In the 2004 election, anti-gay ballot measures effectively drew conservatives to the ballot box, but the appeal of banning gay marriage is wearing off, polls suggest.
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So, as if the Mark Foley stuff wasn’t weird enough already, it’s about to get even weirder and nastier. According to Max Blumenthal at The Nation, some anti-Republican gay rights activists (inspired apparently by the Foley scandal and a supposed “gay clique” that some claim to be responsible for the coverup) sent a memo with the names of closeted congressional staffers to Christian-right advocacy groups in hopes of inciting a “purge” of gay Republicans from Washington.
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The Republican Party of Texas has sent out a newsletter calling a Democratic nominee for a seat on the 6th Court of Appeals a “professed atheist.” A local poli sci professor says he’s never seen the religion card pushed that hard. (via Andrew Sullivan)
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Four national surveys on Oct. 9 confirmed that Democrats enjoy huge 20-point leads over GOP’ers in the upcoming elections. Also:
NYT: Dems pull even to GOP’ers for first time in terrorism-handling ratings
USA Today: 54% say GOP’ers acted for “political reasons” in Foleygate
Wash Po: Bush is at 39%
CNN: 52% think Hastert should resign
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A top GOP strategist has said Republicans may lose as many as 30 House seats in the coming election. Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to take control.
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Left: NYT Mag; right: Time (composition: Blair Golson / Truthdig)
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Weird: Both Time magazine and The New York Times Magazine are using images of elephant backsides to illustrate cover stories this week—but for wildly different purposes: Time is writing about the breakdown of Republican society, and The N.Y. Times Mag is writing about the breakdown of actual elephant society. (more…)
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A Newsweek poll has the Democrats favored over Republicans 53% to 35% in the congressional elections while Bush’s approval rating has dropped to 33% in the wake of Foleygate. (h/t: Think Progress)
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Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, falsely argued on “Hardball” that homosexual men are likelier to abuse children than heterosexuals. With comments like this, one might argue conservatives are likelier to abuse gays, not to mention the truth. (Video & Transcript)
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AP / Lawrence Jackson
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George Stephanopolous says that if Republican leaders knew of and kept quiet about X-rated text messages (as opposed to the simply “overfriendly” ones) former Rep. Mark Foley sent to a page, “It’s game over. The leadership will have to resign.”
(More after the jump...)
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The interrogation bill headed for Bush’s desk would allow him to detain anyone indefinitely and decide (privately) what constitutes torture; it eliminates habeas corpus and judicial review, and it permits coerced evidence. The N.Y. Times calls it “our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.”
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By Molly Ivins — With a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush is set to wipe out a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta.
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Rush Limbaugh, with the kind of moral vacuousness that has come to define the man, recently blamed the “stupidity” of Democrats for allowing Republicans to disenfranchise voters: “And they show up on Wednesday to vote when the polls are closed, and the Democrats claim a trick has been played on them. That’s how stupid some of their voters are.”
(h/t: Crooks and Liars)
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